Bahamas committee plans to publish report on $700m in borrowing — The Rio Times
In the Bahamas, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee plans to complete the main part of its review of the National Investment Fund in October and publish a report by mid-November. The committee is trying to trace the movement of about 700 million Bahamian dollars in public borrowing that the government linked to the fund, The Rio Times reports.
Request for financial documents
Committee chair and opposition Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard said on October 13 that the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury had not yet provided transaction data needed to trace the funds. The committee wants to determine where the money was directed, which accounts it passed through and what transactions were carried out.
According to Pintard, the Central Bank and the Department of Legal Affairs provided testimony and documents on time. Financial Secretary Simon Wilson and the treasurer also appeared before the committee, but, according to the committee chair, gaps remain in the materials.
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Questions over the fund's authority
Pintard named five members of the fund's board whose appointment documents are dated August 2025. Correspondence with Central Bank Governor John Rolle, he said, confirmed that the board had never met.
The committee also seeks a reference from the Ministry of Finance to a specific legal provision that allowed action on behalf of the fund without a board. The 2022 law stipulates that the fund's account is opened by the board at a bank recommended by the Central Bank, and that audited statements must be submitted to parliament within six months after the end of the financial year.
Finance Minister Michael Halkitis had said that 310 million Bahamian dollars intended for the fund were directed to public infrastructure. The government cites the Public Finance Management Act and legal advice, stressing that it acted lawfully. The committee emphasizes that the investigation is ongoing and that it has not yet reached final conclusions.
