Perry Christie and his blah, blah, blah Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) administration

Perry Christie and the PLP’s blah, blah, blah government

By Simon
frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Imagine many years hence an anthropologist at the University of The Bahamas using digital recordings of the ZNS evening news broadcast to conduct research on Perry Christie’s years as prime minister. What might they discover?

As a gift to posterity and to help future researchers save time and effort, we are already able to pass on some insights which will only solidify over time.

Notably, Christie and the ZNS evening broadcast share a singular trait. They are incorrigibly late, again and again and again. It seems that ZNS, despite decades in operation, is daily caught by surprise that the evening news is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., not 7:02 or 7:05 or 7:07.

ZNS, like the Christie administration, seems incapable of being embarrassed by the poor quality of so much that it does and its sheer and entrenched incompetence.

As an aside, the day that the two leading print journals revealed details of a report on alleged abuse at the detention center, the state evening broadcast news failed to report the story. Were they commanded to do so as an act of censorship by their political minders and bosses?

How free is ZNS today to report stories critical of the PLP? For many, why is 2013 starting to feel like the 1970s and 80s at ZNS?

Meanwhile, forget the numbers’ houses. Perhaps the government might consider a national lottery that has as the winning combination the exact time that the ZNS evening news broadcast begins, with the additional prize of a ZNS news mug for anyone guessing 7 p.m. Supplies of the mug are unlikely to run out.

Perhaps there can be a “Straight Seven Jackpot” payout, the winner having wagered correctly the staggered times the news begins seven nights running, which will be a monumental accomplishment. There can also be payouts for three out of seven nights or five out of seven. The combinations are endless.

How foolish to imagine such a lottery. It was already defeated in a national referendum that proved to be a spectacular failure for Christie and his new and improved Gold Rush PLP that would be ready in the First 100 Days and from day one to build a bridge to the future as the government of hope and help committed to Urban Renewal 2.0 and putting Bahamians first.

Were there an international prize for sloganeering as a substitute for ideas and governance, the PLP would consistently win it, with its endless ability to produce more slogans than common sense and action once in office.

Then there would be the Bahamian television broadcast award for political showboating and theater, jointly awarded to ZNS and the Christie administration.

Story one on the evening news: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.” Second story: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.” And just for a change in the third story: Perry Christie said today, “Blah, blah, blah.”

This is the blah, blah, blah government in two senses. First, it is an uninspiring and visionless government. Secondly, as before, this is a government of plenty talk and little action.

During and after his rambling meanderings, one knows that the prime minister said something. The problem is that one is not exactly sure what he’s actually said.

As opposed to those times, sometimes he literally says nothing, despite promising a fuller accounting. The country is still waiting for Christie to provide more details on his and the PLP’s relationship with Peter Nygard.

Then, there is Christie’s pretzel-like comments. Having repeatedly postponed speaking before the Constitutional Reform Commission, the prime minister sought a clever out, perhaps convincing to him, but unconvincing to most Bahamians. His excuse: He didn’t want to prejudice the commission. Really?

Perhaps ZNS can provide a useful service, namely a canned laugh track as used in situation comedies. It can be played whenever the prime minister offers a comment for which laughter is the best medicine and response.

As reported in the press, the governor general, the leader of the opposition and many notable Bahamians found the time to prepare for and to appear before the commission.

Cue laughter: Christie contradicted himself by stating that his attorney general had already offered the government’s thoughts. Why didn’t he say that when he canceled appearing before the commission for the second time and counting?

Did the attorney general prejudice the commission by speaking on behalf of the Christie administration?

The saying goes, “If you don’t laugh, you’ll weep.” Listening to the prime minister’s tortured rationales for his inaction and bumbling incompetence is likely to produce tears of laughter, sometimes just weeping, and sometimes the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mind you, the same prime minister who did not find the time to appear before the commission did find time to deliver a lecture on constitutional reform. He had plenty to say on that occasion.

What he did not say and did not do, was to accept responsibility for making the referenda process in The Bahamas more politically difficult and charged, more of which in a subsequent column.

