The Bahamas Democratic Movement (BDM) on Wednesday slammed the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and the Free National Movement (FNM) for calling on parties in the Mohammed Harajchi-PLP dispute to make public their bank accounts when parliamentarians from both administrations failed to make annual public disclosures of their assets while in office.<\/P><\/p>\n
In a press conference held in Parliament Square, BDM leader Cassius Stuart said recent demands by the FNM are a slap in the face to the laws of The Bahamas and the Bahamian people.<\/P><\/p>\n
The FNM in a party statement released Tuesday called for Prime Minister Perry Christie, Deputy Prime Minister Cynthia Pratt, other Cabinet Ministers and PLP Senator Philip Galanis to make public information on their bank accounts.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We have called, from this very same place, for all government Ministers to disclose their assets, income and liabilities, but to date none of them has done so, therefore we are calling for a commission of inquiry to investigate the bank accounts of all Members of Parliament and Senators,\uff92 Mr. Stuart said.<\/P><\/p>\n
He continued, \uff93The law requires them to do so. If you want to be a Member of Parliament then you must disclose. If you fail to obey the law then you should not sit in the honourable House of Assembly.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Taking the FNM to task for statements made in its release, the BDM leader said the PLP and the FNM \uff93are in the same boat.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
The Free National Movement on Tuesday said Mr. Christie – who was the official leader of the opposition during the time Mr. Harajchi donated money to the PLP\uffb4s 2002 election campaign – used poor judgment in accepting those funds.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Not only should the PLP Cabinet Ministers, MP\uffb4s and Senators make their accounts public, the FNM former Cabinet Ministers and MP\uffb4s should do the same,\uff92 Mr. Stuart said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93As a matter of fact, the law demands that they do so. Both the FNM and PLP have been ducking the issue of public disclosure and are in direct violation of our law. Is it because they both have something to hide?\uff92 he questioned.<\/P><\/p>\n
Responding to statements attributed to FNM leader Tommy Turnquest that the \uff93PLP has a problem with integrity \uff96 beginning with Mr. Christie,\uff92 Mr. Stuart questioned the integrity of FNM officials.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93The truth of the matter is that neither the PLP nor the FNM has any integrity,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93The FNM still have some questions to answer to the Bahamian people regarding contracts given out before the last elections and all the allegations that surfaced regarding corruption in their government,\uff92 he added.<\/P><\/p>\n
The controversy between Mr. Harajchi and the PLP flared last week when the Iranian-born owner of Suisse Security Bank and Trust (SSBT) presented to the media documents, which he said supported his claims that he had donated huge sums of money to the Progressive Liberal Party to help fund its 2002 election campaign.<\/P><\/p>\n
SSBT had its doors closed in March 2001 when Central Bank Governor Julian Francis revoked the bank\uffb4s licence.<\/P><\/p>\n
Fielding questions from host, Jeff Lloyd, while appearing as a guest on the radio Love 97 programme \uff93Issues of the Day\uff92 Wednesday, SSBT former CEO Christopher Lunn, who is a close associate of Mr. Harajchi, said Prime Minister Christie and Mr. Harajchi were introduced to each other in 2002 by a mutual acquaintance shortly before the general election.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93The relationship between Mr. Harajchi and the PLP was initiated by the PLP,\uff92 Mr. Lunn said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93There was an introduction made, Mr. Harajchi and Mr. Christie spoke and following that Mr. Harajchi became involved in terms of providing financial assistance to the PLP election campaign,\uff92 he added. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
The former bank executive also used the opportunity to re-launch attempts to have SSBT\uffb4s licence reinstated. \uffa0<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Mr. Harajchi, (his attorney Derek) Ryan and I are of the view that the bank\uffb4s licence was wrongly taken and that is why we have taken the matter through the courts and right now I think the public should be aware that we are in the process of going to the Privy Council,\uff92 Mr. Lunn said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Recounting the events that led up to the revocation of SSBT\uffb4s licence, Mr. Ryan \uff96 who was also a guest on \uff93Issues of the Day\uff92 \uff96 said prior to the bank\uffb4s closure, Mr. Harajchi was successful in obtaining an injunction, which specified that the Central Bank was not to suspend or revoke the bank\uffb4s licence.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Any lawyer would say to you that even if an injunction or court order were obtained wrongly what should have happened is that an application should have been made to the courts to have that injunction set aside before any action was proceeded upon Mr. Harajchi\uffb4s bank licence,\uff92 Mr. Ryan said.<\/P><\/p>\n
He added, \uff93That did not happen. Now you know as well as I do that if you violate or break any court order they would hold you for contempt and you would be also subject to criminal penalties. That did not happen in this case so Mr. Harajchi is continuing on with his fight because he felt that injustice was bestowed upon him.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both the FNM and PLP have been ducking the issue of public disclosure and are in direct violation of our law,’ says BDM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}