The Tribune

“IF it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

We wish we could find at least one nook or cranny in our country today that we could walk away satisfied that it was functioning so well that it needed no “fixing”.

Unfortunately, everything needs fixing. How this country is going to limp along for another two and a half years with the state of confusion that it now seems to be in is everybody’s nightmare.

Our finances are in a shambles, yet in a country unaccustomed to taxation, the Bahamas is expected to be the bright boy on the block and within the next 24 days be prepared to manage a tax that few seem to understand. The fear of the unknown has certainly slowed the economy. It is almost as though many business persons are battening down for a hurricane as they huddle together to work out strategies to meet the challenge. Many businesses have shelved plans as they wait to see what the future might bring. Others have already gone ahead, trimmed their sails and cut their staff. Still others say they have had enough, and plan to close. Banks have quietly shuffled around, moving large sections of their business to more welcoming jurisdictions.

There have also been miscalculations. Someone recently decided they needed a new car. If one were to be purchased it had to be purchased this year – before VAT. They went to the various car lots, which all seemed to be fairly bare — very little choice. One dealer admitted cancelling one of his orders because he was fearful that once VAT was introduced on January 1, the new year would see him with a glut of cars on his showroom floor that few would have the money or inclination to buy. On the other side potential customers were going through the same thought process. Both sides were trying to beat VAT. There were customers who wanted to hurry up and buy their car before January 1 to avoid the new tax. With cancelled orders there were not enough cars to satisfy the market. The losers in this were the dealers and the Public Treasury that could not collect taxes on cancelled orders. Customers might not have had much of a choice, but they bought what they could — they were the only ones to beat VAT.

What makes matters worse is that Bahamians are concerned that our taxes are being wasted by a government that does not understand business, and refuses to inform us of how our own money is being spent — or rather misspent.

The scandal of the Bank of the Bahamas — rumours of financial mismanagement were explained away as just a tempest in a teacup. Opposition politicians, they said, were just trying to stir up trouble. We were being lied to. The rumours in fact were mild to what we eventually discovered was the reality. And yet, without a Freedom of Information Act, this government is continuing to make costly mistakes and keeping the curtain drawn on the truth of its mismanagement.

The House of Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, headed by Chairman Hubert Chipman (FNM), met only once last year because it could not get a quorum. This is the committee that is meant to hold a watching brief on the management of the country’s finances.

May’s Parliamentary Practice – the practitioner’s “bible” for the Westminster system of government – explains the importance of this committee.

Says Mays: “The Committee does not seek to concern itself with policy; its interest is in whether policy is carried out efficiently, effectively and economically. Its main functions are to see that public monies are applied for the purposes prescribed by Parliament, that extravagance and waste are minimised and that sound financial practices are encouraged in estimating and contracting, and in administration generally. The committee also has a particular duty to look at excess votes.”

We intend to keep our eyes on this committee to inform our readers whether government is permitting it to function without hindrance, and whether the committee’s members are sufficiently concerned to assure a quorum to make a meeting possible. So far it has met twice this year with the final meeting for the year scheduled for next week.

Those attending the meeting of Friday, December 5, were Mr Chipman, chairman, Mr Ryan Pinder (PLP), Mr Richard Lightbourn (FNM) and Mr Peter Turnquest (FNM). Minister Shane Gibson (PLP) was absent from both Friday’s meeting and the meeting held the previous week. However, despite Mr Gibson’s absence, there was a quorum at both meetings so that it could function.

Before the committee was the government’s 2012 audited accounts, to determine — in the words of Erskine Mays — “whether policy is carried out efficiently, effectively and economically… and to see that public monies are applied for the purposes prescribed by Parliament, that extravagance and waste are minimised and that sound financial practices are encouraged in estimating and contracting, and in administration generally.”

For the past 15 years the Auditor General has delivered a qualified opinion on government’s accounts because of serious weaknesses in the system of internal controls.

The 2012 accounts, now on the table of the House, are no different.

According to the Auditor’s Certificate: “As a result of my examination I now report that due to the continued inclusion of unreconciled, inactive bank accounts, large suspension accounts, balances and weakness in the system of internal controls related to revenue and expenditure, I cannot attest to the completeness and fairness of cash and cash balances.

“I am unable to certify that the final accounts of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas presents a true and fair view of the state of affairs for the year ended June 30, 2012.”

On January 1, Bahamians will start paying VAT, which we were told was a necessary tax to reduce our $5bn national debt. With our finances in such a shambles what guarantees do Bahamians have that this tax will be efficiently collected and put exclusively to the purpose for which it was collected?

Having lost confidence in this government’s ability to govern, and with no Freedom of Information Act with which to question how our taxes are being administered what guarantee do Bahamians have that the country’s economy will not collapse before 2017?