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TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019
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GRAHAM WHITMARSH
NHI funding talks ‘almost concluded’ By NATARIO MCKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net THE National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) managing director yesterday voiced optimism that the cabinet’s concerns over National Health Insurance’s (NHI) funding mechanisms have been satisfied. Graham Whitmarsh, confirming that the NHI Authority is set for another presentation, told Tribune Business: “We have collaborated with the Ministry of Finance as they asked. I wouldn’t want to preempt anything cabinet decides, but with regards to funding for NHI we have got a number of different potential funding sources. “We wanted to make sure that they all come together in a way that can give the government confidence that funding mechanism is a sustainable one. I don’t think much has changed. We have been through cabinet. They wanted us to work with the Ministry of Finance on the funding mechanisms. We have been doing that as recently as the meeting today (Monday). “I think that conversation is just about concluded. We at some stage will go back to cabinet,” he continued. “Ultimately it’s a decision for cabinet. When this journey sort of started to revamp NHI, the government wanted it to be more affordable, they wanted it to be implemented incrementally, to share the cost of delivering NHI more broadly and a sustainable funding model. “We’re really working on the final one of those now, and we’re going to go back with a presentation with how we propose to do that and go from there.” Dr Duane Sands, minister of health, had revealed to Tribune Business last month that the NHI Authority must “give it another go” after failing to win cabinet approval for the scheme at the first try. He disclosed to this newspaper that the government
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Bahamas economic model ‘upside down’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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HE Bahamas’ has an “upside down” economic model that is the “complete reverse” of what exists in most progressive countries, a former attorney general has charged. Alfred Sears QC, in a recent interview with Tribune Business, branded The Bahamas’ investment regime as “perverse” because it favoured foreign investors and businesses over its domestic entrepreneurs and capital. Arguing that the country urgently needs “a new economic architecture”, he argued that the current system “penalises” The Bahamas’ own nationals in comparison to overseas developers who enjoy access to greater and
• ‘Perverse’ to demand national treatment • Ex-AG: System ‘complete reverse’ of other nations • Calls for ‘new economic architecture’ for country
ALFRED SEARS more numerous tax breaks and other concessions. Reiterating his previous calls for “a rational appraisal of the Stafford Sands model because it is based on the wrong assumptions”, Mr Sears called on The Bahamas to develop
an investment template that was “transparent, certain and predictable” and designed for its own interests rather than for the likes of the European Union (EU). While foreign direct investment (FDI) typically lobbies for the same treatment as local investors wherever it goes in the world, a concept known as “national treatment” under rules-based trading regimes such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the ex-attorney general said that in this country Bahamian businesses are demanding the same status as foreigners. “How can we have a system that marginalises
THE Privy Council yesterday admitted its “regret” in finding that the Companies Act provides a legal “backdoor” for the Alexiou brothers to avoid paying a near-$200,000 debt. Branding their appeal “unmeritorious”, the highest court in the Bahamian judicial system nevertheless ruled that Zachary James Galantis’ two-decade fight to obtain the balance of the purchase price he agreed with Antony and Alexander Alexiou in 1998 could not succeed in law. Finding that he had chosen the wrong route to pursue the duo, sons of Colina principal and Nassau Guardian president/publisher, Emanuel Alexiou, the Privy Council’s verdict effectively identified a legal loophole that potentially allows companies and their shareholders/directors to
“The oppressive acts complained of by the appellant [Mr Galantis’] are the directors’ [the Alexious’] blatant refusal to honour a debt and to prevent payment of that debt by subsequently removing the company’s assets and preventing the appellant, a judgment creditor, from successfully settling his claim,” then-appeal court president, Dame Anita Allen, wrote. “As noted, liability for this oppressive behaviour is not extinguished by the removal of the company from the register. To hold that it does would create a backdoor through which a company or its directors can avoid liability, thereby frustrating the purpose of section 280.”
