The Tribune

THE explosive revelations and burgeoning scandal over how $700 million was borrowed, spent, and poorly accounted for in relation to the National Investment Fund (NIF), has caused a quagmire of difficulties for the Davis Administration.

The government failed to comply with various laws and procedures to ensure transparency and accountability. The contradictory and insulting explanations about the use of public funds has degenerated into attacks on those asking legitimate questions about government spending.

The silly and nasty attacks on The Nassau Guardian, and its Executive Editor, Candia Dames, are particularly egregious. Such attacks are backfiring politically. Many PLPs, FNMs, and others are collectively aggrieved that hundreds of millions of dollars could be spent with little to no serious explanations or clear accounting trail.

In October 2022, Prime Minister Philip Davis was expansive in what the NIF could accomplish and how it would be run. He explained in the House of Assembly:

“We are proud that this National Investment Fund Bill is structured in line with ‘The Santiago Principles.’

“These are a set of 24 global principles that assign best practices to the operation of national funds to ensure transparency, accountability, high ethical standards, and independence, especially in the auditing and public disclosure requirements of the funds, which include making that information easily available online to the public.”

“This will put The Bahamas among the top tier of world-class national funds, and demonstrate to Bahamians and to investment partners alike, that they can be confident in the integrity of this Fund and have confidence in doing business in The Bahamas and with the Government of The Bahamas.”

The Davis Administration has clearly breached these principles in a breathtaking and stunning manner.

The National Investment Fund scandal is one of the more spectacular examples of an elite convinced that they don’t have to abide by financial, constitutional, and other legal norms that the government insists the people abide. Juxtapose the failure to adhere to these principles with the endless, sometimes numbing labyrinth of compliance rules, procedures, and obstacles Bahamians are ordered to comply with throughout the year.

Moreover, how is it that a convicted drug dealer and money launder can breezily get Crown Land and contracts while many Bahamians have waited decades to receive Crown Land or to be paid for private land acquired by the Government for infrastructural and other projects?

How can certain gaming bosses, as well as alleged and convicted drug dealers, pay for various services with wads of cash, while similar behavior by other citizens would sound many alarms?

Certain compliance requirements and conventions in government and the banking system are designed to address drug dealing, money laundering, and corruption. But it is often ordinary Bahamians who have to withstand and bear the over-the-top banking rigors from commercial banks imposed on weary clients tired of the suspicion, long wait periods, and approvals from senior managers just to deposit certain checks.

How can public funds be spent with no proper authority on electioneering while the Department of Inland Revenue and other government agencies demand multiple documents, identifications, audits, etc., to obtain business licences, tax compliance certificates, and other documents required by law?

How can certain individuals receive massive no-bid contracts while those supplying legitimate goods and services to the Government of The Bahamas have to wait months and years and have to beg to get paid?

How can the government require a business that has a government contract and that it owes money to, to pay VAT on funds not yet received, sometimes for extended periods?

There is a profound lack of basic fairness and justice when a government introduces layers of compliance and layers of fees and taxes to fund itself and then turns around and spends these very same funds without compliance to the rules and laws they force on us.

In other countries, citizens should be in an uproar. “Taxation without representation is a political slogan from the American Revolution meaning people should not be taxed by a government that does not give them a voice or vote in choosing their lawmakers.”

In The Bahamas, we have taxation without accountability by the people we elected to be our representatives—not overloads and kingpins, who abuse these tax dollars and borrowings and then tell the press, citizens, and the Official Opposition to shut up and not ask questions.

The lack of fairness and the abuse of public systems is widespread and deep, one of the reasons Bahamians are turned off from politics. The well-connected get fast approvals for a variety of contracts and services.

They have their Inland Revenue and National Insurance matters fast-tracked, while most Bahamians encounter endless delays and the request for additional documents, stamps, and procedures that may be unnecessary and are quickly waived for others.

Conflicts of interest in government are not endemic in The Bahamas. Such conflicts are The Bahamas, with entitled elites certain that rules and laws do not apply to them. In their minds, such laws are for the little people and the masses who supply them with the money they require for their lavish lifestyles

Such conflicts are a human and global. Still, when conflicts of interest become so widespread and typical, it does great harm to the mass of people who suffer from sluggish public systems that inflict disadvantages on those not well-connected.

Proper compliance is essential to ensure that citizens pay taxes and abide by myriad standards and regulations to protect the public good and democracy. There are myriad compliance measures by government and banks to address potential illegal behavior such as the trafficking in drugs, human smuggling, and money laundering of illegal proceeds.

Compliance, however, must be balanced and fair. It causes problems for citizens and clients when government agencies “prioritize rigid procedures and endless paperwork over practical risk management.”

Some of the rigidity is caused by incompetence and lack of oversight by senior mangers. Some of it is caused by arrogant and puffed-up bureaucrats on their self-constructed thrones, who often have poor attitudes and want to display their “power” and majesty.

Compliance problems are also caused by “excessive approval chains, requiring multiple signatures, legal reviews, and signoffs for routine tasks slow[ing] down daily operations.”

Bureaucrats working in silos within and across agencies “create communication barriers and prevent teams from sharing vital information.”

Certainly, there are those citizens who do not play by the rules and who seek to game and cheat various systems. Still, there are many others who carefully comply with the rules and who suffer financial burdens, stress, and business problems as they wait for agencies like Inland Revenue to complete a relatively simple process.

As the majority of citizens are pressed to comply with the laws of the land, and asked to respect the rule of law and the constitution, the disrespect and breach of these laws by government is like taking a sledgehammer to our democracy and the principles upon which it s founded.

Accountability and transparency are not slogans! They are the lifeblood and oxygen of good, honest, and fair government.

No wonder we are suffocating.