Published On:Monday, August 17, 2009

Business Reporter

crobards@tribunemedia.net

A SENIOR partner at Deloitte and Touche suggested yesterday that government would have got a better return on their investment if the funds for the student loan programme had been injected into the College of the Bahamas (COB) instead of the now $60 million deep loan portfolio.

Ray Winder told Tribune Business that the government’s guaranteed loan programme was a mistake from the beginning.

He contends that the expansion of COB’s facilities to accommodate more students would have yielded much more for this country than the now $30 million debt the loan programme has left in its wake.

And that number could increase with the more than $30 million loan portfolio that is not yet in arrears.

“The government made a great mistake when they started the programme and didn’t put proper procedures and controls in place,” said Mr Winder.

“The bigger point on this issue is this was not a proper investment.

“The best investment for the government to make when they made it (decision to start guaranteed loan programme) would have been if the majority (of the money) had been put into building additional capacity at the College of the Bahamas.

“I would submit that if you compare the return on that investment with the return from COB it would have been a far better investment for the people of the Bahamas.”

Mr Winder said 60 per cent of the staff at Deloitte and Touche went through the College of the Bahamas, including the firms two youngest partners.

He added that a resumé, with the College of the Bahamas listed as a past institution, has more credibility for his company.

“Investment in the College of the Bahamas should take priority over the loan system,” said Mr Winder. “Government needs to do a post analysis.”

 According to him, it is more important to ensure that COB has the capacity to educate the majority of the students seeking a tertiary education there. He said the government was right to abandon the guaranteed loan programme.

Mr Winder contended that the loan programme would never be able to support the majority, but insisted that the expansion of COB would increase the educated population substantially by giving the most students a better chance at enrolling at the college.

“Precious investment dollars in COB will yield a far greater return if capacity is enlarged,” he said.

Mr Winder said government now needs to out-source the collection of the outstanding $30 million in order to reduce government interference.

“Individuals should not be allowed to complain to the politicians,” he said.

No politician would have the ability to say “I know this one and don't go so hard on him.”

“We are prepared to support COB and are fully behind investment at COB,” he said.