New construction permits off 20% due to commercial drop

FROM PAGE A20 quarter fell by 28.8 percent or $41.5m year-over-year, dropping from $144.377m in the year-before period to $102.8m. However, the value of new construction permits issued on Grand Bahama more than doubled, rising from $12.837m in the 2021 third quarter to $26.69m last year. Family Island new construction permits nearly halved in value, going from $10.091m to $5.762m.

As for actual construction work, the Institute said: “The number of new construction starts [across the] Bahamas decreased by 17 when comparing the third quarter 2021 (150) and third quarter 2022 (133). During this same period, however, the value of construction starts increased by $35m or 74 percent.

“This increase in value was led by the private/ residential sector and the public sector, with increases of $36m and $5,000 respectively. Contrarily, the commercial/ industrial sector decreased by $645,000 or 4 percent. New Providence represented 76 percent, and Grand Bahama 24 percent, of the recorded number of new construction starts in the third quarter 2022.” Residential construction starts were flat year-overyear at 119 for the 2022 third quarter, but commercial related projects declined year-over-year from 31 in 2021 to just 13 - a fall of 58 percent.

“The total Bahamas number of construction completions in the third quarter 2022 (165) showed a decrease of six projects when compared with the same period in 2021 (171),” the Institute said. “The value of construction completions, however,

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reason to believe this is related to the decision they made.

“They got adequate advice on a timely basis, refused to accept the advice and their failure to do so has resulted in a huge cost to the Bahamian people that they must pay to BPL, pay the subventions to the Government. The regular citizen and business’s costs also went up because of higher electricity costs. Once they realised their ill-advised decision would be a mark on their credibility and good governance, they went into conceal and denial mode.”

BPL’s confirmed $90m debt to Shell is likely to have been accrued because BPL it held its fuel charge at the hedged 10.5 cents per KWh price even after the trades to secure extra cut-price volumes were not executed. This resulted in BPL having to buy increasing fuel volumes at higher global market spot prices, and the 10.5 cents was insufficient to cover its fuel costs.

Government officials last October conceded that it had cost taxpayers “tens of millions of dollars” to hold the utility’s fuel charge at 10.5 cents per KWh. With the Government prevented from providing direct subsidies, the higher BPL fuel charges are required to reimburse the Government for paying-off Shell’s debts and effectively keeping the lights on.

Mr Pintard, in his statement, said Mr Davis’ Monday comments in the House of Assembly represented a further shifting in the Government’s narrative. He argued that the Prime Minister had confirmed for the first time he was briefed on the September 2021 trades, and that the Cabinet had decided against executing them.

This, the Opposition leader pointed out, came after Mr Davis told the House of Assembly on October 26, 2022:

““I received no advice, received no recommendations and saw no papers in that respect. It never reached my desk. It never happened.”

Mr Pintard added: “The Prime Minister mentioned that the $150m in contingent liabilities that the Government took on from BPL was related to bills this administration inherited from the former administration. The FNM contends that this statement is wholly inaccurate....

“The Prime Minister has provided no documentation and no evidence to support his contention that this $150m in contingent liabilities was the fault of the former administration in part or in whole.... We demand that they lay all the related documentation on the table of the House of Assembly to substantiate his allegation but, more importantly, to demonstrate that he is prepared to live up to his commitment to accountable and transparent governance.” increased by approximately $106m or 176 percent.

The move drew support from the local business community, with Robert Carron saying he supported the government’s efforts to resolve the issue, and said so should every Bahamian.

He said that under the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation “each signatory recognises that every other signatory (including The Bahamas) has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its land and seas”.

He also suggested that renaming the airspace in the region as “Miami Oceanic” had led to some confusion for airlines.

“There was an increase in the commercial/industrial sector of approximately $114m leading this overall increase in value. New Providence’s commercial/ industrial sector construction completions value increased from $11m to $126m over this same period.”

The Institute added that its report and data were compiled using information obtained from the Ministry of Works (New Providence and Grand Bahama), the Department of Local Government, Family Island administrators and the Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA).