CONFLICT OF INTEREST: FNM Leader calls on prime minister to explain board appointments

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Michael Pintard yesterday called on Prime Minister Philip Davis to explain why two recent board appointments that seem to have a “conflict of interest”.

“There are at least two board appointments that have raised eyebrows,” Pintard said in an Eyewitness News.

“Ministers ought to be very careful to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest and this is a matter the PLP while in opposition has raised on a consistent basis and in order for them to have the moral authority to continue to govern, they have to be very careful not to behave in any many similar to what they then criticise when they were in opposition.

“The PM ought to look very carefully at this appointment and be made to give an explanation to the public.”

Pintard was pointing to the appointment of Donielle Davis, the sister-in-law of Minister of Transport Jobeth Coleby-Davis, to the Bahamas Port Authority Board.

“The minister may have benefitted from poor advice or the minister may having not been in this capacity for some time and may be acting in some error, so the prime minister has an opportunity to correct it.”

The FNM leader also pointed to the appointment of a sitting policy maker to the chair of the gaming board.

“That’s a serious issue to look at where the act permits this kind of appointment to be made”, he said.

Attempts to reach out to Minister of Works Alfred Sears and Coleby-Davis for comment were unsuccessful up to press time.