When he’s not too tired to answer questions, answers to which he solemnly promised long ago, Christie is busy making speeches and excuses as a substitute for governing.

He seems still to believe that talk is action. Like a genie, he must believe that when he speaks, things are supposed to materialize. See for easy reference: National stadium, National Health Insurance and doubling the investment in the national education budget.

The prime minister recently said that he knows that Bahamians are frustrated. The problem is that he may not appreciate that Bahamians are mostly frustrated with his poor leadership of a government that is performing even worse than the do-nothing years of 2007 to 2012.

Ranking PLPs and younger PLPs, including many professionals, are soured on and vex with a feckless administration careening from one crisis to the next, with a prime minister barely in control of his own government.

Christie’s response, “Blah, blah, blah...”, all of which can be seen on the ZNS evening news beginning at only God knows when. Stay tuned and be prepared to laugh and to weep.

September 26, 2013

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

The Economic Consequences of Value Added Tax (VAT) are real ...and every business and retiree needs to know how his life, his company and his bank account will be affected by the Value Added Tax (VAT)

The Consequences Of Vat Are Real

By JOAN THOMPSON

Nassau Institute

Ishmael Lightbourne, consultant to the Ministry of Finance, in an ad hominem attack on the Nassau Institute describes the research report, ‘Consequences of the Value Added Tax for Bahamas’, as being “extreme, ridiculous, exaggerated and inaccurate”, and is being read because it “bashes” the Government.

Mr Lightbourne also accuses the Institute of promoting ideology he describes as “spending cuts to reduce the size of government and slashing the fiscal deficit”. Pity governments of both political parties failed to foresee the consequences of reckless spending and the ever growing public debt. There may now be concerns about the creditworthiness of the country’s debt among the lenders. The increased risk attracts higher interest rates for the lenders, and the likelihood of lower living standards for the borrowers, the Bahamian tax payer.

As for the statement “it is only being read because it ‘bashes’ the Government”, Mr Lightbourne may not know that businesses across the country are reducing hours of employment, cutting margins, trimming expenses and other measures to compensate for currently reduced economic activity and ever-increasing costs.

 

The Economic Consequences of the VAT are real and every business and retiree needs to know how his life, his company and his bank account will be affected by the Value Added Tax (VAT).

Bashing government may be an outlet for genuine fears and frustrations. Who would blame them?

 

September 30, 2013

 

Tribune242

 

Caribbean Blog International

 

...troubled by Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) CEO Simon Potter’s recent comments ...that the financial terms his company “tied down with The Bahamas Government are second to none.”

By Kendea Smith
Jones Bahamas

Free National Movement (FNM) Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner says she’s “troubled” by Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) CEO Simon Potter’s recent comments that the financial terms his company “tied down with the Bahamas Government are second to none.” She is now questioning what those financial terms are and is calling on the government to respond to those claims.

Just last week, Mr. Potter told a room of potential investors in London that the financial terms with respect to any oil extraction are likely to be “music to people’s ears.”

Mrs. Butler-Turner says Bahamians are being “left in the dark” when it comes to oil exploration and BPC’s general activities.

The FNM deputy leader said it’s obvious that the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is putting “foreign interests first and the Bahamian people “dead last” in terms of providing information and consultation on potential oil resources owned by The Bahamas.”

“The FNM reminds the Bahamian people that both Prime Minister Perry Christie, who is also the minister of finance, and Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis both served as consultants for BPC prior to the 2012 general election, during which a referendum on oil exploration was promised,” she said.

“When exactly will that referendum be held so that the PLP can keep that promise as well as the promise of putting Bahamians First? Additionally, when will Mr. Christie and Mr. Davis disclose the handsome financial terms they received as consultants for BPC?”

Mrs. Butler-Turner said she also has questions about discussions BPC had with the government over a referendum for oil drilling.

“What does the BPC CEO mean that ‘underneath the surface’ that any discussion of a referendum has been removed,” the deputy leader questioned.
 
