The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The proposed New Providence Road Improvement Project compensation will relieve only “20-40 per cent” of the pain suffered by impacted businesses, a consultant expressing hope it might at least help some “get back in the game”.

Mart Turnquest, of Mark A. Turnquest Consulting, whose Robinson Road-based business was itself affected by the protracted works and road closures, told Tribune Business that the tax breaks/incentives package was “realistic” given the Government’s difficult fiscal position.

Disclosing that he knew of 35-40 companies that had gone out of business in the Robinson Road and Market Street areas alone, the small business consultant said those firms “ain’t coming back”, adding that survivors knew it was impossible to recover lost sales via any compensation they received.

While the Government and Robinson Road Business Association had yet to meet on the compensation issue, Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business: “A lot of people already went out of business.

“Thirty-forty people I know between Robinson Road and Market Street went out of business. They’re gone; you can’t bring them back. They ain’t coming back any time because they’ve got no money to come back with. But we must give the Government some kind of thanks; at least they’re looking at it.”

Noting that the national debt was approaching $5 billion, Mr Turnquest said that when this was set against a narrow economic base generating around $8.6 billion in per annum gross domestic product (GDP), the Government’s proposed $15 million compensation package was reasonable given the circumstances.

“The Government doesn’t have it, and the debt’s too high,” Mr Turnquest said. “Right now, you look at the Government, and it’s effectively broke. It can’t find enough to pay the civil servants $70 million a month. The Government has to pay $100 million a month between debt servicing and the civil servants..... The cookie jar is empty.”

Apart from business licence fee and real property tax exemptions, among the other compensation being proposed by the Government is a 10 per cent reduction on electricity bills for 18 months; Customs duty exemptions for a six-month period; and making available ‘soft loans’ at concessionary interest rates from the Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) up to a maximum of $10,000.

“What they will do is relieve some of the pain, 20-40 per cent of the pain small businesses have experienced,” Mr Turnquest told Tribune Business of the incentives. “It can’t relieve 60-80 per cent of the pain, and checks and balances, and debts small businesses have undergone.

“That’s already gone. These are little incentives to get you back in the game. The damage is so incredible that the incentives are to get you back into some kind of involvement in the game. The particular problem everyone understands is that you can’t bring back sales you lost last year.”

By common consensus, the New Providence Road Improvement Project was poorly executed and managed, with little thought given to mitigating the impact on businesses in the affected areas. No traffic management plans were in evidence, and whole stretches of key roadways were completely closed (rather than kept partially open) for months, blocking customer access to many companies.

Mr Turnquest said the project, which was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), was supposed to carry out a business needs risk assessment. “Because they did not do that at the beginning, that’s why we’re in this mess right now,” he argued.

The small business consultant added that the Government and Robinson Road Business Association had yet to meet on the issue of roadworks compensation, and thus no agreement between the two sides existed.

To date, it appears that the Coconut Grove Business League have been the only ones to meet with the Government on the issue.