The Tribune

ONE of the common frustrations with government is the feeling that as a whole it does not listen.

Businesses have been particularly frustrated with government on a number of occasions – earlier this week in this column we detailed the distance from reality of the phrase “ease of doing business”.

So given that the countdown is on to the filing of business licences, government is not showing much of a listening ear to businesses that are expressing concerns.

Let us consider some recent issues.

First, there was the rethink on fees for boat registration. Many people, especially fishermen, had raised concerns over the size of the hikes – and then it seemed reality started to kick in when there seemed to be a significant drop in marina bookings.

Even the rethink did not seem to go well, however, with confusion over which vessels it would apply to.

The secretary of the National Fisheries Association, Paul Maillis, said that much angst could have been avoided if only the government had consulted the maritime industry before imposing the increases, some of which were a rise by 1,000 percent or more.

Even as Deputy Prime Minister, speaking as acting Prime Minister at the time, announced a suspension of the increases, it seemed that certain agencies were not on the same page, with the Port Department piping up to say that it was not for all vessels, but just for private and recreational vessels. Commercial craft? Up go the fees still, according to them. So fishermen, tour boats, tug boats, salvage vessels, barges, and so on all still faced the steep hike. A lack of coordination and clarity.

Then came the difficulty over the VAT portal which saw businesses struggling to access the online tax payment portal to pay what was due.

Businesses tried and tried and tried again to access the portal to do what was required, only to face endless frustration as it was clearly not up to the task of handling so many requests.

The Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants, mindful of the deadline for business licence filings, called on government to extend that deadline seeing as the portal was having so many issues.

The government, in its infinite wisdom, has said no, it would seem.

Will this be another occasion when government should have listened? We shall see. Although one accountant told Tribune Business that the government will not levy fines who missed yesterday’s deadline as long as they could show they made efforts to comply only to be foiled by a faulty portal.

If true, that seems a tacit acknowledgement that something is indeed wrong – so it is right that businesses should not be penalised for the government’s equipment failure. But why even go to the point of essentially looking the other way over a legal penalty? Why not just listen to businesses in the first place and extend the deadline?

As that accountant said in frustration, “It’s become normal. The roads have pot holes, the Road Traffic Department doesn’t work, etc, etc.”

That’s a damning indictment on our state of being, where a failure to carry out the basic tasks is greeted with a shrug and an oh well, so it goes.

It should not be beyond a government – especially one that exacts so much in taxation – to ensure basic things do what they should. Keeping the lights on. Making sure a website is fit for the purpose it is designed for. Filling a hole in the road.

We will see very shortly how effective the system was for yesterday’s deadline. And if it was another mess, think how easy it could have been for the government to listen.