The Tribune

By RICHARD COULSON

The new FNM government of PM Doctor Hubert Minnis has enjoyed the usual grace period of 100-plus days. Now the hard questions begin. When does the page turn to change course from a PLP regime guilty, at least, of gross incompetence?

In the very act of getting elected, with an overwhelming majority, Doc Minnis and his FNM colleagues did a great service to the nation, simply by removing a passel of cronies who ran their Ministries like blind-folded cowboys. Campaigning was not easy, even in the first phase when the struggle was inside his own party, and his determination and hard work deserve great respect.

No better example of the mess he now faces was the sight of new Immigration Minister Brent Symonette glumly eyeing the boxes cluttering his Hawkins Hill office, stuffed with thousands of files that had never seen a computer, and worrying whether the toilets were safe for use.

This had been the empire of Nassau’s debonair voyager, Fred Mitchell, now found pontificating from his new Senate seat. Rather than devote any of his five-year term to tedious managerial tasks of reducing the delays and petty graft endemic to his Ministry, finicky Fred preferred constant travel for diplomatic palaver around the world.

One trip to the Middle East was publicised as his personal effort to raise funds for the Treasury. Did he bring home enough to cover his first-class air fare?

The Doc’s first mission was to clean out the Augean stables, and he seems well on the way.

The general message of austerity has become a clarion call in every department, and Minister of Finance Turnquest is squeezing each line-item of the budget in his campaign for a 10 percent expense reduction. Excess staff, often hired as a last-minute PLP election ploy, are being pared, notably by the Minister of Tourism. Corruption prosecutions are part of the judicial process, not the executive, so the PM cannot take credit for the recent perp walks of arrested one-time magnates, but clearly he leaves the police, prosecutors and judges free to do their jobs without political hindrance.

While necessary, these steps are, corrective not creative. In lowering our rating forecast from stable to negative, Moody’s found stability but no signs of growth. The big issues clamoring for solutions have not been addressed. One hundred days are not long enough to accomplish hard results, but give enough time to outline basic programmes leading towards change. Instead, we hear windy generalities like “we are still looking into it”, and “we will do better”.

Here are specific urgent needs that citizens demand to be met, not overnight, but within a realistic time-frame:

Electric Power

The dismissal of CEO Pamela Hill by a newly decisive Board of Directors was purely a band-aid for an open wound. The appointment of Power Secure as manager of Bahamas Power & Light last year was doubtful from day one­ – a small specialist company acting purely as advisor with no equity interest or commitment of funds. Their role is now in tatters and is likely to be terminated. Neither then nor now has the elephant in the room been confronted: the estimated $650m needed to pay off legacy debt and build new oil-fired generating plants.

Ownership by a major foreign utility company may be the solution, despite “loss of sovereignty” objections. Or alternatively, reduce oil dependence, and for the first time look seriously at renewable energy potentials: sun, wind, and thermal. Or consider the offers of LNG, or the mobile barge often promoted in The Punch. The answer will not be immediate, but Government has not yet given the slightest hint of which way it is looking. We certainly want to avoid another “consultancy committee”, while years of high tariffs and outages continue, a major drag on our economy and obstacle to growth.

Waste disposal at the landfill

It’s hard to know who was more inept, PLP Government itself or their chosen contractor, Renew Bahamas, but we know the disastrous results. For the moment, we are avoiding fires and clouds of toxic smoke, but the eruptions are merely dormant and far from extinct. Meanwhile, Government dithers.

An experienced and well-financed Bahamian consortium made its bid, but was put on hold. Apparently new RFPs, “requests for proposals”, will be sent out, but how long before they are prepared, the results analysed, and the winner goes to work?

Meanwhile, the Stellar Waste venture keeps renewing its proposal to convert garbage into electric power, an accepted technology but not in the form promoted by this unproven company.

VAT

Reduced rates on “bread-basket” items have been mooted but none announced. Our many low-income families are entitled to know whether they can expect some relief from this food-counter burden, or whether they must keep their belts tight to preserve the Treasury’s budget integrity. Admittedly, a tough decision for Government, but one that must soon be made and explained.

Postal service

The failings of our post office seldom capture the limelight, but are pervasive and insidious. How can we pretend having an efficient commerce platform when mail takes a fortnight to traverse a 21-mile island, and weeks longer internationally?

Several new sites to replace our collapsing and unhealthy central building have long been identified and are being “studied”, but no decision seems imminent to start the transfer.

Ease of doing business

This admirable principle gets lip-service, but where are the practical steps? No announcement has been made about creating a verifiable property register, long urged by lawyers and real-estate experts, and now more achievable with modern computer technology.

And what about easing the expensive administrative burdens of filing “tax compliance certificates” for multiple Government transactions?

Bank of The Bahamas

The PLP sank $100m of citizens’ money to save it, and the FNM is apparently committing another $160m. Where is any hard evidence that this will convert it to profitability without further rescues?

Why not simply shut down and transfer what’s left – including some doubtless excellent staff - to one of our proven commercial banks?

The guiding principle should not be “Save the name BoB at any cost”, but rather “Provide Bahamians with the best banking services at the lowest cost.”

The same principle should apply to BahamasAir and other state-owned businesses eternally dependent on subsidies.

Downtown Nassau

The most visible failure of Government policy is the deplorable state of downtown Nassau, as the Ministry of Tourism itself laments. While the responsibility extends back many years, the “new broom” administration of Doc Minnis has not yet said a single word to resolve this national disgrace.

It cannot even give a straight answer about the fate of “The Pointe”, the ambitious scheme owned by a Chinese Government company and currently blocking a stretch of prime waterfront.

Originally scheduled for completion in 2017, no construction activity is visible. Have our authorities disapproved the plans? Is the Chinese contractor too busy completing Baha Mar? Or has Beijing decided to pull back, as part of its retrenchment from foreign resort projects? Nothing is said. Nearby, Arawak Cay, aside from the efficient container port, remains an industrial junkyard.

More serious is the fate of the Bay Street zombie zone east of Rawson Square. Ever since the departure of commercial shipping, these blocks have featured acres of bare cargo docks and vacant warehouses, shuttered shops or empty window displays, and the grim façade of a long-closed hotel, all shunned by both tourists and natives.

The few property owners who prepared development plans were stymied by Government silence and absence of any sensible zoning rules. The Chinese owners of the BC Hilton hotel allegedly prepared a master plan for Mr Christie, which was never published.

A master plan will certainly be required — some form of public-private joint venture including compulsory seizure of abandoned tax-delinquent properties.

More than a “plan”, it will need firm financial investment commitments to assure action not simply more talk.

This will not be an easy project, but the New York World Trade Center, demolished at 9/11, is finally being rebuilt through tough negotiations between sparring parties the City, two States, Washington, and a feisty private owner. The same should be feasible for our little Nassau, but Government must take the lead in supporting the objective.

The efforts of the well-meaning but ineffective Downtown Partnership have not resulted in a single new construction. Only the Prime Minister can announce the initial impetus.

No country can thrive if its capital city remains infected by dereliction. Perhaps the new American Ambassador, with a track record of invigorating the San Diego waterfront, will stimulate new thinking. Foreign ideas are always welcome, but the responsibility will stay with Bahamians, just as Britons restored London after the Blitz and Germans raised Berlin from the rubble left by the Russians.

Doc Minnis can take the initiative on all the above issues—but he had better start moving, or his reservoir of good-will could start leaking away. September’s next parliamentary session will be none too soon.