The Tribune

IN THE House this week, Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe stated the obvious: “To find revenue we have to tax.”

To which Bahamians have replied: We agree, but this is our money and we demand to know how our taxes will be spent.

On the introduction of VAT on January 1, Bahamians will be forced to keep their end of the tax bargain — much against the will of most of them. As for the government, it is weaving and dodging, delaying the Freedom of Information Act and haughtily telling Bahamians that they should rely on government’s “integrity”.

This tax is essential to reduce the nation’s debt, but already we see the relieved attitude of some of our representatives, who behave as though as long as we, the people pay, they, the government, can continue to spend. And, of course, don’t bother to ask any pesky questions, because there will be no answers.

It is this attitude that moved FNM Senator Michael Pintard of Freeport this week to encourage Bahamians to pressure the government to cut back on its spending.

“The PLP administration,” he said, “seems to have the insatiable desire to spend.”

For example, said Senator Pintard, “if you look at several line items in the Budget – particularly the Prime Minister’s Office and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are travelling excessively – the figures have increased substantially.”

Bahamians, he said, must demand to know the return on investment for such excessive travelling, and whether it was necessary for the Foreign Affairs Minister to have made the trip when an ambassador on the spot could have attended the meeting. Government, he said, also has to curb spending on the consultants they hire. And he noted that in certain ministries in Grand Bahama persons have been hired at rates “well beyond their capability.”

He reminded government of the sound advice of its New Zealand VAT consultants that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and a Fiscal Responsibility Act should be in place before the enactment of VAT if government’s objective is to win the confidence of the Bahamian people. However, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald has made the enactment of the FOIA sound so complicated that it’s too much for him to even consider it before 2016. As for the Fiscal Responsibility Act — well, that hasn’t even been mentioned, and VAT comes into effect in four months time — January 1, 2015.

It is now for government to prove its integrity – and not expect the Bahamian people to assume it. Government should pass the FOIA — even if it has to put a date on the one already passed and amend it later. At least it would go a long way to convince the people that in fact the legislators are coming to them with an open book, clean hands and good intentions.

Even at this late date, there are those who have vowed that they don’t intend to pay any taxes until government starts cutting back on its extravagant spending.

Last year, the Attorney General assured the public that government wanted the law enacted as soon as possible — in fact, she said at the time, it was already under review. However, there were certain sections that had to be changed. “We don’t want to have a situation where we have actually brought something into force and it can’t work,” she had said.

However, what is in the present Act is certainly workable, unless, of course, government wants to make it so tight that it closes down most avenues to information. All the Act now needs is a date to go into operation.

If we were a betting person we would wager that the protection of the “whistleblower” will probably be the first section to be removed from the Act.

On page 24 - Part VIII- Measures to promote openness – s.50 of the present Act – gives official protection to the “whistleblower” who will not have to fear any “legal, administrative, or employment related sanction” for blowing the whistle on wrongdoing. And, for the purposes of the Act, “wrongdoing” includes, but is not limited to, “the commission of a criminal offence, failure to comply with a legal obligation, miscarriage of justice, or corruption, dishonesty or serious maladministration.”

This is one section that the public must make certain remains in the Act for very obvious reasons — it certainly should tighten up the performance of government departments.

The objects, as stated in the Act, are to reinforce and give further effect to “certain fundamental principles underlying the system of constitutional democracy, namely —

“Governmental accountability, transparency, and public participation in national decision-making by granting to the public a general right of access to records held by public authorities, subject to exemption which balance that right against the public interest in exempting from disclosure governmental, commercial or personal information.”

We already have a workable Act. All it now needs is Mr Fitzgerald to select the date, put his signature to it and have it Gazetted. We can assure him that this will not take two years.

As a matter of fact, The Tribune can assist him by sending him a calendar to the end of the year to ensure that he selects a date well before January 1, 2015. We can even throw in a pen for good measure, and if he is nervous about signing his name, then, duty calls, and we shall come in to guide his hand. What more does the man want!

It’s an insult to keep Bahamians waiting this long for an Act for which they have been clamouring for years — and then have the audacity to ask them to have faith in government’s integrity. Really, this is a cheeky lot!