The Tribune

By Rashad Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said uncovering a history of over-budgeting has allowed the Minnis administration to trim its budget, especially with respect to spending on personal emoluments.

He said: “You would be interested to know what we found after doing a ministry-by-ministry, line-item-by-line item analysis of actual government expenditure compared to budgeted sums. We found a historical pattern of over-budgeting. In the category of personal emoluments, for example, we found that the budget included allocations for salaries that were no longer being paid. How is this possible? You have situations where the employment register is outdated and does not reflect some of the employees who retire, leave the public service and move into pensioner status. Although these individuals are not being paid, their salaries are still being budgeted for.

“It is noteworthy to mention that personal emoluments constitute roughly 30 percent of the country’s total expenditure. Therefore, over-budgeting in just this area alone can reduce available spending in other key areas of the economy. As a result, you will see a reduction in the budgeted amount for salaries, along with line items in every single ministry. This budget cut does not mean a cut in the actual headcount, or in actual programmes. It simply means we are budgeting properly to account for the actual commitments of the government. Time after time, in area after area, we have found cases where agencies did not spend all of their allocations. In fact, when the assessments were conducted, on average, most agencies spent roughly 60 to 70 percent of their budgets. As a result of our in-depth review, we identify seven opportunities to surgically trim the budget, decrease fiscal inefficiencies and reverse the historical pattern of improper planning resulting in over budgeting with little outcomes.”

Mr Turnquest also discussed the government’s plans to revamp the real property tax system. The first phase of the project is expected to add as many as 9,000 unregistered properties to the tax roll, he said. The net result of the enforcement exercise is a projected annual boost of $21 million in real property tax collections and a project that creates up to 40 jobs for Bahamians during an18 month period.

Mr Turnquest also highlighted efforts to modernise the Bahamas Customs Department through its introduction of the Electronic Single Window dubbed “Click2Clear”.

He said: “This new Click2Clear platform, which is being rolled out in phases, will bring the Bahamas in line with best in class customs clearing processes, allowing a person or company to clear their goods from anywhere they have access to the internet. In particular, the new system allows for: more convenient, paperless processing, as clearance will be available at any time; online payment of customs duties; tight controls that will help to minimise fraud; less time for processing, as entries will be checked automatically in the new system and, for low-risk users, spot checks will be done as opposed to 100 percent inspections; automated statistical dashboards that will allow for more robust record keeping and accurate customs statistics; the full integration of other government agencies; and increased transparency and accountability.

“Finally, the old, paper-based process of clearing customs will be a thing of the past, and a new era of efficiency, timeliness and enhanced convenience will be ushered in with this new system. As of February of this year, approximately 1,600 businesses were on the new ‘Click2Clear’ Electronic Single Window platform. So far, we have appreciated the feedback from the business community and we are making changes, based on this feedback, to ensure that the benefits of this system accrue to all stakeholders. The official launch of the system will take place in September 2019, for all users, commercial and private, across the archipelago.”