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Bahamian Politics Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM


DNA: The Caribbean Region Quarterly is Sobering
By Youri Kemp, DNA Spokesperson for the Economy and Finance
Jul 3, 2016 - 11:06:40 PM

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Nassau, Bahamas - The Caribbean Region Quarterly Bulletin published by the Inter-American Development Bank in June underscores not only the challenges we have as a country, but also the failures in even the most minor attempts by this administration to solve them.

Case in point: The missed opportunity to deal with energy prices in The Bahamas and ensuring the Bahamas Electricity Corporation could consistently deliver on lowering energy prices via contracting new management, via Bahamas Power and Light Company Limited (BPL) being operated by a company out of North Carolina, PowerSecure.

Questions linger about how effective the energy price cut was and also how sustainable could it have been even if they had done so. Also, mixed signals with regard to the efficacy of PowerSecure/BPL when they mentioned that they would have to raise rates immediately. What made all of this worse, and why we have to have people put in power that understand how to communicate with vested stakeholders that monitor these events, is that after having given a management contract to BPL/PowerSecure to manage BEC-- and amidst the mere mention of rate hikes from the company-- the Cabinet of The Bahamas turns around and then above all else, including over the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), the agency that is supposed to be advising and announcing the merits of these assessments for utility companies, arbitrarily rules that they will scuttle the rate hike.

What is also so more startling is that the Cabinet, and not the management of BPL, stated that they intend to reconnect some 3,000 BEC subscribers to the grid. No analysis, no rationale given, no timeline and no phasing mentioned. Just turn them on, and let BPL sort it out.

The current administration wants a chance for all opposed to be against reconnecting subscribers, or arguing against a rate decrease or against them scuttling a rate hike. They feel that no one should be against this at all. They know it’s clever politics. But we in the DNA are not against helping people; we are for helping people in a measured way and not just for politics. We in the DNA are also keen on being properly advised on the process, something in which this

administration does not like- due process and making judgements based on clean and clear data and information.

The DNA wishes to reiterate: We are not complaining about deferring a rate hike in electricity, a rate hike we found to be insensitive and ill-timed to be quite frank about it, or any other type of alleviation to consumers. But we are questioning the process of how it was scuttled and how arbitrary it obviously was.

What this administration fails to realize is that when agencies like the IDB, Moody’s and all else, hear these things coming from our country’s leadership, it triggers in their minds thoughts of bad governance, bad policy making and all else springs from that. Because, not only did you go through an expensive and laborious process to have a private company installed to manage BEC, you have now essentially wasted the Bahamian taxpayers time and resources to go ahead and rule arbitrarily over the heads of that management company and URCA, its main regulator.

Additionally, the IDB Report stated that they were made aware by the government that some $600 million was needed to rehabilitate the failing energy company. However, no plan has been delivered to date that suggests how this $600 million would be spent or used. We also wish to remind the public that there was no management plan or development plan delivered to the public on how the proposed rate hike factored into what BEC is dealing with currently.

To this administration their ham-fisted handling of our affairs seems trite and how Bahamians feel on the ground is of little importance to their actions. But agencies are watching not just what they do and what they say, but also how they do what they do and how they do what they don’t say they will do.

Beyond this, it is clear that energy prices are holding us back. What’s also holding us back is that we have not had a resolution to BahaMar. A resolution to BahaMar is desperately needed not just for minor jobs, but also for giving confidence back to investors to do business in our country again.

More importantly, observers need to feel confident that the government can not only meet its debt obligations, and not only do what it says it will do under an umbrella of trust, but they also need to show observers that they are fixing old problems in earnest.

An old problem our country has is with regard to upgrading the way we collect government revenue. Sadly, what we have as a fix to this is more taxes through VAT and other service charges, but little to no true reform in the way of moving away from the trappings of the Consolidated Fund and other revenue generating agency reforms.

For example, we have seen no legislation brought to the House of Parliament that establishes the Central Revenue Authority even though it is in operation. So, questions remain as to who exactly is collecting VAT and under what arrangement is it analysed and separated from the other taxes, particularly when there is no VAT Comptroller announced after the last Comptroller’s departure.

With all of this being said, with high unemployment to add to all of this as the IDB Report indicates, we clearly need relief and need it fast.

We trust that a DNA government will solve some of these issues as we have articulated time and time again.

Youri Kemp

DNA Candidate Garden Hills

DNA Spokesperson for the Economy and Finance

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