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Last Updated: Mar 21, 2017 - 7:49:28 PM |
 Nassau, Bahamas - The following is a press statement by Philip Brave Davis:
In a startling and unusual moment of candor, FNM Leader Hubert A. Minnis once admitted in Parliament, that “when we left office, we were faced with the worst recession…we left the Bahamian economy in a wheelchair.”
He must have caught hell from his colleagues for sharing that truth, because he hasn’t been so honest on the topic since.
And here comes Ingraham, who must be missing the spotlight, and must find it painful to watch his successor wander around in a fog of incoherence, to chime in with his own dispatch from an alternative universe. He mismanaged the economy into a wheelchair, and then has the nerve to complain about how it was rescued?
The reality is quite simple: the FNM left the economy on an unsustainable path. In 2012, the government was spending over $500 million more than it was collecting.
Without the implementation of VAT, billions would have been added to the national debt – an unmanageable amount, which would have left our country unstable and vulnerable to requiring IMF bailouts and restructuring, like Jamaica.
Ingraham knows this better than anyone – it was his Cabinet who was told so by the IMF.
So it was left to the PLP to clean up the mess. Only the PLP had the courage, maturity and capacity to do the right thing.The VAT rollout has been one of the smoothest on record.
This government’s plan reduced the deficit by 80% by the 2016/2017 fiscal year. The government’s current fiscal setback is due mainly to expenses associated with two devastating Hurricanes Joaquin and Matthew, costing the government hundreds of millions of dollars in post Hurricane repairs, financial assistance to those affected and temporary suspension in taxes, including VAT, on a number of items.
As for transparency, Ingraham used to remember just how these things work – and this is a matter of law and fact – real facts, not FNM alternative facts:
The Constitution of The Bahamas requires that ALL revenue sources, whether from VAT or other taxes or duties or fees, must go into a general fund called a Consolidated Fund.
Every year the government holds a budget debate that is televised live, and then puts the budget online.The process is open and transparent.
Bahamians can see for themselves: how much is spent on salaries of government employees; how much is used to pay on the nation’s debts; how much is used to improve infrastructure - like upgrades to roads, docks, and airports.
The reporting of public finances is a matter of public record, through the independent Central Bank of The Bahamas.
All public finances are subject to audit by an independent Auditor General.
The stability from VAT has put The Bahamas in a position to borrow when we need to, so we can help people after disasters like hurricanes.
And VAT has allowed The Bahamas to do new things that couldn’t be done before, like add hundreds of NEW officers to our police and defense forces.
This government has always administered public finances according to settled law. If anyone in the FNM knows of any violation of any law governing the administration of public finances, they should stop talking to the press and start talking to the police.
They won’t, of course, because there’s been no wrong-doing.(Unlike under the FNM – it was under the FNM that the biggest corruption scandal in our nation’s history took place, with Fred Ramsay convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with BEC).
They are supposing that in this new world of fake news and alternative facts, they can get away with fake accusations.
To quote the sum of VAT collected with absolutely no reference to the other eighteen revenue sources and the expense line items is disingenuous and hypocritical. The Central Bank does not only report on VAT revenue – it reports on ALL revenue collected and on ALL expenses by the government. This institution has provided this public service for more than forty years.
It cannot be that the Central Bank was transparent up until December 2014 and for some mysterious reason, it ceased to be transparent on or after January 2015 when VAT was implemented. That is an illogical and deceitful proposition of the worst kind.
VAT continues to be instrumental in financing many of the public institutions, policies and programs that collectively form this firm and solid foundation the Christie administration built to move this Bahamas forward together.
© Copyright 2017 by thebahamasweekly.com
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