Progressive Liberal Party Deputy Leader Chester Cooper said after securing so many contracts, it was time for former Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration Brent Symonette to move on and resign. But Cooper wants to know who would be next in line as he believes more Cabinet ministers should resign.
“What about the minister who raised the VAT after voting against VAT in the first place and suggesting it was wicked?” Cooper asked during his address at the PLP Bain and Grants Town Branch meeting yesterday.
“What about the doctor who gave the contract to the woman who testified in that sham of a trial against a former PLP MP?
“What about the former senior police official who was hounding this same woman to go to the police. What about the attorney general who was losing case after case? What about the minister who can’t keep the light on? What about the minister in charge of gender affairs who say don’t ask him nothing about rape?
“What about the minister who can’t get the sporting community to come together and who can’t fix the South Beach pools that they say was already working? What about the minister in Grand Bahama who said this tech hub was going to be great, but the tech hub company moved to Nassau?
“What about the ministers who pushed this Commercial Enterprises Bill to let foreigners work without papers? And what about the prime minister who sat next to the convict and signed the billion-dollar deal? What about the prime minister who gave Symonette all those contracts?
What about him?”
While Symonette plans to reveal why he resigned this week, the government has been under severe criticism in recent times over a number of contracts that companies in which Symonette is a shareholder would have received.
Among them are the new General Post Office at The Town Center Mall and a number of contracts that have been awarded to Bahamas Hot Mix, including one for the resurfacing of runways at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Last week, it was revealed that Bahamas Hot Mix received three separate contracts for the laying of water mains in Long Island.
Symonette’s detractors believed that he was conflicted in several matters as a Cabinet minister.
According to Cooper, “What is happening with Bahamas Hot Mix is a shame.”
“They’re starving out small contractors and this government is facilitating it. How are small and medium size businesses supposed to survive, let alone thrive if our government allows huge businesses preferential treatment?” Cooper asked.
“But that’s the FNM, keep the special interests happy. But put the small man out of business.
This government doesn’t care about Bahamians at all. At least, not most of us.
According to Cooper, this is not what the future of The Bahamas looks like and what governance in 2019 should be.
“Why can’t the FNM get it right? Some people say they don’t have a plan, that they never had a plan. I don’t believe that. I just believe that their plan was never about the people, despite them swearing up and down it was the people’s time,” Cooper said.
“All this talk about the people’s time, but when the people cry out – nothing. They are unmoved by the pleas of the people.”
