The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The FNM’s Freetown candidate yesterday accused the Government of seeking “to create a country of dependents” through ever-increasing social programmes that the Bahamas cannot afford.

Dionisio D’Aguilar told Tribune Business he believed the Government wanted to make Bahamians ever-more dependent on it for jobs, social relief and welfare in a bid to secure their general election votes.

Speaking after the Central Bank’s January economic developments report revealed that the Government’s first half fiscal deficit had more than doubled to $314.2 million, Mr D’Aguilar charged that it was using Hurricanes Matthew and Joaquin as cover for “reckless spending”.

While agreeing that Bahamians in economic and social distress needed assistance, the Superwash president said this had to be done in accordance with the financial resources available to the Government.

Urging the Government not to subsidise May’s Junkanoo Carnival, and to “cut back” on the monies being allocated to National Health Insurance (NHI), Mr D’Aguilar argued that the Government was misleading Bahamians into “thinking we can have a Mercedes when all we can afford is a Nissan Sentra”.

With the Government having spent $314.2 million more than it earned in income for the six months to end-December 2016, Mr D’Aguilar said the potential consequences of recurring deficit spending were “lost on most Bahamians”.

“The take away is that the Government is being fiscally irresponsible, and they’re using the hurricane as a pretext for them to spend recklessly,” he told Tribune Business, implying that the 2016-2017 deficit would widen further as the Christie administration seeks to shore-up its re-election.

“As we approach a general election, the Government is going to spend, spend, spend to facilitate their re-election,” Mr D’Aguilar continued.

“Given the size of the deficit, they should be acting in the best interests of the country, and once again they’re demonstrating they’re not acting in the best interests of the country; they’re acting in the best interests of them winning.”

The outspoken businessman, a newcomer to Bahamian politics and general election campaigns, said he had been informed by Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) supporters that the Government intended to unleash a surge in spending and social programmes prior to the general election.

“If you speak to PLPs, they say unabashedly that they’re going to juice this economy, and were only waiting until after their convention,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business.

“They’re going to unleash a spending splurge on this country that we’ve never seen before, they say. They’re going to fix every house, give out as many jobs as they can, spend what they have to spend to give people the feeling everything is good.”

Suggesting there were more sinister motives driving this, Mr D’Aguilar said the effect would be to make Bahamians ever-more dependent on the Government and those paying taxes, eroding the desire of persons to be independent and stand on their own feet.

“Their intention, and this is my personal belief, is to create a country of dependents as opposed to independents who can stand on their own two feet,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business, “using money from their jobs to fix their homes.”

“No matter the need to go out and grow the economy, they prefer to indulge in these social outlays to get people to depend on them. It’s because of us that you’re getting what you’re getting.”

An increase in social dependency means an ever-increasing social security and welfare burden that has to be financed by Bahamian businesses and taxpayers, with Mr D’Aguilar’s message effectively being: ‘Don’t give a man fish; you teach him how to catch fish for himself’.

The Freetown candidate, meanwhile, said the Central Bank’s fiscal figures, especially the $52.6 million year-over-increase in recurrent spending, showed that the $1 billion-plus in Value-Added Tax (VAT) revenues had been used to finance expanded social programmes.

“They have not spent it where it was supposed to go; on the deficit,” he said. “This is why everybody is so worried about the state of the economy, Moody’s and S&P, because we have not stopped spending the VAT money.

“We have an economy of anemic growth, projected at 0.5 per cent last year, but possibly as low as 0.1 per cent, yet they are spending as if the economy is growing. This is a formula for disaster.

“If we keep on this trajectory of no growth and recklessly increasing spending, spending money we don’t have, I’m projecting the deficit is going right back to where it was before we had VAT. It’s irresponsible.”

The Christie administration ran deficits in the $500 million range during its first two years in office. While acknowledging that the surge in the 2016-2017 first half deficit was partially driven by Hurricane Matthew, Mr D’Aguilar said the Bahamas needed to “cut back in other areas” to compensate for the revenue losses and increased spending associated with the storm.

“I don’t dispute that we should help people,” he told Tribune Business, “but we should do it with what we have.

“Let’s get rid of Carnival, cut back on these transfers to NHI.... In the last few years we’ve employed 5,000 civil servants. Has it got any better? What do we have for that? You’re giving jobs to buy votes.

“We can’t have a first world life with a third world economy,” Mr D’Aguilar argued. “It’s so drastic. If we don’t turn this economy now it’s going to cause endless pain for Bahamians.

“We’re giving people things we can’t afford. You’re telling people we can have a Mercedes, when we can only afford a Nissan Sentra. They’re [the Government] fiscally irresponsible, and the numbers speak volumes.”