The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The private sector yesterday reiterated its desire to establish a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Immigration Department to assist its work permit policy, amid warnings the Bahamas was “missing the forest for the tree”.

Edison Sumner, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) chief executive, said the approval/refusal of work permit applications was “just part” of the private sector’s Immigration-related concerns.

He told Tribune Business that the private sector was “quite prepared to revisit” a previous offer of financial and other assistance that was made to Fred Mitchell, minister of foreign affairs and immigration, on May 1, 2013.

Mr Sumner said the matter would be discussed at this morning’s Chamber Board meeting, after Mr Mitchell on Monday evening challenged the private sector to cite “one example” where a business had been unable to import essential expatriate talent.

Speaking during the mid-year Budget in the House of Assembly, Mr Mitchell had said: “I saw a comment this morning, Mr Speaker, from representatives of the business community in which for the second time in as many weeks, statements were made from that quarter which suggest that the actions of the Department of Immigration are responsible for retarding the ability of businesses in this country to get the talent they need to do the jobs at their businesses.

“I wish, sir, that someone would give me an example of that. The rate of refusals of work permits is so small that I venture to guess that there is hardly an example – not one – to be found where any business has been unable to get the talent that they need to run the businesses in this country.

“And if that is the case, then they need to let me know where that happens and where that occurs. So I want to set the record straight on that.”

Responding, Mr Sumner told Tribune Business that work permit approvals/rejections were just one of several concerns that the private sector had with the Immigration Department and its policies.

“In that kind of instance, and with all due respect to the Minister and the process, we’re missing the forest for the tree standing in the middle of the space there,” the BCCEC chief executive said.

“While we acknowledge the challenges the Department is facing, we have extended ourselves in the past, the private sector, to provide assistance as best we could to help it..... The issue with respect to work permits is just a part of it. It’s not just dealing with any one item.”

Mr Sumner said the private sector’s written May 1, 2013, to Mr Mitchell and his Department still stood, having been made at a time when the minister was ‘sabre rattling’ over a revised hard-line approach to work permits.

He reiterated that the business community was prepared to assist the Department with its filing and document storage issues, plus provide funding that would “assist them in the flow of business coming through Immigration”.

Tribune Business obtained a copy of the letter, which has never been made public before, and its contents are as relevant today as they were almost two years ago.

The letter, signed by then-BCCEC chairman Chester Cooper, as well as Stuart Bowe, president of the Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA); Robert Sands, head of the Bahamas Hotel Employers Association; and Aliya Allen, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive, called for “constructive public-private sector engagement going forward”.

Mr Sumner yesterday reiterated this position, saying: “I want to make it clear the Chamber of Commerce, from the private sector side, wants to do as much as it can to assist the Immigration Department.”

With numerous foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, such as Baha Mar, set to either open or in the throes of construction, Mr Sumner said it would become increasingly important for developers and businesses to access foreign talent if it was not available in the Bahamas.

“We just want to make sure that with all the other events coming up in the economy, we can work hand in glove with the Immigration Department through some PPP or dialogue to ensure Immigration policy is fluid,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business.

“That there are no bottlenecks created from backlogs, or issues processing applications on a timely basis because of challenges the Department is having with its own systems.

“The private sector is prepared to raise financial resources to assist the Immigration Department in improving its IT systems, so the process is not as onerous as it was previously,” the BCCEC chief executive added.

“We’re quite prepared to revisit this and see what else we can do to assist the Immigration Department to make their workload a little more fluid. We will bring as much resources as we can from the private sector side.”

Mr Sumner said the BCCEC supported the Government’s ‘Bahamianisation’ policies, plus the newly-announced policy requiring all children of non-nationals to obtain a student visa so they can attend local schools.

The Chamber chief executive’s comments indicate that transparency and efficiency, as much as the approvals/rejections, in the work permit process lie at the heart of the private sector’s work permit concerns.

There are no defined timelines for the approval/issuance of work permits, once a completed application is. Nor are there defined policies to guide the Immigration Department in the approval of work permits, and it does not necessarily have to give reasons for a rejection.

As a result, many businesses fear their work permit applications could be subject to arbitrary influences within the Immigration Department.

Any approval delays, or rejections, could potentially cripple businesses, and prevent the hiring of more Bahamians as well.

Such concerns were articulated in the private sector’s May 1, 2013, letter to Mr Mitchell, which called for decisions on new and renewal work permit applications to be taken within six and four weeks, respectively.

“The current lengthy process stifles domestic and foreign investments, adding to the cost and uncertainty of doing business,” the business community wrote.

“In addition, there needs to be greater clarity and transparency on the appeals process for permit denials, and a review of labour certificate procedures.

“The private sector is uncomfortable with the extent to which an individual employee in the Immigration Department or the Board itself can arbitrarily deny a permit, asserting that there is a ‘qualified’ Bahamian when it can be demonstrated that the individual is not qualified.”

The private sector called for the Immigration Department, and its staff, to see themselves as ‘business facilitators’, and welcomed Mr Mitchell’s then-suggestion that a business community representative sit on the Immigration Board.

The May 2013 letter also pointed out that more than 98 per cent of the workforce was Bahamian, with the cost of hiring expatriates far higher - meaning businesses would always seek to hire Bahamians first, provided qualified persons were willing and available to take the job.

Mr Sumner yesterday said that when qualified Bahamians were not available, foreign skills should be “embraced”, and that Immigration policy “plays an important role in the development of the Bahamian economy”.

He reiterated the position set out in the May 2013 letter, namely that the private and public sectors needed to identify skills gaps in the Bahamian workforce, and develop training programmes and strategies to fill these.

Mr Sumner said the Government had moved to address the latter through the National Training Agency.