“Oil exploration is a monumental decision for the country. It must be approached with deliberation, accountability and transparency, little of which now appears to be the case. The Bahamian people and the Official Opposition deserve and demand greater transparency and answers from the Christie government relative of the claims made by the CEO of BPC.”

September 26, 2013

The Bahama Journal

...the financial terms that currently exist between Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) and the Bahamian government are “nonsense”

Govt urged to address oil terms

Senior oil sector source calls financial benefits ‘a give away’

By Alison Lowe
Guardian Business Editor
alison@nasguard.com

The government is being advised to move quickly to update the terms of its agreement with Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC), which have been dubbed by BPC itself, in addition to by local and international oil industry watchers, as extremely favorable to the company.

Earl Deveaux, former minister of the environment under the Ingraham administration, told Guardian Business that he agrees with BPC Chief Executive Officer Simon Potter’s assessment expressed at a recent London energy conference that the terms on which the government and BPC and its partners would share any oil revenues would appear to be “second to none” in the world for their generosity to the oil company.

Deveaux told Guardian Business that these terms and many other issues should be subject to greater public discussion.

In an address to the London Global Energy Conference on September 16, Potter said that the financial terms surrounding any potential oil discovery in The Bahamas are likely to be “music to people’s ears” given that they revolve around a “simple royalty” payment to the government of 12.5 percent, increasing to 25 percent if oil extraction reaches over 350,000 barrels a day.

Potter noted that the government could seek to change the terms, but highlighted that the Privy Council in London “ultimately remains the final court of appeal” in The Bahamas, suggesting that a legal challenge could be launched were the government to seek to change the terms.

Yesterday, a senior oil industry source in Trinidad and Tobago, which has long benefitted from its own highly-developed oil sector, told Guardian Business that the financial terms that currently exist between BPC and the government are “nonsense”.

“It would amount to a giveaway of the oil sector,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He noted that while Potter highlighted a zero income, corporate or capital gains tax environment in The Bahamas from which the oil company would also benefit, in Trinidad and Tobago royalty payments are accompanied by a production levy on gross income from crude oil, a supplemental petroleum tax based on oil prices that range from zero to 35 percent, a petroleum profits tax or corporation tax charged at 50 percent of gross revenues from all sources less deductible expenses and allowances, and an unemployment levy of five percent.

“Trinidad and Tobago has applied a high taxation regime and has been very successful in doing so,” said the source. “They should think about making changes sooner rather than later.”

Deveaux agreed it would benefit the government to address the financial terms in the short term, rather than waiting until BPC has secured its drilling partner, which it is seeking to partner with to undertake the exploratory well, or until after exploration occurs.

“I would agree that the terms of the petroleum leases are very generous and I have no idea what he’s offered to his prospective investors, but if it reflects what the government has provided for in the lease I expect it would be among the most generous in the world.

“I’ve always maintained publicly and privately that if we were to ever go down the road of exploiting oil reserves in The Bahamas, we would have to sit down and renegotiate those things.”

“I think it is infinitely easier now for the government to undertake any contemplated change that it may wish than if it waited until an exploratory well is drilled or a commercial discovery is made.”

Deveaux said that he sees a broad-ranging discussion about many aspects of what it means for The Bahamas to develop an oil industry as necessary and lacking at present.

“There hasn’t been any discussion, and it’s unfortunate,” said Deveaux.

“We have plenty reasons to review the overall regime and legislation. It was done at the time when certain things were not a part of our reality. We didn’t have Exxon Valdez, the BP oil spill, deep sea drillings off Mexico or Brazil and we didn’t have prospect of rising sea levels from temperature increases. We have to factor in today’s realities, and there are compelling reasons to review it.

“I think the financial reasons are important (reasons to review the terms), but I don’t list them as any more important than others. I would be engaging BPC in discussions about how we would manage this resource for all the reasons I listed and how we would create capacity in The Bahamas.

“There’s the whole review of how natural resource contribution of The Bahamas’ environment is now comprised; We have fishing, recreational tourism, aragonite and pristine waters that have been the host of world wide research in a number of areas. How do you factor that in with a companion oil industry?”

