By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
THE GOVERNMENT "cannot sustain" the $50m it spends annually on renting commercial facilities, the prime minister said yesterday.
Dr Hubert Minnis, delivering his contribution to the 2018/2019 budget debate, told Parliament: "We are spending $50m annually on rented commercial facilities. We cannot sustain that and therefore we will also construct a multi-government complex to hold various ministries, Immigration, foreign affairs, passport and other agencies related to them, and we will look at the needs of other ministries so they can all be within one complex.
"Once we know which ministries are going in that complex we can design a structure to accommodate such facilities. It's only a matter of moving the $50m that we are paying outside to inside, and more improved quality facilities that Bahamian people can invest in and see their money grow."
Dr Minnis said the complex will not be maintained by the government. "We have a bad track record. It will be maintained by proper agencies," he said.
The prime minister added that public infrastructure was also a critical component of the government's growth plan, "as modern and efficient infrastructure serves as a vital foundation for more buoyant growth of the private sector".
"Such investments will include airports, bridges, docks, roads, administrative complexes and clinics that will bring productive returns on investments, and provide employment for Bahamians throughout the country," said Dr Minnis.
"The government will look to public-private partnerships in these endeavours to the extent that these are feasible and reasonable from an economic and financial point of view.
He added: "Instead of the dubious PPPs that lacked contracts and transparency and any policy framework - the ones done by the previous administration that have only served to saddle the government with expensive short-term loans - this government will instead put in place a documented and established policy framework for PPPs that will be known and understood by the public."
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 10 months ago
Spend, spend, spend and even more spend. Say "bye-bye" to our VAT dollars!
And as for the planned public-private partnerships (PPPs) Minnis refers to....well, let's just say we know what that's all about. PPPs are a mechanism for the ruling political elite, including their family members, close friends and private sector business cronies, to acquire a financial interest in our best public sector assets under exceptionally favourable terms that guarantee a highly profitable investment. The exceptionally generous terms and concessions given to the 'chosen' favoured investors in PPPs are usually such that they negate the possibility of any real kind of economic benefit for the public purse (i.e. the country's taxpayers get screwed), with the already "Haves" in our society greatly increasing their own personal wealth. Yes indeed, PPPs are 'code' for the political elites transferring the best public sector assets to themselves (through fronting straw men, to their family members, and to their close friends and business cronies.
And as for the government's $50 million annual rent bill, what Minnis conveniently avoids disclosing is that a good portion of this amount goes into the pockets of current and former politicians or their family members and/or business cronies. Look for him to only try terminate the PLP connected leases!
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