business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2024
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50% fear or pay bribes for building and import permits By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
t *%# T #BIBNBT TUSBUFHZ SFWFBMT HSBGU TUBJO FIFTY percent of Bahamian companies seeking construction and t 5XP UIJSET TBZ $VTUPNT import-related permits say they have either been asked, USBEF ACJH PCTUBDMF or expect, to pay a bribe to obtain the required approvt /BUJPO IBT AFYDFTT PG als, it has been revealed. The Inter-American VOFEVDBUFE XPSLFST Development Bank’s (IDB) newly-released 2024-2028 country strategy for The Bahamas, which has been obtained by Tribune Business, said the results from a survey of the private sector showed actual graft as well as corruption perceptions continue to undermine the cost and integrity associated with conducting business in this nation. The strategy document, warning that the quality and enforcement of regulations is still endangering the ease of doing business in The Bahamas, added that the findings
of its Innovation Firm Performance Gender (IFPG) survey showed some 49 percent of firms applying for construction permits either parted with, or expected to make, “an informal gift or payment” to obtain the approval. For companies seeking import-related licences, the IDB country strategy said the percentage either paying, or believing they would have to pay, bribes increased to 56 percent or more than half the respondents. “Support for an improved business climate
could improve competitiveness and spur innovation in both the traditional tourism sector and potential new sectors,” the strategy report said. “The quality and enforcement of regulations represent obstacles to conducting business. Bahamian firms participating in the IFPG survey reported on average that obtaining a construction-related permit took them 56 days, an operating licence, 21 days, and an import licence, 16 days.
“When asked if an informal gift or payment in exchange for the permit was expected or requested, for operating licences only 8 percent responded ‘“yes’. However, in the case of construction permits and import licences, 49 percent and 56 percent of surveyed firms, respectively, reported such payments being expected/requested.” These results have never publicly been disclosed before. The IDB country strategy for The Bahamas argued that “the ongoing adoption of digital government services will go a long way towards reducing inefficiencies and narrowing the window of opportunities for corruption and bribery”. However, while Customs and trade are key revenue generators for the Public Treasury, the report also described them as “a major obstacle to business operations”.
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Top KC sounds ‘dark side of Bahamianisation’ alarm By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A PROMINENT KC yesterday sounded the alarm over the “dark side of Bahamianisation” for breeding mediocrity based on “a sense of entitlement”. Sean McWeeney, the former attorney general and now Graham, Thompson &
Company partner, told attendees at the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Bahamas conference to “drop it in the nearest garbage can” if they believe they are entitled to high-paying jobs simply because of their nationality. Demanding that Bahamians “set the bar higher”, and no longer depend on “protectionist crutches” to guarantee them a job, he warned that
this nation needs “to up our game” and “be the best at what we do” if it is to successfully compete with the likes of Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Singapore in the provision of financial services. Mr McWeeney, emphasising that Bahamanisation was “an absolutely necessary thing” when introduced 50 years ago at the time of Independence
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SEAN MCWEENEY KC
BPL prices double world rates even at ‘below cost’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS are paying “among the highest” electricity prices in the Caribbean even though the base rate is set “below cost” with tariff charges said to be double the global average. The Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) 2024-2028 country strategy for The Bahamas, which has been obtained by Tribune Business, lays out just how much of a raw deal local businesses and households are receiving the state-owned utility monopolies that supply water and electricity services. The report strengthens the Government’s case for
urgent reform of Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) by further revealing that technical losses from the latter’s system, representing power that never makes it to the consumer because it is lost from the cables, overhead lines, transformers and substations that form the utility’s transmission and distribution network, exceed industry averages at 12.3 percent. And it also discloses that almost 10 percent of electricity generated “is reportedly unbilled”, meaning that consumers are not being charged for its use. The Bahamas’ country strategy added that this country’s electricity costs
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‘Specialist skills dearth’ hurts financial services By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A “DEARTH of specialist skills” in the legal and other professions is undermining the Bahamian financial services industry’s competitiveness, a prominent KC warned yesterday. Sean McWeeney KC, the Graham, Thompson & Company partner, told the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Bahamas conference that such weakness had made the jurisdiction “heavily dependent” on specialist foreign trust attorneys despite this and other estate planning
services forming the jurisdiction’s core product. Calling on young Bahamian attorneys, in particular, to develop expertise in a particular legal field, he argued that “the extinction of the generalists cannot be far off” due to the ever-growing expansion of downloadable “do it yourself” templates for products such as will and conveyances. Noting that The Bahamas has around 1,500 attorneys, which works out to one for every 267 of this country’s 400,000 residents, Mr McWeeney warned that many “can kiss those big legal fees” associated
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Freeport poised to be ‘fastest growing Caribbean economy’ t /BTTBV JOWFTUPST WJUBM UP CVJME ADSJUJDBM NBTT t $JUZ T JOGSBTUSVDUVSF OPX BU KVTU DBQBDJUZ t 0GmDJBM ANPTU DPOmEFOU BCPVU (# JO ZFBST By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FREEPORT needs Nassau-based investors to help build “critical mass” in a city “poised to be the fastest-growing economy in the Caribbean”, a Port Authority executive asserted yesterday. Derek Newbold, the Grand Bahama Port Authority’s (GBPA) chief investment officer, told Tribune Business that its opening this week of a Nassau satellite office aims to capitalise on the momentum generated by Freeport’s $2bn investment pipeline through enticing entrepreneurs from elsewhere in The Bahamas to actively participate in the city’s anticipated expansion. With Freeport’s infrastructure currently servicing just 20 percent of the 250,000 people it was designed to accommodate, he explained that the office will function as a first pointof-contact to help educate Nassau-based businesses on how The Bahamas’ second city functions and the tax benefits/concessions available to them under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. Agreeing that Freeport is “not fully understood by all” persons living outside Grand Bahama, Mr Newbold said encouraging investment and business start-ups from other islands - especially New Providence - would be of “mutual benefit” to all and work in The Bahamas’ overall favour. Many observers have long held the view that getting Freeport’s economy moving is key to reducing population pressures and overcrowding on New Providence, and the GBPA executive told this newspaper that he is now “the most confident about the future prospects for Grand Bahama” than at any point in his 14-year career at the quasi-governmental authority.
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