The Tribune

IN many significant ways, the new administration is off to a good start. Its anti-corruption stance, strong warning to those who would commit violent crimes, making good on long-sought after promises for Crown Land, decision not to fund Carnival all verbalize a side of governance that the public is eager to hear. It has been a message of ‘We will get the bad guys, deter future bad guys before they act and reward the good guys.’

That message is fine and good. But unless the administration gets serious about curtailing government spending and takes action to stimulate the economy the words will be little more than a public relations exercise and the honeymoon will soon be over.

What happens next is critical. We suggest that government look at how it can stop the bleeding of the public purse and fire up the engine that runs the private sector or, in other words, take the shackles off business and consider arresting its own bad habits.

Government should prepare and present an austerity plan. The initial step, we suggest, is to announce a deadline by which all government ministries, departments and divisions present their plan, ways they can cut down whether on salaries through hiring freeze and expedited attrition or other expenses with the exception of leases which they do not control. The second step is government announcing it is reviewing all submissions received and the third step is to present the plan for public review. The public should also be invited and incentivized to submit suggestions. As the austerity plan is imposed, the government would do well to demonstrate the savings or the re-assignment of freed up funds. We cannot take a government seriously when it says cut all ministries’ expenses by 10% across the board, there is no follow-up and one new minister is on the road for weeks, including a trip to Africa and London.

The final part of the austerity plan is an independent audit of all leases along with a spreadsheet that includes data such as comparable per square foot and CAM charges and penalties for cancellation or reducing term of lease if unfavorable. Leases have always been used as spoils of victory. To the victor’s friends and supporters go the hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public purse to the private pocket as a thank you. The new audit must be apolitical as well as independent and should be reviewed by an independent ad hoc board that includes respected real estate, finance and accounting firm executives.

We have every reason to believe that some of the greatest wastage in government is in the form of leases and if you were to salvage that wastage and condense business into a major hub on one large property with spokes extending outward for various departments and green space in between with parks, cafes, child care, fitness, walkways, you could create a government business centre that is an absolute showpiece.

In a digital age, you have every opportunity to condense government so long as branches talk to each other and share information. It is insane that pensioners still have to go to NIB offices all over the islands every six months to show they are alive when a selfie with a date or an electronic fingerprint could be used. If the fear is people collecting for the dead, why wouldn’t the people who record deaths post them so National Insurance and others can see? We have too many excuses about why we don’t do things the modern way and too few reasons not to.

Even more important than what we do to stop the public coffers bleeding and run a modern efficient, trimmed down government is to fire up the economy. A combination of lack of incentives, bureaucratic red tape and public service disinterest have sucked the air out of the capital expenditure markets. Who are today’s greatest success stories? Not the grocer or the designer or the retailer or the builder. It’s the handful of owners who control the numbers houses and the offshoots of those businesses, including real estate development. Why? Because they are allowed to do business their way, no shackles, no waiting for someone to issue a permit who sends a letter by way of the post office to ask for another piece of paper. Like it or not, they operate a modern business in a modern way.

Developers and businesspeople who were hoping for a breath of fresh business air are already starting to whisper disappointment with the new administration, the sole exception being Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D’Aguilar who has been singled out as business savvy, eager and quick to recognize what has the capacity to jolt a stagnant economy into action.

It is important for the Prime Minister, Dr Hubert Minnis and his team, to not just pay lip service to but to respect business and to make it easy and pleasurable to do business in The Bahamas for both Bahamians and legitimate foreigners.

If the honeymoon with the Minnis administration ends on a disappointed note, it will be tougher for the current administration to get public support to move its agenda forward. That means we will be in the same place we were before but with new characters in the same old roles. It will be governance by Cabinet and cronies will get the spoils. That is not what the Bahamian public voted for on May 10 when they swept an old government out with an historic farewell, electing it to a bare 10 per cent of Parliamentary seats.

Two thrusts will transform this nation.

Stop government bleeding and create an environment that encourages sustainable business development and economic diversification. The recent tongue-lashing by Moody’s was a siren call. The Bahamas narrowly escaped another downgrade because of grave concern at the continuing lack of economic growth. Turning this country around should not be as difficult as those in government often make it out to be. We are starting with a country that is among the most desirable in the world. Just this month, Forbes magazine said of all the world’s real estate hotspots, The Bahamas was “hands down” the best place to buy.

Now we need a government that appreciates the important message that sends, creates a Land Registry and adopt a land use plan, shedding the stagnation of the past for a future that holds so much promise if only the right actions are taken before it is too late. The clock is ticking.