The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas will not achieve “the radical change” it needs overnight, a governance reform campaigner likening the required effort to the time it takes to “turn a supertanker”

Robert Myers, a principal with the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG), told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to strive for a series of reforms over a “significant period of time”, with each one representing a “five degree turn” of the supertanker’s rudder.

He explained that the cumulative impact of such governance, economic and social reforms would ultimately achieve a 180 degree turn and push the Bahamas in the direction it needs to go, but getting there involved “sustained progress” across several administrations and generations.

“Nobody is looking for overnight change,” Mr Myers said on the eve of the ‘Speech from the Throne’, which will set out the new government’s policy and legislative agenda. “We are looking for radical change, but not overnight change.

“This is about effecting change over a significant period of time, and having a large impact on the Bahamas’ socio-economic trajectory. It’s like turning a supertanker.”

In the short-term, Mr Myers suggested that the Dr Hubert Minnis-led administration focus on improving the ‘ease of doing business’ and create greater efficiencies within the public sector and government.

“What I’d hope to hear in the Budget remarks is that the Government is going to increase its efficiency and accountability,” he told Tribune Business. “Those things should be loud and clear. Consumer and business confidence is at an all-time low.”

Turning back to the supertanker analogy for charting the Bahamas’ medium and long-term course, the ORG principal added: “With a supertanker, you turn the rudder 10 degrees and the boat does not start to move significantly for three-four miles because it’s so big.

“The point is that we, the Bahamas, have to turn the wheel, and over time turn it 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and that’s a big improvement.  It’s a process that must start if this system of governance is to turn around. You can’t turn a supertanker on a dime.

“What we’ve got to do is put in place a plan that moves that supertanker to a 180 degree turn. That is going to happen over a long distance. The Government in its current state must be more transparent, but it’s like a supertanker.”

Mr Myers told Tribune Business that the Bahamas needed to make the 180 degree turn via a series of fundamental reforms, each of which would produce a slight alteration in course and eventually adding up to the much-desired national u-turn.

“Each reform is like turning that rudder five degrees,” he explained. “That notable turn is enough to improve business confidence. Make those turns repeatedly over a sustained period of time. It doesn’t have to be monumental; it has to be sustained progress over a period of time and get the ship to turn 180 degrees.

“That’s got to be the focus, and that’s the challenge. We’re not talking about cutting the size of government 30 per cent in one go, but if there are three-four public private partnerships that reduce losses, improve the P&L statement, that’s a turn.

“ZNS, Bahamasair, cheaper energy, accountability and transparency in government. All those things are like three-five degree turns that end up being very productive, and will be very positively received by the country and businesses, and will improve business and consumer confidence.”