By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest yesterday denied claims that the Minnis administration is seeking to inflict “pain” with its conservative fiscal measures, insisting the government will not participate in “any action that is going to further cause the Bahamian people to suffer”.
Mr Turnquest, also the minister of finance, said the government will “not be using a blunt instrument for which a precision scalpel is required” as it attempts to reduce spending, but will aggressively seek to “bring discipline to government finances and rationalisation of the programmes we are engaged in”.
Mr Turnquest also said the government is not seeking to stifle the essential services provided by such entities as the Department of Social Services and Ministry of Education in its attempts to introduce fiscal reform, but is more focused on “the wastage and the excess in these ministries.”
Mr Turnquest also said the government, by its austerity measures, is not seeking to inflict discomfort on government workers, but instead is undertaking measures to “rationalise their service” and “ensure” their services are needed.
In the event workers have to be disengaged, Mr Turnquest said the Minnis administration will do so with “full analysis of what the consequences are” for both sides and “to the extent that we can help them transition into the private sector.”
However, the East Grand Bahama MP stressed the need to “clear the system” so that “we have opportunity at the bottom for new entrants.”
Mr Turnquest’s statements came a day after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced a variety of conservative fiscal measures to get the country’s finances in order, including a ten per cent cut in spending in all government ministries and no new public sector hiring.
Dr Minnis also said there will be no renewal of contracts for salaries which exceed $100,000 per year and announced a reduction in government vehicles as part of a “new era of financial discipline.”
Yesterday, while speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club of West Nassau, Mr Turnquest said the government has “to make some very difficult and painful decisions” if it is to get its financial affairs in order.
“…It is not the intention of the government to inflict pain on anybody,” he said. “…But we recognise that we cannot continue business as usual and expect a different result. And so those of us who have the capability must do our part. That’s what we’re saying.
“We recognise that the economy is still challenged, particularly in some areas of New Providence and some Family Islands, and so anything that we do has to take in mind the human resource, because we’re not going to be participating in any action that is going to further cause the Bahamian people to suffer
“That’s not the intent at all. But the intent is to bring discipline to government finances, and rationalization of the programmes we are engaged in.”
Mr Turnquest suggested that the Minnis administration’s austerity measures may inevitably affect some employed by the government, adding that should the worst case scenario occur — disengagement — it would have been done after careful consideration of the consequences.
“We recognise that there are people out there right now that have not been employed, some for years,” he said. “Some households have no wage (earners), and they are being disadvantaged because the system is clogged by these high wage earners. We believe that we have to clear the system so that we have opportunity at the bottom for new entrants.
“And so it’s not a matter of trying to inflict any kind of pain or dislocation on government workers. What we want to do is rationalise their service, ensure that we need their service, and to the extent that we have to disengage that we do so with clear intent, with full analysis of what the consequences are, both for us and for them, and to the extent that we can help them transition into the private sector.”
Taxes
Mr Turnquest also said the government is faced with the question of whether it should continue to pay for free garbage collection for private residences, notwithstanding the “crisis” at the New Providence landfill and New Providence being “generally unclean.”
He said a more “efficient way” of dealing with the issue is through “appropriate service fees” so that “we balance the cost of providing the service specifically with the revenue from that activity.”
Mr Turnquest also said all state-owned enterprises, such as the Water and Sewerage Corporation, will now have to look at “rebalancing” their “revenue yields against fixed costs,” and ensure that they “reduce expenditures to be in line with internationally accepted norms and best practices.”
He said while no plans currently exist to increase the rates offered by any state-owned utility provider, should the government yield no significant savings due to their austerity measures, then the Minnis administration will have to start looking at the “revenue side” of those agencies.
“We have no intention of raising taxes, and so the first order of business for all of the utilities and all of these state-owned enterprises is to do their own internal reviews,” he said. “And just as the government is cutting back on 10 per cent and scrubbing accounts to make sure that they get value for money, we expect them to do the same thing. And hopefully that will yield the kind of savings that we need, but to the extent that it can’t, then we’re going to have to look at the revenue side.”
Mr Turnquest also said the government is conducting a full evaluation on the usage of government vehicles with an aim to formulating a “new vehicle policy” to govern their usage.
