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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 For some time the Democratic National Alliance has agitated for real fiscal accountability and responsibility. The government’s fiscal plans while taking minor steps in the right direction failed to honestly address the key issues plaguing our economy. Instead, the Christie administration has again employed a series of smoke and mirror tactics in an effort to detract from their inadequate fiscal policies.
This year’s budget is filled with countless shortfalls, inflated and unsubstantiated data and promises from the last budget that simply never materialized.
Most notable perhaps, are growth forecasts as laid out by this administration. During the 2014/2015 budget growth for the Bahamas was initially projected at 2.8%. That number was later revised to 2.3%. However growth fell way short of either of those figures coming in at 1.9% as was predicted by the Central Bank of the Bahamas – a bi product of a strengthening US economy. This year, growth projections, for a second time, completely ignore projections made by the Central Bank. Real GDP growth as presented in the budget communication this year was estimated at 2.3 with that figure increasing to 2.8 by 2016. According to the Central Bank however, the economy will only grow by 0.9% for the entire year of 2015.
Further on the issue of economic growth, the government’s budget raises questions about exactly which sectors of the country are growing. Outside of modest growth driven by US tourism the government’s growth projections have little to do with any substantial investment by this administration. While the country did in fact record minor growth, the question is whom did The Bahamas grow for and did we benefit overall? The short answer is NO!
Even now as the budget debate continues, the government’s growth prospects remain threatened by the uncertain future of Bahamar, crime, illegal migration, corruption, cronyism, growing unemployment and the ongoing hesitation by larger firms to participate in the local economy. Indeed, just recently and for the second time within 12 months the United States has urged this Christie administration to be more transparent and accountable in its dealings with foreign investors.
Also of concern in this year’s budget, is the apparent lack of follow through displayed by the Christie government regarding a number of budgetary items which were carried over from the 2014/2015 budget. Last year’s budget communication promised the introduction of a Central Revenue Agency and ongoing Customs Reforms which had been slated for a 2014 completion date. That however has not happened. Enhancement to real property tax laws announced in last year’s budget has also not materialized.
Similarly, the government has included a $100 million bond for housing that starts in this budget. Their previous budget included allocations for a similar plan initially billed as a public private sector partnership arrangement that would work in conjunction with wider mortgage relief initiatives. As scores of homeowners are painfully aware however, all of this administration’s efforts at mortgage relief have failed.
While failing to complete such key elements of its previous fiscal plan, the government has made a whole new crop of promises, some of which received funding before the new budget was finalized. Among them, the revenue enhancement facility for the Road Traffic Department that was NOT a part of last year’s budget, neither was it mentioned in the batch of revenue enhancement measures. Just a few weeks ago however, a multi-million dollar contract was awarded to facilitate that work.
Following the Prime Minister’s Budget Communication in Parliament, members of the Christie government in their own contributions to the debate thus far, have attempted to defend what can only be described as the latest effort to fudge the numbers and pull the wool over the eyes of the Bahamian people. THIS MUST END!
Branville McCartney
DNA Leader
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