THE NATIONAL INVESTMENT FUND (NIF) OF THE BAHAMAS: DOES THE BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT'S EXPLANATION ADD UP?

Questions for The Bahamas Government on Spending The Bahamas National Investment Fund (NIF) Money

THE NIF: DOES THE GOVERNMENT'S EXPLANATION ADD UP?

By Lynden R. Nairn:
Nassau, N.P., The Bahamas

The Government wants us to believe that:

1. It established the NIF in 2023 but failed to make it operational.

2. In 2025, it authorised borrowing of up to $300 million to fund the NIF.

3. Because the NIF was not operational, the Ministry of Finance spent the money instead.

4. Despite knowing this, it proposed a further $700 million for the same Fund in May 2026.

Here is the question: If the NIF could not spend the first $300 million, why would the Government propose giving it another $700 million?

We are talking about experienced Cabinet Ministers with access to the country's top legal and financial advisers.  Surely, they knew the Fund was not operational when they proposed the first and most certainly the additional funding.

Why has it taken more than three years to get the Fund operational?  Who authorised the spending, and where is the full accounting?

The Government owes the Bahamian people an explanation. Saying the Ministry of Finance spent the money on infrastructure projects is not good enough.

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Questions on The National Investment Fund (NIF) of The Bahamas

- Halkitis on Wednesday: The NIF spent $310M
- Munroe on Thursday: The NIF don't yet exist

By Lynden R. Nairn

On June 25, 2025, Attorney General Ryan Pinder told the Senate:

“We look to have the fund constituted by the end of this month and funded in part from proceeds from the recent bond offering.”

Remember, Parliament had already passed the $300 million borrowing resolution on March 10, 2025 — some 107 days earlier.

Now fast-forward almost 15 months.

Yesterday, Minister of Finance Michael Halkitis explained:

“During the period before the Fund’s governance arrangements became fully operational, the Ministry of Finance acted on the basis that the Public Finance Management Act governed the administration and application of these public resources through the Ministry and the Treasury.”

He further acknowledged that the Government is still completing the Fund’s regulations, mandates, committee structure, financial reporting and audit processes.

So let us put the timeline together.

On June 25, 2025, the Attorney General said the NIF was expected to be constituted within five days.

Almost 15 months later, the Minister of Finance tells Parliament that essential governance arrangements are still being completed — after $310.9 million of NIF proceeds has already been spent.

Perhaps Attorney General Pinder was simply mistaken.

But if he was, when did the Government discover that the Fund would not be constituted as represented?

And, more importantly, why did the Government proceed to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars while the governance arrangements of the very Fund Parliament had authorized to receive the money were not fully operational?

Those questions deserve answers.

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