In his address to the Global Energy Conference, Potter described efforts to “bring the (Bahamian) government along” with respect to the development of an oil sector.

This included describing the differences that would exist between any oil extraction that would occur in The Bahamas versus the operation that was undertaken in the Gulf of Mexico prior to the 2011 oil spill, in light of differences in the depth of the drilling, the rock formations in The Bahamas, and the equipment that would be used, among other factors.

The company has completed an environmental impact assessment (EIA) and has an environmental management plan currently being developed. The government has committed to updating oil sector regulations in short order, although it has not indicated if this would include any changes to the financial terms specified by Potter in his address.

Efforts to reach Minister of the Environment Kenred Dorsett were unsuccessful up to press time.

September 24, 2013

thenassauguardian

Caribbean Blog International

Value-Added Tax (VAT) was approved by the Free National Movement (FNM) and Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) governments... ...The question now is: When will it be implemented?

Pm Accuses Critics Of Vat 'Distortion'

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business 
Reporter

nmckenzie@
tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie yesterday hit back at critics of the Government’s proposed Value-Added Tax (VAT), accusing them of “distortion” and urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to publicly back his administration’s plans.

 

“All over the region and the world VAT has been implemented. The IMF has described it as one of the most efficient forms of taxation,” Mr Christie said.

 

“Both governments, FNM and PLP, committed to VAT, and it was only a question of when it would be implemented. We came in and indicated that we would implement it.

 

“We are putting together all of the teams and everything to do with having people educated, and having them participate in discussion on it, so people will become aware of the intention behind it and the effect of it, and how it will be used to better the Bahamas.”

 

His comments came after the Nassau Institute think tank this week released a study entitled ‘The Economic Consequences of the Value-Added Tax for the Bahamas’. The study was produced by David Godsell, a third year PhD student at Queen’s University in Ontario, and a former Canadian Revenue Agency tax auditor.

 

It estimated that VAT’s implementation would result in a net $165 million decline in the Government’s total annual revenues, while the private sector would incur a collective $103 million annually in compliance costs.

 

In addition, the Bahamian economy would see a reduction in per annum GDP of between $322 million and $483 million. The report said studies had shown a tax increase equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP resulted in a GDP decrease of between 2-3 per cent.

 

Hitting back at the report, Mr Christie said: “When I read of the study commissioned by the Nassau Institute, I was not surprised. They have always taken positions that they say are protective of the economy, but in this case we thought the study was predicated on incorrect premises.

 

“One of the things that I know we must put in place is the capacity to answer quickly, through informed persons, who are not politicians, these issues about VAT.

“The call I made today is for the IMF, which comes into the Bahamas, and other countries around the world, to indicate whether you are on course with your economy or are managing your economy in the right way, that they have a vested interest to protect the debate and ensure that factual inaccuracies and political distortions do not violate the integrity of what we are trying to do.”

Mr Christie added: “There are lots of people who, for their own reasons, will distort the truth of VAT and use misinformation to cause people to say: ‘I don’t want it’, and we think that it has a disastrous outcome for a country that is following on really with unanimity in policy, where both governments - past and present - are in agreement with the implementation of a new form of taxation.

 

“For the last five years this has been an issue for us, and now that we have begun the process of implementation we want to ensure that there is honest commentary and that people have an opportunity to hear what it is all about without it being distorted. People have jumped the gun on it, and you have a lot of distortions on what VAT is and what it is intended to do.”

 

September 20, 2013

 

Tribune242

 

Caribbean Blog International

 

Opinions on the grim prediction of the state of the Bahamian economy ...after the value added tax (VAT) is implemented

VAT Panic Increases

By Kendea Smith
The Bahama Journal



A prominent businessman and a well-known economist have differing opinions on the Nassau Institute’s grim prediction of the state of the economy after the value added tax is implemented next year.

According to the institute’s 48-page paper titled “The economic consequences of value added tax” David Godsell, a third year PHD student of Queen’s University School of Business, who authored the paper, says labourers can expect a decline in real wages which will in turn lead to a decline in the labour supply.

