The Tribune

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says private financial liabilities owed by the government should be settled going into the new fiscal year.

“I want to thank the Ministry of Finance for cooperating with the Attorney General’s Office in addressing this vexing issue of aged arrears that is owed to Bahamians in the private sector,” he said yesterday.

“Upon coming to office there was an outstanding $17.7m in judgments that were owed with our budget allocation for that completely extinguished already.

“The Ministry of Finance has worked with us in re-allocating funds so that total is down to $12.2m.

“You will note that last week when bills were tabled in the communication by the Prime Minister on the budget he alluded that there’s a supplemental budget... that is intended to re-allocate funds from this fiscal year to pay a certain arrears that we met in place. He would’ve mentioned Water and Sewerage for example - legal settlements is one of that.

“So, we fully anticipate for the first time in probably decades, maybe since an independence, Bahamas private settlements will be extinguished going into the new fiscal year.”