“…We are looking at the allocation of vehicles across the system, to see who has a vehicle, what purpose they use it for, whether we ought to be looking at restricting usage to office hours, who gets to take a vehicle home, etc,” he said. “Because it’s not just the vehicle, it’s also the cost of maintenance and fuel for those vehicles. And so starting at the very top, we’re doing a full assessment. We’re coming up with a new vehicle policy that will govern all of this allocation usage, and again the intent is to reduce the cost of our fuel.”
Comments
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
It's high damn time KP!! We're on the right track!
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 3 months ago
For many years now Snake and his Focal/Shell companies have been making a fortune off of all of the gas pumped into cars purchased by the government and wrongfully used by government employees for their own personal purposes. Good luck turning off that wide open tap of flowing wasted tax dollars. Snake probably even has an insurance company that insures a significant number of these government owned vehicles for a hefty annual premium. And just who are the politically connected car dealers that profit handsomely from the sale of all of these vehicles to the government at inflated prices for kickbacks to election campaigns......literally thousands of vehicles costing millions and millions of dollars over the last five or so years?!
Reality_Check 7 years, 3 months ago
KP needs to have his head examined if he thinks the government should no longer provide weekly garbage collection services to our private residential communities. Most people will simply elect not to pay a garbage bill. Can you imagine the horrible stench from the garbage build up that will immediately occur, not to mention the explosion in the rat population and risk of terrible diseases that will surely follow. Come on KP......THINK, THINK, THINK!!!!! We sell tourism as a country and therefore can ill afford to have many of our islands quickly become a smelly stink kind of Calcutta from hell because of all of the dumping of garbage everywhere and anywhere that will be done by residents in private neighbourhoods who either cannot afford or elect not to pay for garbage collection services. You're foolishly targeting the wrong places to try save a buck KP......surely you can do better than this?!!
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
There are too many government cars ......... cars should be restricted to Parliamentarians, Heads of Department and Directors........... Department vehicles for business (three max) should be under the direct responsibility of the Director .......... Family Island Commissioners need a vehicle based on size of island/district as well as Ministry O/Cs ............. But what is the purpose of mileage allowance in General Orders and CBAs????? ......... and who collects it now?????
The number of vehicles given to the Police Force and Urban Renewal and all of the Government Departments is directly related to the cost of gasoline and Snake's monopoly
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
Not to mention all the BTC and BEC cars that park in the homes of employees every night.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
KP is being very naive .............. All those Bahamians who suck on the Treasury's teat will suffer ............ Those who look for handouts from the government will suffer ........ Welfare is addictive
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
Well, suffer they must. Call it a weaning process. No pain, no gain.
MaLambee 7 years, 3 months ago
The cars yes....to many government vehicles are parked at liquor stores, churches beaches ad all odd hours.. They are sometimes driven by persons who do not work for the government...period. Now the garbage.... Nassau, will funky, garbage and mattress and refrigerators , stoves etc all over the place. Sheeprunner12 addressed that .
SP 7 years, 3 months ago
DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest is definitely on the right track. However, the current path of thinking about implementing charges for garbage collection is a total non-starter. Firstly, due to the fact that too many are either unemployed or under employed and simply cannot afford to pay for the service even if they wanted to.
We need to start thinking out of the box if we intend on making waste collection more financially efficient.
One possible solution is to reduce the overall cost of garbage collection by simply reducing the frequency of collections by implementing residential communal garbage collection instead of the daily or weekly high labor intensive house to house garbage collection method now used.
This can be easily achieved, especially in high volume inner city areas by positioning large refuse bins in available & convenient locations in neighborhoods.
The thought is for the government to acquire or lease empty lots and/or available locations to be used for the positioning of these large refuse collection bins and have people deposit/deliver their waste/refuse to a central location. This would enable residents to not only dispose of household garbage but would also encourage them to dispose of larger unsightly items which they normally have no affordable alternative method of getting rid of.
Based on the volume of waste deposited in bins of a particular area, the cost of waste collection would then be dramatically reduced as the reduced frequency of collections would now also be reduced, as the large bins would only need to be removed/replaced when filled.
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
Good idea but chile I can't walk all the way to that bin!
alfalfa 7 years, 3 months ago
If paying for garbage collection, and increasing the BPL bills dramatically in the first month of office, is not causing people to suffer, then it is obvious that the Minister does not know what suffering is. The budget cuts and ministry expense downsizing is a good step, but you don't need to break the backs of the Bahamian people to achieve economic stability.
