NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) — The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) is calling on the government to disclose the results of an independent review into the gas leak that occurred here in 2013.

“More than a year has now passed since the government announced an independent review of its failure to disclose what it knew about the dangerous Rubis gas leak to the public.

“Given the ongoing absence of the promised report, the GBRHA must agree with former Cabinet minister Phenton Neymour and others who have suggested this review was never anything more than a public relations stunt in the first place,” the GBHRA said in a statement.

It recalled that it was the government that announced a retired Supreme Court judge would look into the circumstances surrounding the leak, and that “it took Cabinet two years to warn those whose health and safety were at risk from contaminated water supply and toxic fumes”.

But the GBHRA said that the government has so far remained mum on the whereabouts of the resulting report.

“Clearly, the announcement of the review was itself an attempt to distract the public in the face of their unconscionable neglect of the well-being of the people of Marathon. The government would do well to appreciate that it will not be able to dodge responsibility for the suffering of that community by remaining tight-lipped and hoping this matter will simply go away. It will not.”

The human rights group said that a “serious and dangerous public health hazard was handled abysmally by the authorities, with shocking disregard for the rights and interests of those most affected.

“The government is hereby called upon to cease dodging its responsibility to the citizens of The Bahamas and come clean on the results of the promised Rubis leak review,” it added.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court dismissed an application for a summary judgement by Cable Bahamas Limited regarding the oil spill, and recommended that the matter proceed to trial on an “urgent basis”.