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VOLUME:116 No.109, MAY 30TH, 2019

OFFICIA

CLASSIFIED TRADER: CARS, CARS, CARS & MORE CARS

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net DECLARING the Minnis administration’s 2019/2020 Budget a “break from the past”, Finance Minister K Peter Turnquest announced several new duty exemptions and rate reductions worth $28m in government revenue yesterday.

The deputy prime minister told the House of Assembly this presentation was proof that the government could budget properly and put an end to guessing games of how officials think revenue should be raised or speculation into how tax dollars should

• Turnquest budget has no major surprises be spent. Mr Turnquest announced that household refrigerators and stoves along with an array of school supplies including pens, pencils, sharpeners, crayons and chart paper will be made duty free among other things.

While he did not announce any new tax

categories or a value added tax increase, Mr Turnquest did reveal that government decided to make permanent the VAT zero rating on electricity bills and water bills. Moving forward, it will remain that customers with electricity bills $300 and lower will not incur VAT charges.

• Payrolls slashed as headcounts wrong

The same will apply for those with water bills $50 or lower per billing cycle.

“We have set a new precedent for proper budgeting, in that we have now implemented monthly meetings with each government agency to go over their expenditure plans, and ensure that they remain in line with the ceilings set forth for

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEW

SANDWICHES

the budget year, and that funds are utilised appropriately to advance the key policy initiatives and priorities of this government,” Mr Turnquest told the House as he wrapped up his more than three hour long budget presentation yesterday.

“Our in-year reporting also ensures that we remain transparent in

A SURPRISING outburst from the sister of a parliamentarian disrupted the Minnis administration’s Budget communication in the House of Assembly yesterday and led to the suspension of proceedings.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest had just began to table an amendment to value added tax

FONTELLA Chipman-Rolle disrupted the House yesterday. regulations when Fontella Chipman-Rolle, sister of Centreville MP Reece

Chipman, stood in the gallery and threw seven white wrist bands onto the floor of the House of Assembly.

She wore a shirt that said “Chipman strong”.

“Change the system,” she shouted as police pulled her out of the chamber. “Our land will be returned to us, not by you but by the God we serve.”

She said she was standing in protest against politicians who “raped” the Chipman

NEW *

MEAL +VAT

• Govt told - don’t get carried away the way in which we both acquire and use public funds, making us accountable to our citizens, as we should be.

“Our government has ushered in a new era of sound, transparent and responsible fiscal management, supplemented by a broad spectrum of SEE PAGE THREE

CHIPMAN SISTER’S ASSEMBLY OUTBURST

SANDWICH

6

• Duty cuts on range of goods and equipment

BUDGET COVERAGE - PAGES 3, 4, 5 & BUSINESS

NEW

29

INSIDE

L SOUR CE

Steady as she goes

PETER Turnquest addressing the House of Assembly yesterday.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/ Tribune Staff

$

$1

SANDWICHES

TRY WITH SAUSAGE, BACON OR HAM

WWW.BURGERKING.BS

Nassau & Bahama Islands’ Leading Newspaper

SEE PAGE FIVE

RICHARD COULSON

SOME WELCOME CLARITY FROM CABLE BAHAMAS

SEE PAGE TEN

PAGE 2, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

DANGEROUS DRUGS ARREST AT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT A MAN was arrested at Lynden Pindling International Airport on Tuesday after he was allegedly found in possession of dangerous drugs.

According to a police report, shortly after 2pm Drug Enforcement Unit officers observed a male in the customs hall who, upon seeing them, begin acting in

a suspicious manner. The officers conducted a search of the man and his bag and recovered a package which contained suspected cocaine.

It is believed that the man, a Bahamian, had just arrived from Suriname through Jamaica via Caribbean Airlines.

He was taken into

custody and is expected to be formally charged before a magistrate this week. The drugs weigh 10 pounds with an estimated street value of $67,000.

