The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE Progressive Liberal Party criticised Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ budget communication yesterday, saying it “lacks credibility” and is “weak on solutions” to address a looming “debt crisis”.

“We are concerned that this is an election time budget,” Chester Cooper, PLP deputy leader, told reporters shortly after Dr Minnis delivered his speech in Parliament.

“This administration is clearly not equipped to provide the country with a path out of this crisis.”

During his speech, Dr Minnis outlined plans to create employment in the public and private sector and he also unveiled tax concessions for entrepreneurs and small businesses, among other things. However, Mr Cooper said the Minnis administration must be living in an “alternate reality” because there was no plan to address the country’s bloated debt levels.

“This is a budget that presents nothing to measurably confront the dire situation we are in,” Mr Cooper said. “It frankly lacks credibility. It appears to build upon the weak policy and a lack of strategy that undergirded the previous budget. The reality on the ground is that unemployment is still sky-high and Bahamians are still catching eternal hell. In the face of the greatest fiscal crises in the modern Bahamas, this budget is weak on solutions.

“There is a looming debt crisis because of the levels of borrowing, weak negotiations and the onerous terms of loans undertaken by this administration, with no plan articulated today to address this with urgency. What is incredibly disappointing, is that when you strip away the hypocritical boasting, taking credit for PLP projects like Baha Mar, the Pointe, air space management and the Family Island Development Act, and when you strip away the long wordy presentation, there still is no plan, no big new ideas, no strategy for economic growth, no bigger vision for our future.”

He added: “We once again heard more short-term thinking — because the government is focused on its own short-term survival instead of changing the country. So, as we grapple with a debt to GDP ratio of 100 percent and an economy that has contracted by 25 percent under this administration’s watch, we are asked to accept a wait and see budget.

“The pandemic has only made the failures of the last four years of fiscal mismanagement by the Minnis administration clearer.”

For his part, party leader Philip Davis said: “It is a short-term budget for survival of the FNM, not a visionary piece that is designed to bring relief to people who are suffering or to set a path to growth to ensure that we don’t become a failed state.”

It was reported on Wednesday that the World Bank gave the Bahamas “special dispensation” to qualify for a $100 million loan that forms part of the government’s borrowing strategy. Yet, Mr Cooper appeared sceptical about the loan.

“We don’t trust the FNM, as they are desperately poor negotiators,” he explained. “We call on them to table the particulars of this and all other new loan agreements in the House of Assembly. The raft of policy-based loans to fund the budget will make it difficult for future administrations to implement strategic reforms.

“What we learned today is that the Minnis administration still has no credible plan for actual economic resilience or acceleration, only more piecemeal approaches but as expected, there were a few tax exemptions, tax relief for the rich and other election promises, from an administration which has no credibility in keeping its promises.”

Meanwhile, Mr Cooper claimed the administration missed the required report of the Fiscal Responsibility Council that was due by March 2021.

“To date, we can only go off what the Minnis administration tells us about pandemic spending as they refuse to table anything that accounts for it.”

Plans for marijuana reform and expected gains from this sector were not mentioned in Dr Minnis’ speech.

Asked about this, Mr Cooper said: “It speaks to the lack of strategy and longer-term thinking. “We believe that the cannabis legislation was touted now for a few years really as a political gimmick, if you will. We expect that before elections that this legislation will be brought but again there’s no big picture thinking on the issue. It’s narrow politically driven gimmicks if you will so therefore I am not surprised that when it comes to the creation of new industries, when it comes to ideas for economic growth that this wasn’t touted as one of the things that could help to benefit The Bahamas.”

Draft marijuana legislation is being circulated for review but has not yet been tabled in Parliament.