The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

SEVERAL recent posts on my Facebook page discussed topical issues and generated some interesting responses, which I share here.

1 The Commonwealth of Gaming

On a visit to the Village Road Shopping Centre one morning there was a line of cars at the gambling joint (just like KFC at lunchtime), not to mention a small crowd of people standing outside. Clearly, unless controlled, the gaming houses will suck up every dollar of disposable income in the country.

This observation prompted the following comments (I have cleaned up the language a tad):

PB: Why not spread the wealth? Everyone should get in on this. Mom and pop number shops. No more sponsor sheets in the parking lots for kids, they could be selling numbers. Include charities like the Humane Society and Red Cross. We could become the numbers capital of the world! We’ve got to think big. Every man, woman and child could be selling numbers. To each other.

SR: I recall that residents in the immediate east of Soldier Road at Prince Charles would not permit a gentleman from using the corner property for a car lot. The primary objection came from the owner of the first house which was next to the would-be lot. Their objection was that it was a residential area. That owner has now sold, and the property is a numbers house.

MM: We have a web shop in the small shopping centre on the roundabout at Skyline Drive, and another one on the other side. Should they not be a certain distance between them? Who approved it with insufficient parking for such a business?

RP: How much have the web shops put into Bank of The Bahamas so far?

2 The Potcake Speaks

Leslie Miller says that past experience tells him what he should do in the future. So no doubt he will not be paying off his electricity bill anytime soon.

To which SA responded: “Why would he, when experience has taught him that not paying his light bill comes with no consequences whatsoever?”

3 On Tax Compliance

I don’t understand the situation on tax compliance as reported in the media today. The National Insurance Board (NIB) says that the new compliance certificate will increase tax payments across the board because defaulters will have “difficulties” doing business with government agencies.

How is this any different from requiring a yearly business licence to import anything or to do any business with government agencies?

At least in my case, a business licence has required a compliance certificate from NIB for several years. So how come NIB can say that businesses are still not in compliance. How does that happen? I must have a tax compliance certificate to get a business licence, to import goods or to do business with a government entity. Doesn’t everyone have to do the same?

As EC explained: “Because the government doesn’t understand the definition of cronyism. They made that very clear the other day. If you don’t even know what the problem is, how could you ever begin to correct it?”

4 BTC and BEC

Public Service Union President John Pinder told a local broadcaster that the unions had been properly consulted on the BEC handover to a North Carolina company named PowerSecure, unlike when BTC was sold to Cable & Wireless a few years ago.

This is totally false - from 2008 union leaders were on a committee with cabinet ministers (chaired by the state finance minister) that reviewed the entire BTC sale process. This group formulated the final recommendations to cabinet from information presented by the privatisation committee, which was headed by former Central Bank governors T Baswell Donaldson and Julian Francis.

The leaders of both BTC unions were full members of the advisory committee, which unanimously authorised the BTC auction in 2009. The technical committee reviewed the bids and passed them on to the advisory committee for evaluation.

But in the case of the current BEC handover, as The Tribune reported recently, “Paul Maynard, the Bahamas Electrical Workers Union’s president, said Deputy Prime Minster Philip Davis had informed the union that PowerSecure, the preferred bidder for the management contract, was set to assume operational control on February 1.” That doesn’t sound like full consultation to me.

In 2011, John Pinder said: “Bahamians managed (BTC) from day one, why should the third floor take over?” And fellow union leader Bernard Evans said, “We don’t want to answer to the white man again”.

GE, a former union official, replied to this post: “I was a member of the BCPMU team who met with HAI in his cabinet office. However, even though we could never convince him not to sell to Cable and Wireless, we were kept abreast of the sale.”

I went on to note (based on my reporting at the time): The size of the separation package was the main issue – until the sale became an election football. At a 2009 meeting of the advisory committee BCPMU president William Carrol said the major issue for the unions in 1999 had been the separation packages. He added that treatment of staff should be one of the determinants for a successful bid, but went on to acknowledge that BTC employees now accepted the fact of imminent privatisation. The advisory committee unanimously endorsed a recommendation to engage in talks with C&W.”

But within days of the announcement of the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the two union leaders and the PLP had begun a drumbeat of opposition to the deal. “This is just not the right time,” said BCPOU leader Evans. “We don’t support Cable & Wireless – period.” He insisted that separation packages offered to workers should be more than BTC employees got in 1999 (which cost the country some $90m), and should be enough to last workers a lifetime.

5 BEC and Power Secure

Opposition Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest has complained about the lack of a business plan from PowerSecure, for which the government supposedly paid $900,000. But we don’t even know what the contractual agreement is, other than what Mr Mumble (aka the Deputy Prime Minister) chooses to say.

And where will the government’s much-touted savings come from? First, Power Secure have to cream off their management fee - $2m to $5m per annum. The government still has to pay down the legacy debt over time. Presumably, hundreds of millions will be invested in new plant. And the government will retain political control over the whole thing, so we can be sure that interference will continue. Of course, there could be staff cuts.

6 BAMSI and Mr Mumble

Mr Mumble asks “what does cronyism mean?” Well, if he doesn’t know, why is he keeping the BAMSI construction contracts secret? For Mr Mumble’s edification here is Wikipedia’s definition of the term: “Cronyism is the practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organisations.”

To which EC replied: “They wouldn’t know cronyism because they are all cronies. Self-knowledge is always the most difficult of all to achieve. They breed dependency and cronyism all around them because that is how they feed their petty egos and that mentality will be the end of us.”

7 The Minister of Mean

The website that Fred Mitchell doesn’t write claims that the anti-riot gear recently acquired from the Chinese is needed to control immigrants.

To which SA quipped: “And it comes highly recommended, having been tested for crowd control capabilities on Tiananmen Square.”

What do you think? Send comments to lsmith@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com