He adds that the government would stand to lose $165 million in revenue and the private sector would suffer $103 million in losses.

“Businesses and employers with VAT-based sales can expect reduced demand for goods and services, which will in turn reduce their demand for labour. Under extraordinarily conservative estimates biasing towards heightened government revenues, we forecast VAT adoption will lead to a $165 million decline in government revenues,” he said.

“Simultaneously, we estimate VAT adoption will burden the private sector with $103 million in annually recurring compliance costs and an average of $4,300 in compliance start-up costs for each VAT registrant.”

The report concludes by pointing to failed VAT adoptions in countries similar to The Bahamas and by highlighting contemporary efforts to reduce budget deficits through reductions in government spending.

Upon hearing the news, former Chamber of Commerce President Dionisio D’ Aguilar said this report fuels the concerns of the business community that already fears the tax.

“The government has not made the case where the introduction of value added tax is not going to create an inflationary situation. I can’t see where it is not going to cause prices not to go up. And everybody is talking about prices going up from anywhere between 10 and 15 per cent in order to accommodate this increase in value added tax especially those in the service industry,” he told the Bahama Journal in an interview.

“For companies that don’t import a lot you are now having to collect 15 additional per cent. You either add it on to your price or you eat a portion of it because your customer just isn’t willing to pay an additional 15 per cent for the service that you are selling. So there is no doubt in my mind that it is going to cost an inflation effect because when prices go up and wages don’t budge you are going to have a decrease in economic activity.”

Mr. D’Aguilar pointed out that most businesspeople understand that the government needs to create more revenue because it is spending more than it is taking in.

But he said economists should come together to find other ways to achieve that goal.

“Instead of borrowing the money they want to just get it from tax revenue. So basically you are taking it out of the economy to pay for what you are already spending. It is not as if the economy is going to increase because it is already spending that money. It is running huge deficits,” the businessman said.

“No one is excited about the introduction of new taxes. Anytime you increase taxes there is a huge pull back. The government has one of two choices – it can either increase what it brings in or reduce what it spends. Now, if it reduces what it spends one might argue that that too can cause an economy and cause a recession. The fact of the matter is I agree to a certain degree with what the Nassau Institute has to say. All of these businesses now have to change the way that they do business. You have to pay more taxes to the government, you have to track it more and it is very depressing for a businessperson. It doesn’t get me excited to expand my business.”

But State Minister for Finance James Smith disagrees.

He argues that the government has no choice but to introduce a new tax system because the government’s spending habits cannot be sustained.

“No services are now taxed directly and the VAT will now take into account so at the very least you will be taxing both goods and services. So the government should get more revenue. No one can predict the outcome of the introduction of a new fiscal regime – involving a new tax. But it is highly probable that the government would receive increased revenues and that is likely to reduce the overall deficit,” he said.

“There are a couple of things that are being overlooked. The government walked into a huge deficit and huge build up in debt. If that continues and nothing is done about it the country would be worst off, even the ones that are complaining will complain more if you have to devalue you currency or because of a series of downgrades from international agencies or the inability to even borrow money or that you cannot put in place the necessary things that governments do – like education, health care and law and order.

“You can have a form of chaos if we continue down the road we are going.”

Mr. D’ Aguilar is now urging the government to present the information on VAT as soon as possible to decrease the panic among businesspersons.

“They need to get ahead of this and explain and say look this is what we think is going to happen. The fact that they are just letting it out drips and drabs of information is annoying. For example, what is the rate of duty going to be once we introduce VAT? That is a critical number. Get it out there,” he said.

“We are eight months away from this thing being introduced and it is still very fuzzy on how this is going to work.”

Prime Minister Perry Christie said back in February that, “Intended with the introduction of this new system it is also proposed to affect the eventual reduction in import duties that will accommodate The Bahamas’ accession to the WTO, to reduce excise tax rates to compensate for the VAT, eliminate the business licence tax as currently structured and to replace the hotel occupancy tax.”