Police also seized suspected marijuana from an abandoned building Tuesday night. Shortly after 8pm, Mobile Division officers, acting on

information, conducted a search of an abandoned building on Soldier Road near Woodlawn Way and recovered a black plastic bag which contained a quantity of suspected marijuana.

No arrest was made in this incident. The drugs have a street value of $6,800.

KAMEELA Russell was last seen alive on May 15.

BODY OF TEACHER FOUND IN MIAMI A BAHAMIAN school teacher living in Miami, Florida who had been reported missing earlier this month has been found dead, according to international reports.

Kameela Russell, 41, was reportedly last seen alive by family on May 15 in Miami.

Miami police found a decomposed body in a canal last Saturday, a few blocks from where Russell disappeared.

Darren J Caprara, director of operations for the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department, told Local 10 News, a Florida news outlet, that it was Russell’s body found in the canal.

“The manner of death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt head injury,” Local 10 reported.

As news of the discovery spread on social media, many friends and loved ones expressed their grief.

Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, called it “an unbearably painful week”.

He posted to Facebook yesterday: “We ache for

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Kameela Russell’s grieving loved ones and pray they find the strength to bear the pain of this heartbreaking loss. District crisis team has been deployed to Miami Norland Senior High School to help students and staff during this difficult time.”

Another person wrote: “I just keep thinking about the last time I saw you. Me and Harris were trying to get in the building (through) the back door and she tapped on your office window and you were playing around acting silly like always.

“When you finally opened the door for us, you had the biggest smile on your face and I just remember thinking, ‘Russell has such a beautiful smile.’ I’m grateful that was my last memory of you because that smile truly brought happiness to everyone it encountered.

“I love you, Russell.

Thank you for all the great memories and laughs.

You’ll truly be missed.”

Russell worked as a test chair at Miami Norland Senior High School. She has two children.

GUNPOINT ROBBERY

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A BUSINESS was robbed at gunpoint and two men were arrested in connection with possession of dangerous drugs in Freeport, police reported.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Terecita Pinder reported that sometime shortly before 9pm on Tuesday, two men, one armed with a handgun, entered an establishment on Kennedy Drive and demanded cash from the cashier.

After robbing the employee, the men fled the area on foot. No arrests have been made and police are continuing their investigations into the matter.

In other crime news, three men were arrested after a quantity of dangerous drugs were discovered at a residence in Freeport.

According to reports,

shortly before 3pm on Tuesday officers of the Central Division and Rapid Response executed a search warrant at a residence on Redwood Lane, where they discovered a quantity of suspected marijuana. As a result, three male occupants were taken into police custody.

Abaco police also arrested two men after they were allegedly found with illegal drugs and with suspected marijuana plants growing at a residence on that island.

According to ASP Pinder, sometime around 7pm on Tuesday a team of officers acting on information went to a residence in Spring City where they allegedly found two men with the drugs and suspected marijuana plants.

The two are expected to be formally charged this week in the Magistrate’s Court.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 3

BUDGET 2019/20

By KHRISNA RUSSELL Deputy Chief Reporter krussell@tribunemedia.net THE Minnis administration yesterday moved two resolutions to borrow a combined total of nearly $87m to defray expenditure and to fund the implementation of a street lighting-retrofitting project.

For state spending purposes, the government intends to borrow $72,387,438.

The remaining $14.6m from the Caribbean Development Bank will cover the street light project and includes project preparation assistance, infrastructure works, engineering and construction related services goods and project management.

Finance Minister K Peter Turnquest moved both resolutions.

This comes as the minister praised the government’s fiscal responsibility, which saw healthy economic growth throughout 2018 buttressed by both revenue and expenditure performing lower than was previously expected.

The government was also able to slash its arrears over the last 10 months. So far a

Government announces plans to borrow $87m total of $126.9m was paid representing approximately 73.8 percent of the $172 million that was budgeted to settle during the 2018/19 budget year.

