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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2021
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Improving worker productivity ‘must be our top priority’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE National Tripartite Council’s (NTC) chairman says improving the Bahamian workforce’s productivity “has to be the number one priority” as the latest effort to eliminate workforce skills gaps launched yesterday. Robert Farquharson, pictured, speaking as the National Workforce Skills Gap Survey 2021 was released, told Tribune Business that improving labour skills and quality was vital to The Bahamas’ economic competitiveness and strength of the postCOVID revival. “I think it has to be the number one priority of the ministry of labour and the government to improve the level of productivity in the Bahamian economy,” Mr Farquharson, who heads the body responsible for resolving all labour matters in The Bahamas, said. “We need to make our economy more competitive, and one of the ways to do it is increase the level of skills so that employers can find everything at all levels in our economy. Because we’re coming out of the pandemic our economy needs to be very competitive just because we are competing on the world stage for the tourism dollar. Improving the level of productivity and efficiency will make the Bahamian economy more competitive on the world stage.” The last Bahamian workforce “skills gap” survey was conducted in 2012 by a combination of the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), the government and the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC). It found significant deficiencies, with multiple sectors wanting to employ Bahamians but finding there were too few available with the necessary skills or wanting to do the work. “We know there’s a need to increase productivity,” Mr Farquharson, a former union leader, reiterated. “We know there’s a demand from employers to have the workforce upskilled. This survey will identify the specific needs, and develop programmes to address those needs and improve the level of productivity and efficiency in the labour marketplace. “The last comprehensive survey, done in 2012, identified significant skills gaps specifically in the medical and allied services industries, the construction sector and the maritime sector. We saw a significant amount of gaps being experienced in those sectors because we did not have trained Bahamians qualified to do the job, particularly in construction, such as tile laying, air conditioning and welding. “We had to issue a significant amount of work permits to non-Bahamians because there is a need for those skills in those areas. We were unable to find the skills in the Bahamian labour force and had to issue work permits. We’re trying to address that problem by training Bahamians
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Oil opponents bid to end legal roadblock
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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IL exploration opponents have offered to pay $100,000 to the former Bahamas Petroleum Company’s (BPC) attorneys, and narrow the scope of their Judicial Review, in a bid to remove all legal roadblocks. Fred Smith QC, the Callender’s & Co partner, in an e-mailed June 21, 2021, proposal seen by Tribune Business, wrote to both the government and nowChallenger Energy Group Plc holding out concessions in a bid to overcome a twoand-a-half month delay blamed on The Bahamas’ Know Your Customer (KYC) regulatory regime. Mr Smith’s law firm and Graham, Thompson &
Company, Challenger Energy’s attorneys, have to-date been unsuccessful in efforts to establish a joint account that will hold the $200,000 “bond” ordered by the
Supreme Court. Justice Petra HannaAdderley had previously required Save the Bays and Waterkeepers Bahamas to raise thus sum,
A CABINET minister yesterday defended the government’s forecasts for the upcoming fiscal year by revealing that its revenues had exceeded projections by almost $127m over the past six months. Kwasi Thompson, minister of state for finance, responded to charges that the revenue projections for the upcoming 2021-2022 fiscal year are too optimistic or aggressive by describing an improving income trend since the tourism industry and wider economy began their re-opening in earnest in November 2020. While revenues for the six-month period to May 2021 were only $5.4m ahead of their prior year comparatives, the latter included almost four months where the Bahamian economy was not impacted by COVID-19 prior to the end-March 2020
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• Some $5.4m ahead of prior year, defends projections • Warns ‘cannot shoot from the hip’ over tax reform • Yet ‘cannot sit idly on the sidelines’ over tax push
KWASI THOMPSON lockdown. However, the expectations for this fiscal year suggest that revenues have to be measured against a low bar. “With the opening of the economy in November 2020, the country has experienced higher-than-expected or projected growth in revenue inflows from main tax categories such as VAT, Customs and border taxes,” Mr Thompson said
in leading off the Senate’s Budget debate. “In fact, revenue for the five months ending November 2020 totalled only $530m, a contraction of 42.4 percent compared to the same period of the prior year. Those first five months were a hard five months. “But if we look at revenue for the last six months - the period of December 2020 to May 2021 - preliminary data places revenue ahead of budget projections by 13.5 percent ($126.6m). Revenue collection for the six months ending May 2021 is also ahead of actual revenue for the same period in the prior year by a marginal $5.4m,” the minister added. “Obviously we do not expect revenue inflows to compare to the pre-Dorian/ pre-COVID levels, but as
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
I have said, madame president, we are trending in the right direction and well on track to meeting this fiscal year’s revenue estimates. The momentum is building, the economy is on a good path and The Bahamas is coming back.” Various observers, including former minister of state for finance, Zhivargo Laing, and economist Rupert Pinder, have voiced concerns that the revenue projections for the upcoming 2021-2022 fiscal year that begins on July 1 are too optimistic and aggressive. Successive administrations have established a track record in failing to achieve their annual revenue targets.
as a “security” to cover Challenger’s legal costs, before their Judicial Review challenge could be heard on the substantive merits. While the activists raised the necessary $200,000 by the Supreme Court’s end-March deadline, the failure to meet the requirement to establish a joint bank account to hold it - even though Callenders and Graham, Thompson have held accounts with the same financial institution for years - has left the legal challenge “stayed” and unable to move forward for two-and-a-half months.
