The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Government must “reprioritise” some of its “less critical” spending allocations in the 2015-2016 Budget to aid disaster recovery, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.

Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance, told Tribune Business: “There will have to be some repriortisation. Maybe some of the funds will have to be moved from some less critical areas to disaster recovery, so there is a possibility of some movement within the current Budget structure.

“We are about almost half-way through, so we might have to come back at the Mid-Year, which should be around the end of January, in terms of the financing. To the extent that we can, we will make adjustments within the framework. To the extent that we have to go out and get additional funding, we have to go out and get any concessional financing where we can.”

Mr Halkitis added: “The good thing is over the last few years we have had some success in terms of deficit reduction and that is a positive. This is monkey wrench, so to speak, but it is what it is and we have to bring back normalcy and adjust.”

He said multilateral lending institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), have recognised the vulnerability of island nations like the Bahamas to climate change and natural disasters.

“In the past we were excluded from concessional financing because of our per capita income, but now there is an increasing appreciation that our vulnerability should in fact allow us to be able to get financing at concessional rates. The whole issue of climate change is high on the agenda,” said Mr Halkitis.