Mr Turnquest said: “All told, we project that the remaining two months of the fiscal year will perform positively. For the fiscal year as a whole, revenue is estimated to come in at about $2.4bn, some $238 million or nine percent lower than what was budgeted at the start of the fiscal year, largely on account of the new agreement with the gaming operators, the delayed implementation of the Revenue Enhancement Unit (REU), and the concessions granted to hotels and contractors in respect of the introduction of the higher rate of VAT. “On the expenditure

front, total outlays are projected to equal approximately $2.6 billion, which is also some nine percent or $259.1m below the amount initially budgeted for the year. Of this total, approximately $172.3 million is anticipated to be settled in respect of arrears, in line with the Budget projection.

“Based on these developments, we therefore anticipate the fiscal deficit to total some $229 in 2018/19, representing 1.8 percent of GDP; that will be broadly in line with the $237.6 million deficit projected in the last budget.”

He continued: “These developments clearly signal that this government is focused on more than merely talking about our plan to govern this country in the right manner, but also on action. Bringing our

plans to fruition and realising the goals that we set forth for fiscal reform are critical priorities for us, as they underpin and, in time, will incubate our broader economic objectives of inclusive growth, a sustainable and resilient economy, and increased productivity.

“The outcome is a sustainable improvement in the well-being of all Bahamian citizens.”

Moving forward, the government has set specific targets for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

It is hoped that revenue will outpace that of the 2018/2019 year.

“On the revenue front, we note that the revenue yield of our taxation system amounted to some 18.8 percent of GDP in 2018/19.

A number of factors are expected to contribute to a further enhancement of

that yield in 2019/20 and beyond.

“In 2019/20, the REU will be fully established, thus securing a significant increase in annual revenue and thereby underpinning a further boost in the revenue yield. Additionally, VAT will be reported at the 12 percent rate for a full year for the first time since the rate increase, and the new tax agreement with the gaming houses will be fully implemented. As such, we expect to secure higher receipts for the government accordingly.

“Moreover, the new Electronic Single Window at the Customs Department, with its enhanced features, is intended to secure more revenue via the Click2Clear platform, some of which will be realised in the upcoming fiscal year. All told, this should translate

into an increase in the revenue yield of the tax system to the area of 19.8 percent of GDP in 2019/20 and beyond.

“As such, we have budgeted for total revenue of $2.628 billion in 2019/20, which represents a $215 million increase over the projected outturn in 2018/19.”

He told the House that the GFS deficit in the new fiscal year is estimated at $137 million, which translates to a deficit to GDP ratio of 1.0 percent.

He said such an outcome is fully compliant with the requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, adding this would be the lowest annual fiscal deficit recorded in The Bahamas in 10 years and would mean the lowest fiscal deficit ratio in this country in over 17 years.

MEMBERS of the Cabinet in the Cabinet meeting room before walking across to the House of Assembly.

Budget a break from the past, declares Turnquest from page one critical and transformational structural reforms that will set a proper and stable foundation for sustained private sector-led economic growth and job creation. I firmly believe that our revamped model of governance will indeed give rise to a better future for all Bahamians.”

He also said: “This budget stands for a government that is a better partner to the Bahamian people. We are transforming our execution and service delivery so we can provide Bahamians with better results. We are refocusing our spending so we can provide Bahamians with better benefits. Not the type of benefits in the past that have increased the dependence of citizens on the government, but the type of benefits that allow Bahamians to be empowered and independent.”

The duty changes, Mr Turnquest said, are a part of the government’s effort to rebalance the tax burden between provision of goods and services and reduce the accompanying distortionary impacts.

The deputy prime minister said this represented the government making good its commitment to reduce duty and excise rates over the next three years.

The proposed tax relief measures are intended to provide reprieve to all citizens and to encourage economic activity by making the import of

certain items relatively cheaper, the East Grand Bahama MP said.

As a result the government hopes to make it easier for persons to enter existing markets and in some cases, create new ones.

Mainly, the focus of these reductions is around educational supplies and equipment, and household implements and goods.

Items to be duty free include: home refrigerators of 18 cubic feet or smaller and home stoves 30 inches wide or smaller; pens, pencils, crayons, sharpeners, school rulers and chart paper and fire extinguishers.

