A growing political controversy over public fund management has intensified in the Bahamas, as opposition leader Michael Pintard is demanding full transparency from the current administration over more than $400 million in unaccounted funds allocated to the country’s National Investment Fund (NIF).
The government previously disclosed that it transferred roughly $700 million in excess borrowing proceeds into the NIF, a dedicated vehicle for infrastructure and national development projects. During a recent address to Parliament, Finance Minister Michael Halkitis outlined how $310.9 million of the total funds had been allocated to public infrastructure projects: $210.6 million went toward general building and road upgrades, while an additional $100.3 million was earmarked for aviation infrastructure improvements.
What Halkitis did not address, Pintard argues, is the fate of the remaining $400 million that the government itself confirmed was moved into the fund. In his remarks to reporters, Pintard pushed the administration to release a full line-item breakdown of all NIF transactions and disclose the exact banking location of the unaccounted funds. “Rather than be distracted by the minister speaking about all of the projects that they are working on, we want to first start this discussion with where is the money? Account for the 700 million. Which account is it on?” Pintard said.
Questions about the fund’s legitimacy deepened after Central Bank Governor John Rolle confirmed a key, troubling detail: despite the existence of an NIF-named account held at the Central Bank, the NIF’s legally mandated Board of Governors has never formally convened. Under the existing National Investment Funds Act, a board of governors is required to oversee the fund’s management, governance, and spending activities.
To address this gap, Halkitis told Parliament that the Ministry of Finance has been administering NIF funds through the ministry and the national Treasury, under the framework of the Public Finance Management Act, while permanent governance structures for the NIF were being finalized. He added that the government sought formal legal guidance from the Office of the Attorney General to clarify how the Public Finance Management Act, the National Investment Funds Act, and Parliament’s official borrowing authority intersect in this scenario. Halkitis also confirmed that Parliament authorized up to $300 million in borrowing for the NIF in March 2025, and that the NIF’s Board of Directors was officially appointed effective June 30, 2025, though the government has acknowledged that some governance frameworks remain incomplete.
This explanation has done little to ease opposition concerns, with Pintard rejecting the administration’s justification and accusing the government of operating outside the legal parameters laid out in NIF legislation. “His legal basis for moving millions of dollars out of the National Investment Fund was not the National Investment Act,” Pintard said. “They did not follow the law.” Pintard argues that the funds have been held directly by the Ministry of Finance without the independent oversight required under the NIF’s founding law, creating two alarming possibilities: either NIF resources were managed in violation of existing legislation, or the funds are being held in a separate Ministry of Finance account entirely outside the NIF structure. If the latter is true, Pintard noted, new questions emerge about how these transactions have been recorded in the government’s official fiscal accounts.
In response to the growing lack of clarity, Pintard announced that the opposition-controlled Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has approved a formal investigation into the NIF, with the national Treasurer expected to be called to testify as early as next week. The opposition is pursuing multiple avenues to secure full disclosure, Pintard confirmed, including the PAC probe and potential future court action if necessary. “We will go to court at the appropriate time once we are armed with the right advice,” he said.
Pintard pushed back against criticism that the opposition failed to aggressively question the government during the recent parliamentary sitting, noting that the PAC probe provides a formal, structured mechanism to thoroughly scrutinize all NIF transactions. For his part, Halkitis has stated that the government will fully cooperate with the committee’s investigation. Pintard emphasized that the opposition does not oppose the infrastructure projects the government has outlined, but insists on full accountability for how public funds are handled. “What we do not believe is that he’s giving a proper explanation on where the money came from and by what rules did he apply those money to those projects,” Pintard added.