The government has spent over $63,000 on travel expenses for 10 overseas trips by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell since the new Progressive Liberal Party administration came to office, it was revealed in the House of Assembly on Wednesday. Minister Mitchell made the disclosure in response to questions asked by the Free National Movement Member of Parliament for Montagu Brent Symonette.
Mr. Mitchell assured parliamentarians that he is not a Foreign Minister “on frolic of his own” and it would be unseemly to imply such a thing.
The Minister said his travel as Foreign Affairs Minister reflects the new high profile for The Bahamas, considering that the Free National Movement’s administration had a “slothful” approach to foreign policy. He accused the former administration of not engaging the international community sufficiently unless there was a crisis.
According to Minister Mitchell, the PLP’s new approach to foreign policy has already paid dividends, impacting the way in which the country is held in the international arena and the leadership position taken in CARICOM.
“The job of Foreign Affairs calls for travel abroad,” said the Foreign Affairs Minister. “There is no other way to do the job properly. But the important thing to remember is that this is travel within budget and that it is fully authorized by parliament, including the Member for Montagu and his colleagues and further approved by Cabinet.”
“We pledged in Opposition to put an end to that era of inactivity. And so whenever trips are made, each trip is carefully planned and each invitation accepted is to advance the cause of The Bahamas and the Bahamian people,” he added.
Pointing out that the funds are fully accounted for to the Treasury, Minister Mitchell said the travel expenditure also reflects the cost of travel on trips that were not foreseen when the PLP assumed office.
One of the most expensive trips that the Foreign Affairs Minister has taken so far was his attendance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa, which cost $16,807. On that journey, Minister Mitchell was accompanied by Ambassador for the Environment, His Excellency Keod Smith; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Missouri Sherman-Peter and representatives from the BEST Commission and the Bahamas Mission to the United Nations between August 26 and September 4, 2002.
“It required extraordinary expenditure, but again, one hopes that by this question the Opposition is not arguing that The Bahamas should not have been represented at this important forum when the sustainability of our environment depends on many of the decisions taken there. That again would be most shortsighted and unfortunate,” Minister Mitchell said.
He also pointed to commitments made by the previous administration to the membership in the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group which requires travel at least twice per year.
“The travel to Haiti that has been required during this year was not foreseen but no Bahamian would argue that the investment that The Bahamas is making in trying to solve Haiti’s economic and political problems is not of enormous benefit to The Bahamas. Any Opposition party would be irresponsible to argue otherwise and I trust that this is not what the member intends by the thrust of this question,” Minister Mitchell said.
Objecting to what he labeled as Minister Mitchell’s consistent innuendos, Mr. Symonette insisted that he is entitled to ask the questions.
“I asked a very simple question – the cost of the trips…there was no innuendo intended and for the minister to continue in his answers to suggest that, is misleading this House. They are very simple questions. ‘What is the cost of the trips and who went?’ That is something we are entitled to know,” he stressed.
“They promised in ‘Our Plan’ that they would disclose it all, therefore this persistent innuendo, I trust minister that before you finish your address, you will clear that up. But this is a clear question to find out if these trips were in a prescribed budget. That’s all it was,” Mr. Symonette added.
Minister Mitchell said the country’s reputation and future rests upon a proactive and interactive approach with the international community, now more than ever. He noted that whenever he travels abroad, he is never a private citizen. This is so he said, even when he has personally paid for trips as was the case on two official events that he attended; speaking engagements at Beloit College in Wisconsin in November 2002 and at the Altadena Methodist Church in California in January, 2003.
He invited the Opposition to join the government in a bi-partisan approach to foreign affairs and not seek to make cheap political points out of questions.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
