The Minister of Agriculture Renward Wells  is defending the large delegation that went to Haiti over the weekend.

The progressive Liberal Party in a statement criticised the large delegation, which consisted of fifteen  persons for the four day trip.

Mr. Wells  in defense said,”the Bahamian people have elected us to do their business and at the end of the day, there were two meetings going on.

“What people must understand is we had a direct bilateral meeting with the Haitian government;  so the prime minister took with him all of the requisite ministers who could speak to the issues that we have with Haiti, so that was the first meeting.

“After that meeting there was a CARICOM  heads of government meeting and some of the ministers are still in Haiti today dealing with the Caribbean  heads of government.

” That’s why the requisite ministers who could speak to it were taken.

“We’re not a government  that is  interested in spending ‘willy nilly’ as the Bahamian people know when we spend, we spend because it is in the people’s interest.  It is what was expected and the contingent that went met the requirements of the meeting we were having,” Wells said.

In January the Prime Minister took a $40,000 trip to Texas as part of his investment promotion trips.

The Haiti delegation consisted of seven cabinet ministers, eight government officials, along with two spouses.

The spouse of Dr. Minnis, Patricia and the Foreign Affairs Minister’s wife Deidre Henfield.

The Cabinet Ministers were Minister of Trade and Immigration Brent Symonette, Minister of Agriculture Renward Wells, Minister of Transport Frankie Campbell, Minister of Tourisim Dionisio D’Aguillar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield, Don Saunders MP for Tall Pines and Reuben Rahming MP for Pinewood.