Nassau, Bahamas - Commonwealth Of The Bahamas Contribution Budget Debate 2016/2017 by:Senator The Hon. J. Kwasi Thompson at Senate June 2016:

Total Failure, Fiasco, Disaster, Debacle, Catastrophe , Colossal disappointment, and ultimate betrayal.

Madam President it is with great sadness that we are left with this description of the last four years under this PLP government. When I think of the upcoming general election I am reminded of the words of a popular gospel song “I Believe” and at the end of that song is a melody which says So Long Bye Bye, So Long Bye Bye Goodbye to my pain and my sorrow so long bye bye.

Madam President I believe the country is waiting with great anticipation for the opportunity to say to this PLP Government So long Bye Bye So long bye bye. Good bye to my pain I suffered under your leadership, Goodbye to the sorrow suffered under your management, So long Bye Bye

Madam President

Among all the great assets of good leadership trust is an essential component. All great leaders were highly trusted by the people they lead. You can be a good communicator, have a good vision, the right strategy and have a talented team but if the people do not trust you, you will not accomplish much.

Madam President

People will not trust you just because you have a title or position. Trust is earned, it is built. People trust you because they believe in your ability to deliver that which you committed to deliver. People trust you because you delivered what you promised and you only promised what you could deliver!

Madam President the Bahamian people simply do not trust the PLP. Time and time again the public has been misled, bamboozeled, hoodwinked, Lead astray and deceived.

Even their celebrated Charter for Governance is a testament of their broken promises.

These are just an example:

1. The 10 point mortgage relief plan in the first 100 days

2. Repositioning of the Bahamas Development bank in the first 100 days to create jobs and expand businesses

3. Doubling the investment in education

4. Periodic review of discretionary decisions by independent non-partisan means

5. creating a Council of Economic Advisers

6. working with the Minister of Agriculture to ensure the success of agriculture in East Grand Bahama;_

STILL WAITING ON

7. building schools in East and West GrandBahama.

8. The Industrial Park in Freeport

9. agriculture in the recovery of Grand Bahama,

creating a agriculture cooperative in Grand bahama,

10. Create a reliable land register after proper adjudication of all rights and all interests in all land. And establishing a tribunal for this purpose,

11. . Ensure a system of accountability in the determination of applications for Crown Land is implemented that will ensure that applications are dealt with ina transparent manner.

12. review and amend as necessary the laws relating to commonage land so as to allow for greater commercial use and beneficial enjoyment of land by commoners

13. My Government, in an effort to help reduce the cost of rental housing, will reform the Rent Control Act and will seek to promote the construction of new rental units at more affordable prices.

14. Amending the Employment Act, 2001, the Fair Standards Act and the Health andSafety at Work Act;

15. government will provide a parcel of land on the island of New Providence for the construction of a Labour College

16. Activate sale of BTC shares to Bahamiansgrea

17. Youth Empowerment Scheme through the Department of Young People. This programme will provide services to young people (18-35) who would like to become entrepreneurs,and will offer assistance from concept to implementation and maintenance commercial use and beneficial enjoyment of land by commoners

Lets also Examine Promises Made in Last Years Budget communication

1. $20 Million allocated for youth jobs training through the Urban Renewal 2.0 Project

2. National Health Insurance will be implemented in January 2016 at no additional cost to Bahamians.

3. The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) to raise $100 million via a bond issue to finance the construction of 1,000 homes. This is a public private sector partnership in housing development

4. We will, for one, establish a special school for young persons with behavioural issues that militate against their employability.

5. We will also initiate an apprenticeship programme in partnership with the private sector under which employers will be incentivized, through a wage subsidy

Economic Performance

Madam President

Good Governance requires trust and the people do not trust the PLP. The PLP promised to grow our economy. Their performance on growing our economy has been an abysmal failure. The Governments very own statistics shows at the height of the global recession 2008/2009 the economy shrank by 3%. In 2009/2010 it got better and only shrank by 1% As a result of the FNM initiatives the economy grew in 2010/2011 over 1% and In 2011/2012 it grew by 2% In 2012/2013 when the PLP took over it began to shrink again. But here is the real issue that the PLP hopes you don’t notice. During the years the PLP has had full control over the economy it either had no growth or it is shrank every single year. This is the story of the PLP!! DISCUSS NO ECONOMIC GROWTH

Madam President

Some Economist define recession as two quarters of consecutive periods of negative growth. According to our own figures the Bahamas has had 2 consecutive years of negative growth.

The PLP boosts about the number of jobs they have created. However here are the facts. The global recession hit in 2008 and unemployment began to rise. It hit its highest under the FNM in 2011 at 15.7% In 2012 it decreased to 14.7%. Then comes the PLP who have taken over for a year and unemployment hit levels higher than in the global recession at 16.2% and stands now at 14.8% as at November 2015. Madam President the painful reality is unemployment is worse than when the PLP took over in 2012 from the FNM. These are the facts.

NEGATIVE GROWTH AND UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS ARE HURTING THIS COUNTRY

DISCUSS!!

In addition, the PLP don’t want to discuss revenue performance. Revenue as you know is the amount of income the government collects. Let me just read what the Prime said happened for the last two years. In 2014/2015 “ a lower level of recurrent revenue than projected by some 42 million reflecting the somewhat weaker than expected growth” In 2015/2016 the PM said “ recurrent revenue is expected to be down by an estimated 37 million” Despite VAT the government has failed to collect what they said they would for the year. DISCUSS

HOUSING AND CONSTRUCTION

Madam President, the PLP has botched what could have been the saving grace for the Bahamas in the Housing Industry. It is another shining example of why they cannot be trusted, and we simply cannot believe what the PLP says. Madam President

Where is the reform of the Rent Control Act, where are new rental units for low income families, where is the reduction in the cost to construct a home, where are the reforms for the Subdivision Act, where are the new green zones and green spaces and the 54 million dollar contracts for work in subdivisions.

. In November 2013 the Minister said this, “we hope over the next calendar year we will be able to complete the built out through the government program of about 200 units”. What happened to the 160 million dollar Memorandum of Understanding with NIB to start the housing program in 2013. The governments housing program has been a COMPLETE and utter failure and just another opportunity squandered.

Madam President, they cannot be trusted. The Prime Minister no less told us in last year’s budget statement.

“The Bahamas Mortage Corporation has approved the issuance of $100m in bonds, which will jump start the Government’s aggressive housing program and add over 1000 new housing units to our inventory. Through private public partnerships, it is hoped that the Government will complete the programme over the next two years. The programme will also create thousands of jobs in the sector for skilled and unskilled labour”

If only they would live up to their word! According the Minister for Housing less than 100 homes were actually completed nowhere near the 500 hundred promised...

Full Budget Debate 2016/2017 attached below

Click to download the attached file(s):
• Budget2016_FINAL.pdf

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