Household furniture will also see a considerable duty reduction from 45 percent to 25 percent and pots and pans from 45 percent to 25 percent.

Additionally the duty on projectors and projector screens will be lessened from 45 percent to 35 percent.

Garbage can liners and flashlights will further be reduced from 45 percent to 25 percent.

Rates on radios also will be less at a rate of 35 percent from 45 percent.

The government also plans to remove the duty from musical instruments.

It will also allow trailers for commercial fishing boats to be eligible for duty exemption and will further amend the Spirits and Beer Manufacture Act to reduce the minimum bushel requirement for production, to now make

microbreweries eligible for import duty concessions.

There also will be duty exemptions applied to new and hybrid vehicles.

These include reducing the duty on new vehicles between 1.5 litres and 2.0 litres valued at $50,000 or less from 65 percent to 45 percent.

He said in this context, only cars with less than 200 miles on the odometer

will be considered ‘new’.

This makes smaller more fuel-efficient vehicles more affordable, the finance minister said, adding there will be harmonisation of rates on all new electric and hybrid vehicles valued up to $50,000 to 10 percent.

This measure will have a sunset clause of five years, after which this special revision will revert closer to the rates for other small size

vehicles. And in anticipating the 2020 ban on single use plastics, the government proposes to increase the duty on biodegradable and compostable plastic shopping bags from

five percent to 45 percent; but at the same time, reducing the duty on reusable cloth shopping bags from 30 percent to five percent.

Editorial View - Page 6

PAGE 4, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

BUDGET 2019/20

‘Over-budgeting in the past has allowed us to trim spending’

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said uncovering a history of over-budgeting has allowed the Minnis administration to trim its budget, especially with respect to spending on personal emoluments.

He said: “You would be interested to know what we found after doing a ministry-by-ministry, lineitem-by-line item analysis of actual government expenditure compared to budgeted sums. We found a historical pattern of over-budgeting.

In the category of personal emoluments, for example, we found that the budget included allocations for salaries that were no longer being paid. How is this possible? You have situations where the employment register is outdated and does not reflect some of the employees who retire, leave the public service and move into pensioner status.

Although these individuals are not being paid, their salaries are still being budgeted for.

“It is noteworthy to mention that personal emoluments constitute roughly 30 percent of the country’s total expenditure.

Therefore, over-budgeting in just this area alone can reduce available spending in other key areas of the economy. As a result, you will see a reduction in the budgeted amount for salaries, along with line items in every single ministry.

This budget cut does not mean a cut in the actual headcount, or in actual programmes. It simply means we are budgeting properly to account for the actual commitments of the government. Time after time, in area after area, we have found cases where agencies did not spend all of their allocations. In fact, when the assessments were conducted, on average, most agencies spent roughly 60 to 70 percent of their budgets. As a result of our in-depth review, we identify seven opportunities to surgically trim the budget, decrease fiscal inefficiencies and reverse

MEMBERS of the Cabinet before yesterday’s Budget Communication. Top, walking across Rawson Square to the House of Assembly.

the historical pattern of improper planning resulting in over budgeting with little outcomes.”

Mr Turnquest also discussed the government’s plans to revamp the real property tax system. The first phase of the project is expected to add as many as 9,000 unregistered properties to the tax roll, he said. The net result of the enforcement exercise is a projected annual boost of $21 million in real property tax collections and a project

that creates up to 40 jobs for Bahamians during an18 month period.

Mr Turnquest also highlighted efforts to modernise the Bahamas Customs Department through its introduction of the Electronic Single Window dubbed “Click2Clear”.

He said: “This new Click2Clear platform, which is being rolled out in phases, will bring the Bahamas in line with best in class customs clearing processes,

allowing a person or company to clear their goods from anywhere they have access to the internet. In particular, the new system allows for: more convenient, paperless processing, as clearance will be available at any time; online payment of customs duties; tight controls that will help to minimise fraud; less time for processing, as entries will be checked automatically in the new system and, for low-risk users, spot checks will be done as opposed to

100 percent inspections; automated statistical dashboards that will allow for more robust record keeping and accurate customs statistics; the full integration of other government agencies; and increased transparency and accountability.

