business@tribunemedia.net
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2025
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DR MICHAEL DARVILLE
DR DUANE SANDS
‘Safety risks’ place GB surgeries into ‘emergency mode’ t .JOJTUFS A'VMMZ BXBSF DIBMMFOHFT CFJOH UBDLMFE t 4BOET A5FSSJCMF QSJDF QBJE JG /)* OPU GVMMZ GVOEFE t (PW U IPQFT N JODSFBTF XJMM TPMWF ATIPSUGBMMT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net AN EX-HEALTH minister is warning The Bahamas could “pay a terrible price” for failing to fully finance National Health Insurance (NHI) with the sector’s woes also extending to “critical surgeries” in Freeport. Dr Duane Sands, the Free National Movement (FNM) chairman, told Tribune Business the outstanding payments owed to doctors and other NHI providers are one issue exposing “the serious challenges” facing the Government in adequately funding the public healthcare sector even as it forecasts a $75.5m fiscal surplus for the upcoming 2025-2026 Budget year. Apart from NHI, he asserted that vendors and suppliers to the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) - which oversees the Princess Margaret (PMH) and Rand Memorial hospitals, as well as the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre - are also “carrying accounts receivables of varying consequences” as a result of not being paid in full and/or on time. Dr Sands, who was minister of health as recently as the former Minnis administration, said this, in turn, is causing cash flow, liquidity and other financial challenges for these vendors, while Freeport’s Rand Memorial Hospital has implemented a two-week “emergency mode” in its operating theatre because of “safety risks” to surgical procedures caused by “overwhelming” challenges.
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Tourism: Boating fees row ‘could not be worse timed’ t *OEVTUSZ VOJUFT UP VSHF 1. UP AQBVTF SFGPSNT THE Bahamian tourism industry and its three main t #VU "( EFGFOET IJLFT Promotion Boards have united to urge the Prime BOE TBZT A-FU T CF SFBM Minister to “pause” new and increased boating fees that “could not have come at a t "TTFSUT UIBU #VEHFU worse time”. The Bahamas Hotel SFGPSNT AGBJS BOE CBMBODFE and Tourism Association By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
(BHTA), together with the Bahama Out Islands Promotion Board, the Nassau/ Paradise Island Promotion Board and the Grand Bahama Island Promotion Board, in a joint letter to Philip Davis KC voiced fears over “reputational fall-out” given the “multiple reports of cancellations” received from resort and marina properties over the imminent changes. The letter, which has been seen by Tribune Business, said it was vital that The Bahamas not “create perceived and/
or realised barriers to entry for this high spending, buoyant, sea faring visitor market” especially given the ongoing headwinds and uncertainties impacting stopover tourism as a result of Donald Trump’s tariff policies and various global conflicts. However, the Davis administration has shown no signs of backing down from the amended cruising permit fees, plus the new fishing permit and anchorage fees, set out
in the Customs Management (Amendment) Regulations 2025. Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, yesterday defended the amendments as “fair” and “balanced” in the Senate, as he urged: “Let’s be real.” Mr Pinder, in his contribution to the 2025-2026 Budget debate, said the social media reaction from boaters made it appear as if the increased and revised fees were “the end of the world for some”.
RYAN PINDER KC However, he argued that the reforms were deliberately structured to reward frequent boating visitors and encourage others to visit The Bahamas more frequently, thus generating increased economic benefits. The Attorney General also suggested that the higher fees are balanced by the nowextended temporary cruising
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Pintard to URCA: Ensure no ‘illegal’ cross-subsidy by BPL By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition yesterday demanded that energy regulators ensure Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) is not covering operating costs from a fuel charge now set to be subsidised by Bahamian taxpayers. Michael Pintard, the Free National Movement (FNM) leader, in a letter to the Utilities Regulation and Competition
Authority (URCA) seen by Tribune Business, called on the regulator to probe whether BPL’s fuel charge - which is meant to be 100 percent passed through to, and recovered from, consumers - is being used “illegally” to pay its operational expenses. His letter emerged after BPL, in a statement issued yesterday, confirmed that Bahamian taxpayers, via the Government, will be funding and underwriting the suddenly-announced Summer
Rebate initiative that is designed to provide BPL’s residential or household customers with modest relief from soaring energy costs. The state-owned utility confirmed that it will be “the Government subsidising the difference to ease the burden on consumers” via an initiative designed to provide BPL’s residential consumers with a 5-6 percent discount on the stateowned electricity provider’s
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MICHAEL PINTARD
Realtor: ‘Got to be simpler way’ on property sale VAT By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A Bahamian realtor yesterday asserted “there’s got to be a simpler” way for the Government to eliminate VAT evasion on property sales without “unfairly and inequitably” burdening the industry. David Morley, broker/ owner of Morley Realty, told Tribune Business that the original legislative reforms accompanying the 2025-2026 Budget have “changed slightly” but are still requiring realtors “to do what the Department of Inland Revenue won’t do” and check that attorneys have paid the due VAT and
DAVID MORLEY registered the conveyance in the Registry of Records. Reiterating that realtors’ roles are largely confined to marketing properties, and putting transactions together by matching the buyer and seller, he added
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National Investment Fund seeded with bond’s $300m By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Attorney General yesterday confirmed that The Bahamas’ National Investment Fund will be formally created by month’s end using $300m generated by the country’s recent $1.067bn bond issue. Ryan Pinder KC, speaking in the Senate during the 2025-2026 Budget debate, said the Fund (NIF) will be a fund-of-funds structure with six underlying subfunds targeted at specific areas with a focus on public improvement and development projects.
He added that will be structured according to the Santiago principles of best practices, which are the globally-accepted standards for the investment, risk management and governance practices of sovereign wealth funds. “At the Office of the Attorney General, we are operationalising the National Investment Fund as a true, independentlygoverned fund that holds assets in trust for the Bahamian people. The National Investment Fund permits the development of national infrastructure and public improvement projects, facilitating public
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