11122018 BUSINESS

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business@tribunemedia.net

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2018

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BAIC tenant neglect to cost $94k By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A $94,000 DAMAGES award against the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) has been upheld after its neglect resulted in the violation of a tenant’s lease agreement. The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous verdict, threw out the Government agency’s bid to overturn a verdict in favour of Good Earth Nursery over its claim that BAIC failed to protect its business from the activities of a neighbouring business tenant. BAIC’s defence, that it had no liability because the actions of the other tenant were “unauthorised”, were swiftly dismissed by both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, which found the agency in breach of a lease that allowed Good Earth Nursery to “peaceably hold and enjoy” its property. Acting appeal justice Milton Evans, detailing the events that resulted in the dispute, said Good Earth Nursery leased land at BAIC’s 100-acre AgroIndustrial Park on Fire Trail Road on December 1, 1998. The company, headed by William Albury, operated a plant nursery growing crotons, citrus plants and bougainvillea “as his sole means of employment and livelihood” for almost eight years without any problems. Good Earth Nursery’s “statement of claim”, though, alleged that its problems began in June 2006 when a neighbouring tenant, Geneva AlburyBowe and her company, Tradewinds Enterprises, allowed Tony Miller and T&M Trucking to start operating a rock crushing and soil separation business from her property. The dust created by this operation blew on to Good Earth Nursery’s land, and caused “severe damage and loss” of its crops, with the associated noise from the rock crushing machine causing “substantial interference” with its “use and enjoyment” of the property. Despite repeated requests, Good Earth Nursery alleged that neither Mr Miller nor Ms Albury-Bowe discontinued or sought to mitigate any impact from the rock-crushing operation on its property. And BAIC took “no satisfactory action” following the company’s complaint, leading to the claim being filed against it. “The essence of Good Earth’s case in the Supreme Court was that the covenant stated in the said lease agreement to ‘peaceably hold and enjoy the demised premises’ is a covenant for quiet enjoyment,” the Court of Appeal said.

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Waste too ‘entrenched’ for govt NHI savings By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

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HE Government cannot finance National Health Insurance (NHI) from internal savings because waste and inefficiency is too “entrenched” in the public sector, a Cabinet minister has admitted. Dr Duane Sands, minister of health, told Tribune Business that it was simply unable to cut “significant waste” in the public healthcare system fast enough to produce savings that could then be reallocated to fund the revised NHI model. Dr Glen Beneby, former chief medical officer, previously estimated this waste was costing Bahamian taxpayers some $100m per

* Minister: Can’t cut inefficiency fast enough * Florida health spend ‘cuts our own throats’ * Health invest produces ‘greater GDP returns’

annum, a sum equivalent to 25 percent of the public healthcare budget, but Dr Sands said the Government was unable to abandon much of this “without penalty”. Suggesting that a substantial proportion was linked to existing contractual obligations, the minister added that NHI faced competition for any savings from the increased compensation demands of doctors and nurses, plus critical infrastructure upgrades at facilities such as the Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and South Beach clinic.

DR DUANE SANDS

‘Useless’ BISX claim ‘vehemently rejected’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BISX-LISTED company has sprung to the stock exchange’s defence by “vehemently rejecting” charges it is “useless”, saying: “We are living proof that the system can work.” Julian Brown, Benchmark (Bahamas) president and chief executive, told Tribune Business that unrealistic expectations, and a misunderstanding of its role, continued to plague perceptions of the Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX) both within and outside the capital markets. Arguing that BISX could not be expected to achieve a “level of efficiency” comparable to leading global exchanges within 18 years,

* ‘We are living proof’ exchange can work * Benchmark chief: Use for capital, not trading * Govt can help with ‘sovereign privatise fund’

JULIAN BROWN due to the Bahamian market’s small size, Mr Brown said it is up to participants to drive solutions rather

than simply criticise. He revealed that Benchmark planned to use its newly-acquired broker/ dealer status to help small retail investors enjoy “better execution” of their “buy” and “sell” orders, and was prepared to act as a “market maker” by providing “risk capital” to encourage initial public offering (IPO) and listing activity on BISX. The Benchmark chief also called on the Government to assist through the privatisation of more stateowned entities, suggesting that it create a sovereign wealth fund into which such

THE Government “will not stand by” and allow Nassau’s water supply to be disrupted by debts owed to the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s main supplier, its executive chairman has pledged. Adrian Gibson moved swiftly to reassure New Providence residents and businesses that a payment plan was in place after BISXlisted Consolidated Water warned of potential supply interruptions to thousands of customers unless a $16.1m bill was paid. He added that “the bulk” of the debt owed to Consolidated Water, which supplies virtually all of the

corporation’s New Providence customers from its Blue Hills and Windsor reverse osmosis plants, had been accrued under the former Christie administration and

was a problem inherited by its successor. “Residents of New Providence should know there will be no disruption in water supply,” the Long Island MP

Bahamas gives OECD, EU anti tax evasion bills

told Tribune Business, “and that the Government and corporation will not stand by and allow the water supply to its citizens to be interrupted by anyone. “The Ministry of Finance and Water & Sewerage Corporation have entered into a payment arrangement but, moreover, a lot of that debt - the bulk of that debt - was accrued during the last administration and not during this administration. “The Ministry of Finance has agreed with the Water &

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assets were transferred to ready them for going public by selling shares to Bahamian investors. Mr Brown, rejecting arguments by David Kosoy, Sterling Global Financial’s chairman, that BISX is “useless” in its current form and needs “new life”, said the exchange needs to be used for “gathering capital” to finance companies and entrepreneurs - rather than viewed as a trading platform - at this stage of its evolution. “For the gentleman [Mr Kosoy] who just reached

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* Water Corp chair confirms $16.1m debt plan * Blames Christie govt for ‘bulk’ of red ink * Windsor plant one of ‘world’s most efficient’

ADRIAN GIBSON

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THE Government has presented the European Union (EU) and OECD with the draft Bills designed to address their concerns over The Bahamas’ ability to combat corporate tax evasion. The Ministry of Finance, in a statement yesterday, said KP Turnquest, deputy prime minister, together with Carl Bethel QC, the attorney general, and Brent Symonette, minister of financial services, met senior EU and Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) officials last week in a bid to ensure The Bahamas avoids any so-called “watch list”. Mr Turnquest, while pledging that The Bahamas will meet the December 31, 2018, deadline to comply with both organisations’ anti-tax evasion demands, called on both the EU and OECD to account for the short timeframe that countries have to implement the necessary reforms. He was also said to have “stressed that the constant threat of black or grey listing is a major constraint to economic development, and has repercussions that are felt well beyond the financial services industry”. The EU and OECD initiatives, which are heavily linked, aim to combat tax evasion and avoidance by multinational corporations that they believe are eroding the tax bases of their members. In particular, The Bahamas’ Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements)

Govt ‘won’t stand by’ on water supply threat By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Acknowledging calls for the Government to finance NHI through internal savings, rather than levying a new tax on Bahamian employers and workers, Dr Sands told Tribune Business: “The rate of reduction of waste and inefficiency is not going at a rate where we will eliminate waste and inefficiency by next month. “I believe there’s still significant waste in the system, but a lot of it is very entrenched. There are system challenges, process challenges, a lot of them that are contractual commitments built in that we cannot just walk away from without penalty. “If we want NHI, and people have said they want it, to the best of my


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