The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporters

The Deputy Prime Minister has pledged that there will be "no runaway spending" in Wednesday's budget, which will feature "hard choices" to get the near-$8bn debt under control.

K P Turnquest, addressing the Institute of Internal Auditors last week, said the 2018-2019 Budget will embrace the principles set out in the draft Fiscal Responsibility Bill that is currently undergoing public consultation.

"We have chosen to develop the 2018-2019 budget in accordance with the law's guidelines, so when I present the national budget next week Wednesday one thing you will not see in our budget is any runaway spending," he said.

"We will spend the people's money responsibly, in accordance with our strategic priorities and the commitments made to the Bahamian people. All of our work at the Ministry of Finance moving forward will be conducted in the context of a statutory mandate to practice fiscal responsibility."

Yet, without giving any specifics, he warned: "In the national budget you will see us make hard choices to lower our debt levels. You will see us make responsible choices to arrive at a more sustainable fiscal balance. And you will see us embrace the idea of transparency and accountability in a way no other government has done before."

Mr Turnquest's comments came amid calls for the upcoming budget to present an "honest" assessment of this nation's fiscal affairs and "what we can do in the short, medium-term and long-term".

Gowon Bowe, the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) president, told Tribune Business: "If there was one word I would hope to see come from the budget it's honesty. That means, while we keep using buzz words like transparency and accountability, what we really want is an honest assessment of where we are and what we can do in the short, medium and long-term. In addition to that we need plans to execute those goals."

He added: "I think very often we get piecemeal information in terms of saying this is an initiative we have launched and so forth, as opposed to saying what our overall strategy is toward the completion of the National Development Plan. I think that the actual budget presentation now needs to be very much in a business-minded manner in saying here are the things we may have committed to during the election campaign but, at this point in time, here are the things that we can afford to do."

Mr Bowe warned against the "political sparring" over "who did or didn't do what', arguing that the fate of the economy is ultimately at stake.

"We have to be to be speaking 21st century governance as well as 21st century financial reporting and budgeting, and not political sparring over who did and didn't do what and when, when at the end of the day the country is still in the same state," Mr Bowe said.