‘Breadbasket’ food reforms to coincide with new budget By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
This analysis, though, was rejected by the Privy Council, which said it “stretches the concept of oppression too far”. It found that AliCat Designs was dissolved in July 2008, with Mr Galantis only initiating legal proceedings to obtain a compensation order against the Alexious in April 2009 almost one year later. “No liability capable of being continued by section 272 had been imposed by the date on which the company was removed from the register,” the Privy Council found, adding that section 280 was irrelevant to Mr Galantis’ case. “There was no ongoing oppression capable of being remedied by the
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and penalises national capital?” he told Tribune Business. “It’s inconsistent with the definition of sovereignty. “In most places in the world foreign investors are fighting to get national treatment. Here in The Bahamas, it’s nationals are clamouring to be treated like a foreign investor. We have it upside down. “If I go to the US or Europe, I’m going to ask to be treated as close as possible to national treatment. The system there is designed first and foremost to satisfy the need for incentives and access to public
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• Brothers’ appeal on $200k debt wins • Ends 20-year battle over t-shirt deal • Top court: Duo’s case ‘unmeritorious’ escape liability for “oppression” by dissolving the firm and having it struck it from the register. Its ruling, which overturned an earlier Court of Appeal verdict, found that Mr Galantis could not sustain his claim that the brothers’ conduct had “oppressed” him because the Companies Act’s section 280 only provides a remedy for such situations when they are “current” - meaning that they are ongoing. The Court of Appeal, in its 2016 verdict, had ruled that the Companies Act’s section 272 continued the Alexious’ liability to Mr Galantis regardless of whether the company in question, Ali-Cat Designs, had been dissolved.
DR DUANE SANDS
THE long-awaited changes to the government’s “breadbasket” food line-up will likely “coincide” with the upcoming 2019-2020 budget, the minister of health has confirmed. Dr Duane Sands told Tribune Business that while the alterations had not been co-ordinated with the budget, the Minnis administration was determined to combine fiscal and medical policy in a bid to incentivise healthier eating impacts and improve The Bahamas’ health profile. “There’s no co-ordination with the upcoming budget,” Dr Sands said. “It’s just that it will probably end up coinciding with it. That wasn’t the original plan but we’ve completed it, the final paper, and are just going through the motions now. We have nothing left to do. The new list is certainly more appealing than we originally thought, but that would require the concurrence of my cabinet colleagues.” He declined to detail the foods that will be included in the new “breadbasket” list - the first changes since it was introduced 45 years ago as a means to ensure lower income Bahamians could access staple food products through a combination of tax breaks and price controls. While the emphasis then was on affordability, many observers believe its composition has contributed to The Bahamas’ health crisis and prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and hypertension by encouraging unhealthy eating habits. Dr Sands said he “didn’t want to go ahead and jump the gun” on the “breadbasket” reforms given that the addition, and/or removal, of items had yet to be approved yet had implications for the food retail and wholesale sector. “Certainly there’s attractive offerings on the breadbasket after public consultation,” he added. “Bear in mind the breadbasket, once introduced 40 years ago, was never changed. This will be the first time.”
Privy Council ‘regret’ over Alexious’ ‘backdoor’ escape By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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DPM: ‘We’re as competitive as anyone’ on financial services By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas “is as competitive as anyone else” in financial services, the deputy prime minister asserted yesterday, despite its latest fall in an annual survey of global financial hubs. KP Turnquest told Tribune Business that he “personally has no concerns” even though The Bahamas fell 18 spots, dropping from 67th to 85th, in the Global Financial Centres Index just unveiled by London-based think-tank, Z/Yen Partners, in collaboration with the China Development Institute. The index, which assessed 112 financial centres based on 133 criteria, and received 2,373 responses, showed that The Bahamas’ rating fell by only six points yearover-year - dropping from 591 in 2017 to 585 last year.
• ‘No concerns’ about drop in financial index • Bahamas among biggest fallers in rankings • Among those with ‘reputational disadvantage’
KP TURNQUEST
JAMES SMITH
PAUL MOSS
This indicates that while The Bahamas may have done little wrong, other financial centres continue to make sufficient reforms and improvements to bypass and leapfrog this nation. While it was ranked one spot below the Isle of Man, another major international
financial centre (IFC), the likes of Glasgow, Warsaw, Budapest and Sofia were placed further ahead and The Bahamas was among the greatest fallers in terms of rankings. The Bahamas was also rated eighth out of nine financial centres in the
Latin American and Caribbean region, beating only Buenos Aires. And it was grouped among 15 financial centres said to be suffering from “the greatest reputational disadvantage”. “This indicates that
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