The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government needs to ‘purchase’ companies forced out of business by the New Providence Road Improvement Project at fair market value, a private sector spokesman suggested yesterday, estimating that over 1,000 Bahamian firms had been impacted.

Ethric Bowe, spokesman for the 50-strong Coconut Grove Business League (CGBL), yesterday told Tribune Business that if shuttered businesses could not be ‘brought back from the dead’, the Government needed to work out the value of these enterprises at their time of closing and pay this sum to their owners.

Noting that the Government had effectively ‘bought’ these businesses, Mr Bowe said it was vital that all sides - especially the Government - learnt from the experience of the New Providence Road Improvement Project and did not repeat the same mistakes again.

While some observers may view Mr Bowe’s suggestion for compensating the owners of closed businesses as impractical, given that it will likely be impossible to determine whether the recession and other factors were responsible for their failures, the CGBL spokesman said the Government could not apply a ‘one size fits all solution’ when it came to roadworks compensation.

“There must be hundreds of businesses, hundreds, hundreds,” Mr Bowe said in estimating the extent of the project’s impact on the Bahamian private sector.

“We were able to sign up 50 businesses in the Coconut Grove area, and don’t believe that was half of the businesses impacted. Some businesses gave up and walked away, afraid of the Government.

“When you talk about Robinson Road, from one end to the next, you might be talking about 1,000 businesses.”

Pointing out that many businesses located in side streets off the main corridors that formed the core of the New Providence Road Improvement Project were also affected, Mr Bowe said working out the private sector’s total losses was not “incalculable”.

Arguing that just a commitment was required, he again called on the Government to hire a forensic accounting firm to conduct a “proper assessment”, and not push an agenda and pre-judge the situation.

“Different businesses need to be dealt with differently, and the foundation is the rule of law and being fair,” Mr Bowe said.”Once we do that, at the end of the day everyone should have a clear conscience.”

Asked by Tribune Business about what could be done to compensate impacted businesses that no longer existed, the CGBL spokesman said: “If you can’t bring them back from the dead, you have to value their businesses and pay them.

“You’ve effectively bought their business. The Government has taken your business.”

Mr Bowe added that the CGBL was pursuing a “two-pronged approach”, one strategy involving legal action through its attorney, Maurice Glinton, either at the Privy Council or Supreme Court level.

The other involved negotiating with the Government, Mr Bowe noting that while in Opposition the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) had supported the CGBL and uncovered helpful information via the Public Accounts Committee.

He added that it would be “very interesting” if the Christie administration now reversed course and opposed any court action initiated by the private sector over the roadworks.

Alluding to comments made previously to Tribune Business by Superwash president, Dionisio D’Aguilar, the CGBL spokesman called for business community unity and to recognise that all companies - rich and poor, small and big - were important.

Mr Bowe said that while Superwash could afford to pay $250,000 to tie its parking lots into the new roads, that sum was “someone else’s business”.

He added: “The fellow at the mountain top can’t speak for the fellow in the valley when he has never lived in the valley, and the fellow in the valley does not know what the person at the mountain top is saying.

“Just because one business is rich and powerful, the Government does not have a right to damage or take their property, and the same applies to the persons in the valley.

“The operation of a petty shop is as important to them as the rich person’s mega store is to them. All of us need to accept certain principles, accept the law and doing what is right.”

The CGBL and Carmichael Business League will meet on Friday to discuss the way forward in obtaining roadworks compensation from the Government.

Following the meeting, Mr Bowe said they planned to meet with both Philip Davis, minister of works, and the Minister of Finance.

He conceded, though, that these meetings were unlikely to happen until the 2013 New Year. The meeting with Mr Davis would focus on re-routing Blue Hill and Market Streets, and making them two-way.

“That’s critical. As long as it’s two-way, the damage continues,” Mr Bowe said.

Arguing for good, strong leadership on the Government side, he added: “There’s a lot of opportunity in it, because if we fix it, it shows the rule of law applies.

“We can come out as a shining example of what this nation is. As bad as it is, there’s a lot of opportunity in it.”