By JUAN McCARTNEY, Guardian Senior Reporter, juan@nasguard.com

Former aviation minister Glenys Hanna-Martin yesterday expressed "disbelief" in what she said were comments made by the Minister of Tourism and Aviation Neko Grant last week that Exuma airport screeners' salaries had not recently been paid because they were "improperly hired" by the previous administration.

In a statement released yesterday, Hanna-Martin said Grant's assertion was "false" and his claim was an "obscene...act of political cowardice designed to disguise his incompetence in the performance of his duties in two critical areas" — tourism and aviation.

Hanna-Martin said that Grant's response to a question by an airport screener during last week's town meeting in Exuma was "not true".

"[Grant] with a straight face in the presence of Exumians and in front of television cameras, said that the previous administration had "improperly hired" the screeners in Exuma and that was the reason their salaries had been stopped," she said.

"This despite the fact that this minister has had portfolio responsibility for aviation and the Exuma screeners for more than one year and that their salaries have been stopped under his watch."

Hanna-Martin said that screeners "nationwide were duly hired under my watch under delegated powers and immediately thereafter recommendations were made to have the officers appointed on a permanent basis."

"They were so appointed in the first instance to ensure the deadline implemented by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as to 100 percent screening at all international airports was met in The Bahamas," she said.

Hanna-Martin said she was advised that despite the recommendation being made more than two years ago, "these persons have yet to be regularized."

"The appointment of the screeners, as is the case with all public servants, is done under the supervision and advice of the Department of Public Service in accordance with the provisions of general orders and the rules of the public service and not willy-nilly by political personalities who form the government of the day," Hanna-Martin said. "To claim that people were brought into the public service and paid from the public treasury for more than two years 'improperly' is obscene."

She added that the Bahamian people would not be satisfied with "excuses and scapegoating and expect duly appointed ministers to carry out their duties without ducking and diving."

"His performance in Exuma appears to have been a deliberate act of misleading the Bahamian public with the sole purpose of evading responsibility for his constitutional duties," she said.

"Minister Grant should explain to the screeners why — despite the elapse of more than one year — these persons have not yet been regularized and further why they are not now being paid. These people should have by now been regularized and they ought to be paid. I call on Minister Grant to forthwith apologize to the Exuma airport screeners, to the people of Exuma and Bahamians generally for his lack of forthrightness."

Grant could not be reached for comment on Monday.