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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 The current administration has done it again in terms of besting their new lows and sinking our country deeper than ever before. The Central Bank of The Bahamas just recently reported that the total debt for our country is over 90% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Coming from our own regulators, this is somewhat disturbing.
What is equally as important is that at the same time ratings agencies like Moody’s and S&P are on the continual path to downgraded our economy to junk bond status, with both rating agencies having us at the level right above junk bond status. So, these reports by our own regulators are things they watch in earnest and with keen interest.
We are at a critical time in our nation’s history, a time where we should have never been placed in a position that was created due to bad policies of this administration and the administration before it. They refuse to listen to the cries of Bahamians on the way to do better business; they have refused to give us respect in times of less; and have turned a blind eye when it was their time of plenty.
Now we are faced with a country that is about to collapse, and everyone that has been at the epicentre of it for the past 20 plus years has no one else to blame other than themselves. We in the DNA will not continue to pile on with blaming persons that should be ashamed if they are not already, because we fashion ourselves as being solutions oriented. We just want a way out and a way forward for this country, the only one we truly have to call our own. To say that we have no confidence in this current administration, led by Prime Minister Perry Christie, his Jr. Minister and any of his advisors and appointed staff members is an understatement. But, it is something that must be said for the lack of anything less to tell them that escapes me at this time.
The DNA has gone on record in stating that our first order of business is to stop all of this wasteful, non-capital expenditure spending. The government wastes too much money to get too little done in return. A prime example is the wasteful expenditure on a Junkanoo Carnival that cost the Treasury some $10 million dollars but no true explanation on what cost $10 million dollars and what was the true economic benefit of having such an affair at the tax payers’ expense.
We have also gone on record in saying that we must change the way we do business, and in that the way we handle our public’s issuance of contracts, scopes of work, how the government pays vendors and how the government receives and maintains goods for their own daily business and how these processes must change. A new regime must be put in place to ensure that wastage is kept at a bare minimum and those that abuse the pockets in the system are kept at bay and if found liable, punished. This absolutely means a new procurement management system for the government, and it is something that The Democratic National Alliance is fundamentally committed on.
What is also clearly lacking is a total commitment to performance indicators and performance based budgeting that supports our efforts with real-time, accurate data. It is high time that we embrace performance indicators, both qualitative and quantitative, and turn the government’s bureaucratic and administrative process into one that delivers service in a timely and efficient manner.
The DNA has also gone on record with regard to changing the way The Bahamas Investment Authority does business, and also gone on record with regard to changing the paradigm of how the Central Bank of The Bahamas acts in an open economy like our country, with our Central Government and with the private sector.
All of these administrative, management and record keeping efforts would be for naught if we do not find a way to solve the other half of the puzzle- and that is growing our economy again.
We in the DNA believe that while it is good that construction at the BahaMar Resort is set to resume as touted by this current administration, we do not believe the end result will be a net-positive for our country in the medium to short term. The BahaMar Resort’s completion and opening is being touted, yet again, to being the saviour of this economy. But, we in the DNA believe that it is too little, too late and that even with BahaMar being on stream, if this is the case, we have been set so far back that one BahaMar opening would mean little to what problems we face.
Furthermore, we are dismayed to the signals that the BahaMar scandal has created for our image to investors. We wish to add however that it may have been a blessing in disguise, because now all an sundry are appreciating with a new sense of consciousness the structural issues we face in our economy and how bad it is for all of us all around: From the way we receive investors; to the way we treat them post project launch; the way our systems lend itself to breaking rules if something needs to be done; and how we would go to any extreme to cover up issues if certain deals and policies come to light.
The way this was handled was in poor taste and it does not bode well for our future if we do not change, which as a result we wish to highlight at this time these issues because we want the public to be aware of two things:
1. The continued bad practices and deal making that this administration has been prone to do on our behalf and at our expense; and
2. These same bad policies, practices and deal making are a core reason why our country is in the perpetual state of underperformance that it is in.
These two key things, coupled with the now established fact of our government’s lack of transparency and its unwillingness to hold itself accountable, as we have seen clearly with the sealing of the deal struck between the government and the China Exim Bank on BahaMar, absolutely lends itself to the private sector and all investors alike being unwilling to do business in our country.
From finding ways to unlock private sector credit again; to giving banks confidence to lend again; finding new ways to employ people in the private sector and helping businesses to grow; in addition to spurring domestic and foreign direct investment on a platform of information and transparency, is something our country under the previous regimes have found difficult to do. But, needless to say, it is something that must be done and a government that people respect, trust with a keen intellect and driven for results is what our country needs.
We must change course and we will change course with a DNA government.
Youri Kemp
DNA Candidate for Garden Hills
DNA Spokesperson for the Economy and Finance
© Copyright 2016 by thebahamasweekly.com
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