The prime minister said the new proposed tax system will also level the playing field for the poorest and wealthiest Bahamians.

VAT is expected to come into effect on July 1, 2014.

September 18, 2013

Jones Bahamas

Caribbean Blog International

Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) in Fox Hill is a breeding ground for criminal activity

Inside The Prison Walls

By Rupert Missick JR:

IT’S long been said that the overcrowding at Her Majesty’s Prison has been a breeding ground for criminal activity.

It is a place where persons convicted of relatively petty, non-violent or victimless crimes are housed alongside career criminals.

This, compounded by decades of deplorable living conditions, makes HMP a graduate school for those who become some of the nation’s most hardened offenders, according to lawyer Paul Moss.

He said: “When you have a situation where a person who may have been accused of disorderly conduct ends up inside the prison you are not helping. You have violent crimes, crimes where a person may be injured, where a person may be traumatised or killed. Those are different from other crimes. So when a person misses a court date that is different from someone accused of rape, murder or armed robbery.”

Mr Moss said because the Bahamas has the highest rate of incarceration in the Caribbean, serious consideration needs to be given to changing the prison from a punitive institution to a rehabilitative facility.

Her Majesty’s Prison continues to fail to meet international standards, with overcrowding and access to adequate medical care presenting major problems in the men’s maximum-security block.

“I don’t know how we can believe putting people in that condition can help them come out better it’s just not going to happen,” Mr Moss said.

In August last year, authorities reported that the daily population of the prison and the remand centre exceeded 1,600, compared with 1,300 in October 2011.

Minister of National Security Bernard Nottage characterised the extent of overcrowding at the prison as “unacceptable”, attributing the overcrowding to the large number of petty criminals incarcerated and the backlog in processing at the remand centre.

In June, the prison superintendent reported the maximum-security wing of the prison held nearly 900 inmates, which was twice the number of inmates it was built to house when constructed by authorities in 1953.

Authorities reported that as many as six inmates were confined to cells intended for one or two prisoners. Others are housed in poorly ventilated and poorly lit cells that lacked regular running water.

In 2010 authorities installed composting toilets in an attempt to move away from the unsanitary practice of removing human waste by bucket, or “slopping”.

“When one sees the way food is delivered to inmates in huge pots sometimes dragged through the corridors. If there is a chicken, the inmate inside of the cell will give their bowl and the chicken is placed in the bowl with the hands of the inmate serving. Even if he has gloves on it is the most pointless thing because although he has gloves on his hands are touching the bars, touching the crates, touching all manner of things. Those things can be corrected - if there was a will to do it - overnight,” Mr Moss said.

According to a report entitled: “Rehabilitation of Inmates: A National Imperative” by former Superintendent of Prisons Dr Elliston Rahming, for every 270 citizens in the Bahamas, one is incarcerated.

In terms of the size of its prison population, the Bahamas ranks ninth in the world and number one in the Caribbean on a per capita basis. The country has some 435 persons behind bars per 100,000 population.

Mr Moss, who makes frequent visits to HMP, points out that this and the conditions at the prison not only have an affect on the incarcerated but also on the prison officers who work in those conditions.

“It dehumanises them, makes them feel like they are not only punished but being meted out cruel and inhumane punishment and that makes them more angry from what I have seen.”

While the relatively new remand centre has helped to alleviate the overcrowding, Mr Moss said the centre itself is overcrowded.

He said: “I believe it can be corrected if there is an holistic view of the prison system. Persons need to have access to resources that can allow them to redeem themselves and have some recompense. The only way for that to happen is to establish another prison outside of New Providence for sentenced men and permit HMP today to be the one for intake or remand.”

He said that many forget that a person who was once incarcerated will be out on the street again.

“Sometimes you would be lucky and see when a person has been released from the prison and unless they have the opportunity to work on the scheme they would not be given anything.

“Because we have failed to rehabilitate them in a way that would allow them to come back into society it goes back again and the same crimes or worse crimes are committed. Society suffers by being negligent in not permitting wholesale rehabilitation,” Mr Moss said.

September 17, 2013

Tribune 242