By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
IN order to avoid a further weakening in the economy and to mitigate the possibility of overspending and provide greater transparency, the Government should “move with haste” to enact fiscal rules which, by law, will cap spending over the immediate to long term, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce president has urged.
Additionally Kevin Seymour said that “steps need to be immediately taken to increase automation in areas involving high transaction volume and to rationalise salaries and emoluments in the civil service through reduced headcount”.
Mr Seymour noted that, in January, the Government received approval for a $33 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to strengthen the management and the management capacity of the public sector to monitor all projects and programs more efficiently and effectively. That loan is to be drawn down in tranches over the next five years and is intended to cover performance monitoring, strengthening the Department of Statistics, public financial management, IT systems upgrade within the public service and an upgrade of the public procurement system.
Mr Seymour said that while this is “a step in the right direction”, these initiatives, due to their critical nature, need to be expedited by the Government.
“The rating agencies are really just assessing the strength of the country and its balance sheet. If we have a situation where we have a limited amount of revenues that are being generated by the Government by way of taxes on an annual basis and the Government knows that it has a certain amount of expenditure it is committed to meet, then all other things being equal the government must do whatever it can to ensure that the expenses do not exceed the revenues and, in this case, they have and they have been for some time. That is what creates a deficit,” said Mr Seymour.
“We thought that, based on the undertakings given by Government in the rollout for VAT, they would be disciplined in applying the proceeds from this new tax towards closing that deficit gap and paying down the national debt. I think that that is a reasonable expectation, particularly since they themselves said that that is what they were going to do.
“When you look at the results post-VAT implementation, it seems as if the needle has only moved slightly in terms of reducing the deficit and - quite amazingly - the actual national debt itself has increased,” said Mr Seymour.
Comments
empathy 7 years, 8 months ago
Cut the Public Service...YES!!
Most of these departments' budgets include 80% salaries and emoluments which has only given us our present poor level of service. Even when we're "paying" for government service it's a chore, as everyone whose stood face-to-face with the black one way cashier windows (or rather lean/ bend down to speak through the pay-slots) at almost all government agencies have experienced. The quality of service, even when paying for your Road Traffic licenses, Passports etc (when government is getting its revenue) is frustrating!!!
Early retirement maybe our best option, many of us think we can easily get away with 50% of of these folks as that's about how many of them actually do consistent productive work and for those many commentators who will say I'm being generous, I know that I am!!!
Dropping the cost of doing business in these islands, reduce/ eliminate Customs Duty (as promised with VAT introduction), reduce the Red Tape associated with establishing a business and reform our education and legal system would be a great place to start. Then many capable Bahamians can be hired by these private sector businesses...
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 8 months ago
Cutting employment in our public service sector would present a financial nightmare for those banks engaged in predatory consumer lending practices where up to 80% or more of the salaries of many of our civil servants have been garnished for direct payment by government to lenders like Commonwealth Bank, Bank of The Bahamas and Fidelity Bank. Meanwhile the IDB gives our spendthrift government yet another loan (this time US$33 million) which they know full well will do nothing more than increase our bloated national debt without addressing the more fundamental issues that prevent the right-sizing of our public service sector work force. Like so many Bahamians today, Seymour cannot see the forest for sake of the trees!
BMW 7 years, 8 months ago
Well mudda take sic. I cant remember when it started but it always astonished me how a employer could get caught up in a financial contract between a private citizen and a lending institution! Why should an employer have the responsibility of ensuring money goes where it should. Hell if a citizen can go to and secure a loan from a lending institution he should be responsible ehough to maintain the payments, the problem here is the total lack of responsibility by the borrower. Its called " passing the buck" and lord knows plenty of that goes on in this country!
bogart 7 years, 8 months ago
Years ago when coloured Bahamians could not go to borrow from the Banks they went to a number of the wealthy white Bahamian families who lent them money to buy materials to build their homes etc. There was the 'TRUCK' laws which placed a care and attention on the employer to ensure that their employee had enough to eat etc. which is common sense and cared for the worker. The ratio of roughly 45% debt service comes from around this time which is really obsolete as costs, have shifted. This ratio has flaws. The ratio is also linked to Indemnity Insurance purchased by the customer to protect the lender which is another matter. The Truck laws morphed into the Labour Laws which does not really deal with the employee spending their money but any responsible lender should show due care and attention in evaluating the borrower to ensure that the borrower can repay the banks shareholders bank funds. Some flaws may exist when the banker does not due due care and attention in the analysis to make sure the borrower can repay. Another flaw is that while 45% can be calculated to repay loan the lender needs to ensure that the remaining 55% can allow the person to pay bills and successfully repay the loan otherwise it is pointless giving what would be a failed loan. This is a simple exercise in that what the borrower says they do not spend then they should save and have adequate margin to repay loan and feed themselves etc. If the banker cannot do simple maths analysis something is wrong. Another flaw is that the borrower goes to many other institutions such as furniture stores, car companies etc to also do a salary deduction, hence many signs saying govt employees no downpayment to apply for credit. People should be responsible for their own finances first and also the lenders should as legal institutions have guide lines at least common sense ones to know that if they assign all the remaining salary it is likely there will be default. Perhaps the first lender can sue the second lender.Do they do any mathematical analysis, or do they just have the borrower assign the payment??? They should actually be jailed if they knowingly contributed and did not show due care and attention. The Chamber should be in the forefront telling their business members about the salary deductions and harm they cause when persons are laid off.
The_Oracle 7 years, 8 months ago
Apparently you have not been able to get a drivers license in Grand Bahama for at least 3 months because a) they ran out of the plastic cards and b) the machine was and is still broken. Issuing a letter/slip showing renewal cover to the Bahamian police is fine but no foreign car rental will accept it! Mine is up this month so we shall see! Typical though, missing millions of $$, totally unaccounted for via road traffic, probably selling their stupid stickers under the counter. There is nothing that can be run efficiently or above board by the Government of this country.
Socrates 7 years, 8 months ago
Cut the civil service? Forget it.. never happen.. would be political suicide. We are now firmly established on the path taken by brother Mugabe and the Greeks.. Economic devastation simply because nobody wants to face reality.
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