MINISTER of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has said there was nothing unusual about his and Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ recent trip to Bermuda.
The minister, over the weekend, said the trip was a standard official visit to another country at the invitation of the Premier of Bermuda E David Burt, who is also leader of Bermuda’s Progressive Labour Party.
Mr Mitchell said the organisation was the Progressive Liberal Party’s sister party, formed in part by Dame Lois Brown Evans, a classmate of Sir Lynden Pindling in law school. Sir Lynden helped to form the PLP in Bermuda, the Fox Hill MP said.
He explained the reasoning for last week’s trip, while pointing to “FNM trolls” and their “fabrication” of “lies”.
Communications Director Latrae Rahming also said Friday the travel costs were covered by the Progressive Liberal Party, adding any further questions should be directed there.
Mr Mitchell has also said the FNM must explain how more than $600,000 was spent on furniture at The Bahamas Embassy in Brussels, Belgium.
“It was a standard foreign affairs goodwill trip, not a political trip,” Mr Mitchell said on Saturday.
“The Prime Minister spoke at the convention of the PLP in Bermuda. The Prime Minister met with the premier and members of his Cabinet in Hamilton and exchanged views on housing, transport and our relationship within CARICOM.
“The Prime Minister met with the Governor of Bermuda and pledged to appoint an honorary consul in Bermuda for The Bahamas.
“The visit was a success on all levels. He was able to solidify relations on a party to party basis with the next generation of leaders of The Bahamas and Bermuda. He was able to visit the grave of Dame Lois. He promised that there will be further governmental exchanges on public transport and housing and disaster relief.
“There was nothing unusual about the trip whether in its financing or otherwise. There was a one hour delay on departure to fulfil a requirement of air traffic control, but this was resolved by the airline. The flight departed without incident and landed safely in Nassau two hours and some later.
“The standard procedure is for most if not all flights of the Prime Minister to be arranged through the Office of the Prime Minister. When settlement of expenses are done there is a reckoning as between personal expenses and public expenses. That procedure was followed in this case and there is nothing unusual about it.”
Responding directly to the FNM regarding the trip, Mr Mitchell said: “The FNM has made up all these idle stories because they are embarrassed that their foreign policy was a failure. They sat at home for four and a half years and did nothing.
“The Prime Minister and the PLP as a matter of policy promised to reach out to the outside world to win friends and influence people. The FNM should stop making up lies and fantasies about a standard foreign policy visit.
“They need to explain how $600,000 was spent to put furniture for Hubert Minnis’ special friend in Brussels. Michael Pintard sat in the Cabinet and agreed and now he is talking about travel. The devil is a liar,” he said.
Last week The Tribune reported that an audit into The Bahamas’ Embassy in Brussels, Belgium found that over $600,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent on furniture purchases for the official residence.
Labour and Immigration Minister Keith Bell first raised alarm about the extravagant purchases in Parliament in June, accusing the Minnis administration of the “indiscriminate callous haemorrhage” of the public purse.
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