business@tribunemedia.net
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019
$4.74
$4.74
Airport upgrades gain 1% of needed $200m By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
T
HE government has allocated just one percent of the $200m needed to upgrade 28 Family Island airports in this year’s budget, a Cabinet minister revealed yesterday. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that the $2m provided for the 2019-2020 fiscal year highlighted why The Bahamas must urgently “fix the model” for airport maintenance as the alreadystrained Public Treasury “is unable to carry the load”.
• Minister: Budget allocated just $2m • User fees in ‘near term’ for major airports • Says: ‘We need to fix the business model’
DIONISIO D’AGUILAR
He voiced optimism that a passenger user facility charge will be introduced “in the near term” at Marsh Harbour’s Leonard Thompson International Airport to provide a funding mechanism for its upkeep, amid complaints from the Abaco Chamber of Commerce and others (see article on Page 1B) that visitors are being given a terrible first and last impression of The Bahamas due to its deterioration. Mr D’Aguilar said such
a move was part of wider plans to potentially rollout the so-called “NAD model” to major Family Island airports, given that all are suffering from a lack of operational and capital improvement funding. This structure, which involves a private sector entity taking over an airport’s management and financing, has already been adopted at the Lynden
SEE PAGE 4
Unions tell govt: Show us why in ‘financial straits’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE government must explain why it is “in such dire financial straits” that it cannot meet public sector worker demands, trade union leaders warned yesterday. Bernard Evans, the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU) president, told Tribune Business it was “hard to fathom” how the Minnis administration is unable to reach agreement with the public sector unions given its increase in revenues post-VAT hike and recently-improved economic growth. Speaking ahead of Saturday morning’s showdown meeting with the seven public sector unions, Mr Evans said the current industrial unrest had been
• Tax rises, GDP growth make it ‘hard to fathom’ • ‘Aggressive plan’ to address concerns urged • Leader tells politicians to ‘walk the street’
BERNARD EVANS exacerbated by the government’s perceived failure to deliver on its promises for improved salaries, benefits and working conditions. He urged the Minnis administration to unveil an “aggressive plan” for addressing all public sector union concerns, even if it
CCA says Sarkis has no rights on protected papers By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHA Mar’s main contractor is using a Bahamian Supreme Court ruling to argue it has not breached Sarkis Izmirlian’s rights by obtaining confidential legal documents prepared for him. Attorneys for China Construction America (CCA), in a letter and other documents filed with the New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday, alleged that the original Baha Mar developer’s demand for the papers’ destruction or return should be rejected
Moody’s: BPL is ‘bottleneck to expansion’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net MOODY’S has labelled the Bahamian energy sector as “a bottleneck to economic growth”, although its latest analysis makes no mention of the daily outages plaguing New Providence. The international credit rating agency, in its latest annual assessment of The Bahamas economic and fiscal prospects, even credits
SARKIS IZMIRLIAN because he does not hold legal professional privilege over them. The documents detail Mr Izmirlian’s potential claims against CCA for failing to complete the $4.2bn
SEE PAGE 4 the government’s plans to transform Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and the wider industry via Shell North America’s proposed 220 megawatt (MW) power plant and $450m-$550m rate reduction bond refinancing. “The energy sector remains a bottleneck to growth, with a business’s ability to obtain electricity placing 87th in the 2019 Ease of Doing Business report,” Moody’s noted. “But the government intends to reform the sector. These reforms relate to a restructuring of BPL, improving the electricity network, and building a 220MW power plant. “Given BPL’s weak financial position, an internal restructuring is
SEE PAGE 5
could only make progress in a “piecemeal” fashion. The NCTU president added that it needed to provide a convincing explanation for why its “hands are tied”, and be alert to the “dynamics” driving pressures for increased incomes. Suggesting that politicians needed to “walk the street” to learn how hard it is even for working Bahamians to make ends meet, Mr Evans argued that civil servants “suffered the most” - especially those earning less than $1,000 per month. “It’s kind of weird to fathom,” he told Tribune Business. “With everything in the country supposed
to be on an upward trend, the economy growing by 1.6 percent last year, all the money they borrowed since coming to office, and raising the VAT rate by 60 percent to 12 percent, it’s hard for us to understand how the government is still finding it hard to meet its obligations. “It’s weird. It’s strange to fathom. They [the government] have to lay out to the public service workers why they’re in such dire financial straits and can’t meet that $1,200 lump sum payment.” Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) members marched to downtown
SEE PAGE 5
$4.76
$4.79
Abaco airport ‘sorely lacking’ for tourism By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net VISITORS to Abaco have endured “first and last impressions” that are “sorely lacking” due to the failure to properly maintain the island’s $30m airport, a private sector leader said yesterday. Ken Hutton, pictured, the Abaco Chamber of Commerce’s president, implored the government to permit “local input” in solving the airport terminal’s woes ahead of the resumption of peak tourism season in November-December 2019. Arguing that it was “not the best model” to have decision-making power concentrated in Nassau, Mr Hutton said conditions at the Leonard Thompson International Airport frequently switched between “good and terrible” within a matter of days. Fearful that it could deter repeat visitors and recommendations to friends in a tourist market that is extremely high-end, Mr Hutton said deficiencies included a lack of air conditioning, bathrooms that were poorly maintained and did not function, and wildlife that was making a home for itself in the terminal building’s guttering. Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that the Airport Authority is trying to fix these defects and others after they were brought to its attention by the Abaco Chamber of Commerce and others (see other article on Page 1B). He added that the Marsh Harbour airport, in common with all other Family Island airports, lacked a funding mechanism or income stream to finance infrastructure improvements and maintenance. A passenger facility user charge will now likely be imposed on airport
users “in the near term”, the minister said. Mr Hutton, who said he had first written to the Ministry and Airport Authority with his concerns in early July, added that he was not opposed to such a charge provided the monies raised were used for maintenance purposes, and there was strict accountability and transparency around their use. “As long as the fee is not too onerous, I don’t think there’s a lot of people that will have an issue with that provided the facility is properly maintained and kept up to standard,” the chamber chief said. “And there’s accountability with the funds. It must be transparent and accounted for.” Mr Hutton said he had informed Mr D’Aguilar and Algernon Cargill, director of aviation, that Abaco’s private sector is “ready, willing and able to assist. We have the capacity and expertise, and it is a major international airport. “We have proposed that they talk to us, bring us in, so we can help them look at what a lot of the issues are and provide solutions to them,” he added. “At this point they have not reached out to us. We have not been included. “This is our neighbourhood, but all decisions are being made in Nassau with regard to the local airport. We don’t think that’s the best
SEE PAGE 5