John 7 years, 3 months ago
If the government goes back and does its research it will see that part of the argument for levying property taxes was to pay for things like garbage collection, parks police and fire services and other community services. Now the people are paying the taxes still have to turn around and pay for these services as separate items. The people are taxed to their bones. Many are not working, less than a third of Bahamian owned businesses are not turning a profit. Many have not realized a profit since the recession started in 2008. And many have used up all their savings trying to keep their businesses afloat or merely trying to survive. And if the government continues to tighten the screws on the testicles of Bahamians, many who feel like a jack-in-the-box, (everytime one pushes his head out the box it is forced back down with more bills and more taxes and more expenses), you will soon start to see mass suicides in this country like never before. Bahamians need compassion and government assistance first before they are burdened with more bills. More than 50% of the average Bahamian' income is consumed in taxes. That's 15-20% more than the average American and the Bahamas does not have to pay for all the armed forces and infrastructure Americans have to pay for.
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
"less than a third of Bahamian owned businesses are not turning a profit"? Just checking.
John 7 years, 3 months ago
Should be "less than a third of Bahamian owned businesses are turning a profit. " Thanks for the fact checking.
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
That's a startling statistic . Worse than I thought.
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
Your remarks are so right they are scary. They must think they are the EU and The People are Greece.
John 7 years, 3 months ago
Besides doubling your electricity surcharge and now requiring you to pay for garbage collection, which should be inclusive in your property taxes, did you know a package of salami sausage that cost $4.69 two years ago now cost $6.29 not including vat. Last year that package of sausage sold for $5.44. Pork chop ends were at $1.99 pre- vat and last year sold for around $2.59 (plus vat). Today pork chop ends sell for $3.69 a pound plus vat. The regular pork chop sold for $2.69 in 2015, went up to $3.99 last year and is now at $4.69 a pound now (plus vat). Lamb chops went from $2.99 pre vat to $3.99 last year to $4.99 plus vat now. (66% increase in price not including vat) Corned beef climbed from $1.69 in 2015 to $2.78 plus vat a tin of cream went from 99cents to $1.19 plus vat, and even water in the food store saw a price increase of 66% Aquapure from $3.50 to $5.50 today. So the average Bahamian has lost status all around economically. Let us not lose hope.
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
The problem in this country, like so many others, the people that pass the laws are not on a budget. Give an MP $250.00 a week for a month and see how he/she manages.
alfalfa 7 years, 3 months ago
I don't know if the Minister goes grocery shopping John, but I hope to God he reads the very poignant facts of life you stated, which impact greatly, the grass roots and dwindling middle class of our country. Well said.
Alex_Charles 7 years, 3 months ago
Horse shit. There is no free garbage collection. We pay for everything through taxes. There is no direct tax for it but we ALL indirectly pay for it. Instead of beating around the bush, come out and say you want to implement a tax for the remediation of the dump.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 3 months ago
How much would it cost to REALLY fix Harold Road dump?????? ...... I would say at least $200 Million ........ Upgrade with sorters, shredders, packers, metal crushers, incinerators, recycle plants .............. Like Germany
Alex_Charles 7 years, 3 months ago
I'm not disagreeing with you, my issue is this bullshit coming out of KPT mouth. Not a goddamn thing this government does is free. We are ALWAYS paying for it.
Jonahbay 7 years, 3 months ago
Sweden has run out of garbage, and now imports from neighbouring countries. We need a new recycling plant to grow our waste industry. Not to mention the biofuels that could be produced from household cooking oil. We could have community depots or a service that came around bi weekly to pick up your sorted trash. Countries in the first world have been doing these kinds of things for decades.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen…
DDK 7 years, 3 months ago
But that would be sensible!
JohnDoe 7 years, 3 months ago
The more I hear from KP the more concern I become. I wanted to give him an opportunity but to come out of the gates proposing to borrow $722 million without even a cursory assessment and then two and a half months later now talking about austerity measures really caused more damage and international harm than good. It shows either lack of knowledge or lack of planning and preparation or both. It is a classic case of the cart before the horse. It appears that he and several other Cabinet Ministers enjoy performing for the audience in the balcony which is exactly the skill set we do not need at this time. I am afraid, even though I hope that I am wrong, that time will likely show him and several other Cabinet Ministers to be akin to the Donald Trump syndrome, that is much and very exaggerated form that appeals to shallow public sentiment with very little real substance.
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