The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of State for Finance Michael Halkitis said the government will soon be able to embark on some of its capital works projects, as many of the major projects like the controversial New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP) will be coming off the books.

“Out of the Ministry of Works capital budget that we have to implement our first year about 84 per cent of that was already committed. We had to complete the things that were already started and committed so that now going forward we can implement the priorities of this government in terms of what schools we want to build, the mini hospitals in some of the islands, road works in some of the islands etc. Most of it is going to come off, the large New Providence Road Improvement Project is virtually complete, the airport gateway project is moving to completion and a lot of the capital works are going to come off the books,” said Mr Halkitis.

Mr Halkitis said that the government’s roadwork relief programme was ultimately a success given the finances the government had available to facilitate the initiative.

Prime Minister Perry Christie said during the mid-year budget that 236 out of 247 business applicants had been issued certificates of relief under the programme. With these certificates, 159 of the applicants accepted micro or government-guaranteed loans from the Bahamas Development Bank. Under the relief initiative 184 applicants enrolled in the plan to receive assistance from the Bahamas Electricity Corporation, 217 from the Bahamas customs department, 215 from the business licence department, 41 from the real property tax department and 230 from the Bahamas Broadcasting Corporation.

BEC-related compensation is effectively costing the corporation, not the government, Halkitis said, no new money as it is being offset by the huge multi-million dollar receivables the former owes the latter.

“We made available the micro-loans so that they could rebuild their inventory, we made some concessions available at BEC so that they could reconnect and also with the BCB which is a public broadcaster where they got discounts for advertising. We also helped them with relief in terms of NIB and being able to make arrangements to pay and so we did over 200 we are just finalising the last ones now. All and all it was a success given the amount of money that we had to spend,” said Mr Halkitis.