The Tribune

WHILE in Beijing, China, last month to attend the first meeting of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean State Forum, Prime Minister Christie announced plans to request funds from China to refinance and restructure the Bahamas’ debt.

He planned to apply for the funds from a $3 billion dollar investment fund, recently announced by China to finance cash-strapped Central and Eastern European countries.

Mr Christie had said at the time that his ministry had been given a mandate to find new capital for the country as traditional sources were winding down on lending.

Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell was also on the hunt for funding. He announced in June last year that he would take most of that year off to track down investors from the Middle East and Asia. He is yet to give an accounting of the success — if any— of those trips.

Mr Mitchell said that at a Caribbean Development Bank meeting, Canada did not support The Bahamas’ application for a loan for its national programme. The World Bank had also refused to grant concessionary loans because of our high GDP per capita.

To arrive at a country’s GDP, one has to measure the total output of the country in a year and divide that amount by the country’s total population. This should give the output of a country’s economy per person.

The Bahamas’ failure to qualify for loans under these rules is nothing new. For years, GDP per capita has been a stumbling block because it cannot truly measure the needs of an archipelagic nation.

The Bahamas, because of its higher standard of living in some areas, has always had difficulty convincing the lending agencies that our long string of islands, each with its own administrative needs — is unable to contribute anything to the GDP. These islands are desperately in need of assistance. For example, there is no comparison between the needs of Nassau and those of Long Cay in the Acklins-Crooked Island chain. However, even so, taken as a whole this country is ahead of other Caribbean nations which, because their GDP per capita is very low, can qualify for these loans.

However, Mr Christie, desperate to pull a rabbit out of the hat before the next election, is probably counting on Baha Mar and VAT — and China’s restructuring of our debt — to turn the country around and enable his government to produce a National Health Insurance plan by next year.

However, in all of this, there is no evidence that government is spending the people’s taxes efficiently. There are no signs — or even suggestions — that the belt on spending has been tightened. VAT was levied to bring down the national debt, but will it? Or does government plan to reduce the pressure for repayment with a loan from China? In the end, this will mean nothing — a loan is a loan. And a creditor exacts his pound of flesh at the end of the day – whenever that day comes.

The only possible reason for changing loan masters is probably to have enough funds to get projects moving and Bahamians employed before the next election. Debt repayment and more taxes can come later — it will probably be someone else’s headache.

But let’s look at some of the glaring wastage — without a Freedom of Information Act even more is being hidden from us. But what is happening now is staring us boldly in the face.

In a statement today, FNM chairman Michael Pintard outlined a disgraceful way in which BAMSI —the project designed to feed the nation — was launched.

Said Mr Pintard: It was “started with no business plan; no site plan; no memorandum of understanding with Agriculture lecturers at the College of the Bahamas; no students selected to meet the original deadline for the start of school; no accommodations in place to house the students once selected; and no widespread consultation with the various commercial farmers and fisheries practitioners about how BAMSI will impact their livelihood.” Since that bungling into what could have been a successful venture, a dormitory was burned down before it could be opened. And now we learn that the building was not insured.

This is how the people’s taxes have been neglected — and wasted.

Another issue that keeps raising its ugly head, but is never satisfactorily answered. What has become of the public tender? Government projects are meant to go out to public tender. Hopefully, the contractor selected is the best for the job.

However, we understand that public tender has been thrown out of the window, and tender by invitation has entered. Those companies best able to give the taxpayer the most efficient, cost-saving results cannot even put in a bid. In other words, if word of mouth can be believed, it is a big party for “the boys”. And guess whose paying for the party? — yes, of course, you the trusting tax payer. This is one of the many reasons that your taxes are going up and will continue to climb.

And then there is the Princess Margaret Hospital’s badly-needed Critical Care Block, which should have opened at the end of 2012 or beginning 2013. Under much public pressure, the block just opened about six weeks ago – almost two years late. As of Saturday, February 28 – nine days ago – all six operating rooms remained closed, with a number of the ten available hospital beds also closed. We were told that it could be blamed on “lack of planning, the diversion of funds to other things, procurement problems, redesign of valuable space and making changes so that their people could get financial benefits”.

Mind, these are our taxes that they are mismanaging – no wonder they needed VAT to paper over the missing pieces.

But now there is another medical centre that has slipped behind the curtains and been forgotten. It was completed three or more years ago, built we understand by National Insurance, but never handed over to the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre. It is fully furnished, completed and ready for patients, but it remains closed. It is the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre for Children. It is located in a peaceful and tranquil setting, just behind the main pink coloured hospital building, which is on the main road. And although its beds are badly needed, it remains under lock and key. Why?

This block is for children with serious mental disabilities, some of whom are so mentally disadvantaged that they have to spend the rest of their lives in a mental institution. In the old Robert Smith ward in the main hospital — just waiting to be moved to the unopened building specially built for them — these “children” range in age from teenagers to adults in their mid-thirties. The new — yet to be opened block — can accommodate from 20 to 30 of these patients.

There are other children who are emotionally upset, who just need temporary housing while they are being treated. This unopened building has been equipped to also accommodate them.

How can this government go to the people and talk about raising taxes when such inefficiency, incompetence and mismanagement is so glaring.

We suggest that government now concentrates on getting its house in order, put efficient persons in place to manage our affairs, and then, and only then, come back to talk business.