The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) leader yesterday said the detention of a pharmacist working for his family business, amid a six-month wait for a work permit renewal, highlighted the bureaucratic obstacles facing Bahamian companies.

Branville McCartney told Tribune Business that the episode reinforced how government inefficiencies and delays almost seemed designed to “put companies out of business”.

Suggesting that such incidents were an almost daily occurrence for the private sector, Mr McCartney added that they ultimately acted “as a turn off” for both Bahamians and foreign investors to get into business and inject capital into job-creating projects.

“I’ve been trying to get a work permit renewal for one of the pharmacists at Wilmac’s Pharmacy on Poinciana Drive,” the DNA leader told this newspaper.

“I applied for that permit in November 2015. I just got the [approval] letter on my desk an hour before you called me. This is an example of how the Government frustrates business.”

Mr McCartney added that the resulting uncertainty for both his family’s business and the pharmacist was exacerbated when the latter was subsequently detained by the Immigration Department just prior to the work permit renewal’s approval.

“While we were waiting for the work permit, they arrested him and detained him,” he said.

“Immigration arrested the pharmacist, notwithstanding the fact I had been writing to them day in, day out asking for renewal of the work permit.”

Mr McCartney said he was in France when the pharmacist was detained, and he was forced “to work on the phone” to ensure that his office supplied Immigration with the details related to the work permit renewal application.

“We showed the letters and they eventually let him go,” the DNA leader disclosed.

“This is an example of how business is frustrated, disrupted and loses money because of the inefficiency of government departments. It is but one.

“There are examples every day of the inefficiencies of Government costing business money, becoming a burden to doing business in this country, and it’s a turn-off.”

When it comes to work permits for high-level and skilled employees, uncertainty over whether they will either be approved or renewed makes it impossible for a Bahamian company to properly plan, and risks them losing the employee.

This, in turn, threatens to undermine business productivity and efficiency, and can deter expansion and the employment of more Bahamians.

Mr McCartney was speaking out after Tribune Business revealed that government agencies have now been instructed to require the production of Tax Compliance Certificates (TCCs) before they pay private sector vendors for goods and services already provided.

The Government, in a bid to close all loopholes and compliance gaps, confirmed it has moved to enforce changes to the Financial Administration and Audit Act, passed last year during the 2015-2016 Budget, which give it the legal basis to request TCCs (see other article on Page 1B).

Mr McCartney, though, expressed concern that the TCC requirement would merely impose further delays and financial problems on an already hard-pressed private sector.

Given that TCCs had to be issued by the Government, which was already challenged in providing the private sector with timely permits and approvals, the DNA leader said it was natural to anticipate delays with this paperwork.

Given that TCCs are only deemed valid for one month for firms with government contracts worth $10,000 or more, many businesses now face having to obtain them from the Department of Inland Revenue every four weeks.

“This is costing businesspeople more money to say the least,” the DNA leader said. “Put simply, to get that Certificate we have to go through the Government, and in going through the Government and government departments, there’s always a delay.

“We all know the delays in the Government departments. There are very stringent obstacles that are causing businesses a tremendous amount of burden.

“It seems as if the measures that have been put in place for the business owners of this country are intended to put them out of business,” he added.

“We should be looking at ways to cause business to be more efficient and productive, as opposed to challenges being placed in its way.”

Emphasising that small businesses were “the backbone of any economy”, Mr McCartney added: “For the life of me I don’t know why the Government makes getting into business, and operating a business, easier than they are now.

“It’s a turn-off. Persons who can invest in their own country, because of all these concerns, are reluctant and won’t do it unless the way business is done changes, and the Government causes the ease of doing business in the country to be better.”