Finally, we asked Minister Musa about his recent appearance with Lord Michael Ashcroft at the police department's new gym. While Lord Ashcroft seemingly provided the finance for the gym without any strings attached, some wondered if he was pulling the PUP's strings by financing their campaign last year. According to Musa, he has not received a cent from Ashcroft but the government is planning on enacting the campaign finance legislation to ensure transparency with how the government spends its money.
Hon. Kareem Musa
"Unbeknown to me when I went to the opening of the Fit for Duty gym at the Queen Street police station I wasn't aware that Mr. Ashcroft was going to be there and so I was surprised by that, but nonetheless we know that he had a very rich history so to speak with the last administration. He got quite a bit of money from all the legal battles with Dean Barrow and his administration and so moving forward we have to be very careful with dealing with all of these investors in our country, but what I can tell you is that I personally have never gotten a dollar from Michael Ashcroft, any kind of campaign contribution, none whatsoever. We are a pro-political reform party and that was part of our agenda so these are all things as you can see from the last house meeting we have begun starting out with the public accounts committee, reconstituting the public accounts committee to include more stakeholders on it as well as to make it public. To me that's a critical part of transparency and accountability, is for the public to know and to have direct insight as to how you are spending money for the government. That is something already in place and of course campaign finance legislation is something we are looking as well."