Govt revenues $127m up on budget forecast to May By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Fishermen brace for legal fight to hit Privy Council FISHERMEN in favour of the Fisheries Act’s bar on foreign workers yesterday said they were bracing for legal challenges to the reforms to go all the way to the London-based Privy Council. Paul Maillis, the National Fisheries Association (NFA) director, told Tribune Business that the group’s members will “live with whatever the courts decide” as he predicted that those opposed to the ban which took effect yesterday - will be sufficiently determined to eventually reach out to the highest court in the Bahamian judicial system. “It’s what was expected,” he said of Justice Indra Charles’ refusal to grant an injunction preventing implementation of the contested sections in the Fisheries Act. “We in the fishing community always had the understanding this could go as far as the Privy Council, but that depends on the determination of these guys. “It seems they have that type of determination, and if they do we have to live with what the courts decide. Ever since we became privy to this decision, the fishing community has been very excited. Some have a misunderstanding about the finality of this decision, but we’re glad for now that we have some respite from efforts to stop the Act coming into effect.” Mr Maillis said the Association and its members were focused on efforts to develop the regulations that will accompany the Act, and which are being led by the Department of Marine Resources in conjunction with the National Fisheries Stakeholder Forum. “We’ve seen initial drafts, and there are things that the fishing community has to meet and discuss,” he added. “Nothing is final. It’s a process where the public and fisheries community have to be consulted before anything takes effect. There are proposals regarding the size of fish caught, seasons, and also a confirmation of a ban on the export of conch.”
• Offer to pay BPC’s attorneys $100,000 • And narrow Judicial Review for go-ahead • QC: ‘No brainer’ for all and public interest
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QC lashes out on KYC ‘constipation’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
AN outspoken QC last night warned that “Know Your Customer (KYC) constipation” could undermine The Bahamas’ post-COVID revival, arguing that his law firm’s struggle to open a joint bank account “beggars belief”. Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co attorney and partner, told Tribune Business that itself and fellow law firm, Graham, Thompson & Company, have unsuccessfully been trying to establish a joint bank account for two-and-a-half months so that the legal challenge to oil exploration can proceed - even though they already bank separately with the same financial institution (see other article on Page 1B). Renewing his previous call for the government to pass a “KYC Once” Act, which would permit the issuance of a certificate confirming the holder is a legitimate client and has passed all required checks, as a means to slash the due
• Law firms’ joint account wait ‘beggars belief’ • Warns issue will undermine COVID revival • Bahamas has ‘legion’ of lost opportunities
FRED SMITH QC diligence bureaucracy, he added that “the examples are legion” of how The Bahamas has either driven industries from its shores or missed out on new development opportunities. “It beggars belief that law firms which have been doing business with banks for decades cannot open a
joint account,” Mr Smith blasted. “I continue to lament the huge challenges faced by everybody in The Bahamas with respect to the over-enthusiastic and often unnecessary obsession with KYC documentation. “I repeat my encouragement to the government to legislate a ‘KYC Once’ Act
which will greatly facilitate ordinary people who are, as we all should be, innocent until proven guilty, and facilitate business. But, under the current regime, domestic and international, we must all squeeze the camel through the eye of the KYC needle, and business and personal affairs come to a grinding halt. “I don’t know if it’s the same in other jurisdictions; I don’t hear that it is. Bermuda, Cayman, the Channel Islands and Panama.... many of the other financials services jurisdictions don’t seem to have the same KYC constipation as The Bahamas has. KYC is repeatedly constipated.” Mr Smith had previously urged that the certificate issued under a “KYC Once” Act be accepted by all Bahamas-based financial institutions as validating the holder’s credentials, thus
eliminating the need to “reinvent the wheel” and undergo the same scrutiny at every bank that a company or individual conducted business with. He argued that this would eliminate “a huge unnecessary expense” that has plagued dealings with the Bahamian banking industry for the past two decades, thereby lowering costs and resulting in a much-needed improvement in the ease of doing business. And Mr Smith has also urged that the threshold above which Bahamas-based banks apply anti-money laundering scrutiny to occasional transactions be increased to $50,000, and suggested that his proposal could make this nation a “Caribbean leader” when it came to the application of anti-financial crime rules. The prominent QC last night said the ongoing difficulties Callender’s and Graham, Thompson & Company are enduring in establishing the
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