The Tribune

By Malcolm Strachan

THE sight of armed officers marching into CBS Bahamas – and, it turns out, a bunch of other businesses – is a spectacular own goal by the current administration.

Were they there to apprehend dangerous criminals? No.

Were they there to assist the businesses with security in a dangerous environment? No – although given the ongoing murder count and even gunshots outside court these days, the environment is certainly dangerous.

Were they there to check paperwork at the point of a gun? Apparently.

There has been widespread anger in response to this being the way that law-abiding businesses have been treated.

But listen, never mind the reaction for a moment – we’ll get to that – but who thought this was a good idea in the first place?

This was a door-to-door exercise to ensure businesses were compliant with all taxes.

So think about that for a second. Firstly, we keep getting told we are becoming ever more digital in the ways we are doing things. So why on earth are these visits needed for the vast majority of compliance issues. Most of that is filed electronically these days. You don’t need to show up in force for that, you need to check your files.

Secondly, if you roll up unannounced looking for paperwork, you’re not giving businesses a chance to be prepared and have the information you still need on hand – speeding the whole process up.

After all, what if you arrive without giving any warning and the accountant is not on the premises for whatever reason – given they did not know you were coming. Other members of staff may not know where to find what you are looking for. What are you going to do, come back? A waste of time and effort.

And thirdly – what is the consequence for a business if it is not compliant? If it is missing papers? What are all those people standing around with weapons for? They can’t do anything – the next step is taking the business to court to pay up or issuing fines.

This is treating businesses like criminals for no good reason. And it seems no one thought about that beforehand.

Now, the government is making noises about whether this will carry on this way – the press secretary said a review is under way of how the Revenue Enhancement Task Force is conducting itself.

But listening to some people within government, there are plenty who still think there is nothing wrong with treating people like this.

If showing up with guns instead of clipboards seems appropriate, just wait for the government to start throwing audits around.

CBS was not the only business to be approached in this way – marinas also talked of the same treatment, with officials boarding foreign-flagged boats as well.

Over at CBS, Brent Burrows II, the company’s vice president, nailed it when he said: “We are slowly but surely continuing to trend in a direction that is increasingly hostile for Bahamian businesses.

“Regulatory burdens aside, the intimidation tactics employed during routine checks only serve to create an atmosphere of fear and distrust. We need to address these practices to ensure that businesses are not made to feel under siege but are encouraged to thrive and contribute positively to our economy. It’s crucial for the business community and government to work together to foster a supportive and transparent environment.”

The thing is, all of this also goes against what Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has said too.

Mr Davis has spoken a number of times about trying to improve the ease of doing business. Surprise armed inspections certainly isn’t on the list of making things easier.

Back in 2022 – as he hailed the recent arrival of FTX in The Bahamas, ah well, can’t win them all – he said: “We committed ourselves to enhancing the ease of doing business in The Bahamas. Some of the ways to achieve this are by revamping and streamlining processes at the Bahamas Investment Authority, Registrar General, Department of Inland Revenue and other agencies to become one of the most business-friendly countries for local and foreign investors.”

Look at that. Business-friendly. Is the way we are going about things the friendly way?

Then last year, at the Cat Island Business Outlook conference, in his own constituency, he criticised public officials for adopting inflexible approaches to the collection of outstanding taxes that “close the business”.

He said: “If one applies for licence renewal, for example, and the application is tied to whether one’s taxes are current or not, I want to address that issue to make the process more conducive to commercial activity. So if there’s a question about what is owed, either in your National Insurance contributions or real property tax, or your Business Licence fees, then talk about it but don’t close the business or not issue the licence.”

He added that “somehow public servants are blinkered and don’t see beyond that”.

He went on: “The ease of doing business creates the environment for conducive investments. Residents here are no strangers to vexing connectivity challenges, which have the counterintuitive effect of causing digitisation to become a hindrance to business and productivity.”

That all sounds good – but even then, what Mr Davis was saying was not quite matching up to what was taking place, with holds on bank accounts, garnishes being applied and Inland Revenue warning it would exercise the “power of sale” on properties where tax was owing for a long time. Some of those properties have since indeed been put up for sale – that latter one may well be justified, of course, how long should you wait for someone to pay their tax before saying enough is enough?

But the process is a legal one, a court one, and not solved by showing up with armed officers unannounced.

Compliance is of course the goal. We want to make sure businesses and individuals do what they are supposed to do. But there has to be a better way than this.