“Finally, the old, paperbased process of clearing customs will be a thing of the past, and a new era of efficiency, timeliness and enhanced convenience will be ushered in with this new system. As of February of

this year, approximately 1,600 businesses were on the new ‘Click2Clear’ Electronic Single Window platform. So far, we have appreciated the feedback from the business community and we are making changes, based on this feedback, to ensure that the benefits of this system accrue to all stakeholders. The official launch of the system will take place in September 2019, for all users, commercial and private, across the archipelago.”

ANNUAL LIST OF GOVT CONTRACTS TO BE PUBLISHED

By RASHAD ROLLE Tribune Staff Reporter rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE government will publish an annual list of every government contract awarded in a year under its proposed Public Procurement Bill 2019, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said during his budget communication yesterday.

The government’s procurement system has long drawn the ire of transparency advocates and the business community. In the past, the US State Department has described the procurement process as opaque and susceptible to corruption. Mr Turnquest did not reveal when the new procurement bill will be tabled, though a draft

version of the bill was submitted in 2018 to the Organisation of American States, which released the document.

“The new legislation will ensure that, going forward, the awarding and management of all contracts, vendors’ accounts and logistical arrangements for products and services in the country will be conducted in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner,” Mr Turnquest said.

“In respect to procurement reform, the electronic supplier registry has been open for over a year and businesses are registering in anticipation of the new legislative framework.

Once this component is complete, all national procurement will be executed through the E-Procurement and Supplier Registry System.

Thus, the procurement process will not only be more efficient, but more transparent, as every step of the process will be done in the open. All jobs will be advertised publicly, and every contract awarded will be published online and in the newspaper. Gone will be the days when Bahamians have to wait for the auditor general to uncover—sometimes years after the fact—that some mysterious individual or firm has received a million dollar contract while, in return, providing no discernible service or product.

“This government promised accountability and transparency, and the work under this component will move us far along in delivering on this promise.”

As part of its public financial management reform, the

administration will replace the critical Financial Administration and Audit Act with the Public Financial Management Bill. The new bill would clarify the “roles and responsibilities of finance officers, reporting requirements, accountability expectations for government agencies, expanded budget disclosure requirements and the oversight of State-Owned Enterprises,” Mr Turnquest said.

“Very importantly, this bill will impose specific criminal penalties for those that breach the public trust and who cannot account for their actions in the management of public funds.

This bill is expected to be ready for public consultation in the coming months, with anticipation of its introduction in Parliament

by the end of this calendar year,” he said.

The upcoming budget also includes a funding increase of nearly half a million dollars for the Department of the Auditor General, meant to increase the government’s pursuit of transparency, Mr Turnquest said.

“In this light, we have allocated approximately $3.2 million for the Department of the Auditor General this year, which represents an increase of nearly $0.5 million over the $2.8 million allocated in 2018/19.

“By equipping the Department of the Auditor General with more resources, they will now be able to acquire more sophisticated audit tools that allow it to fulfill its constitutional mandate as an independent auditor,” he said.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 5

BUDGET 2019/20

A tale of epic failure PLP’s Cooper accuses govt of borrowing ‘like a drunken sailor’

By MORGAN ADDERLEY Tribune Staff Reporter madderley@tribunemedia.net PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party deputy leader Chester Cooper branded the 2019/2020 Budget as a “tale of epic failure.”

While delivering the Official Opposition’s response to the 2018/2019 Budget communication, he lambasted the Minnis administration for lacking “any plan to grow the economy”.

Questioning how the government will increase aggregate revenue from $1.9b to $2.4b in a twomonth period, Mr Cooper also said there was nothing in the communication to uplift Bahamians, adding it’s no surprise the country is currently experiencing an “unprecedented” level of union unrest.

Mr Cooper also accused Minnis administration of borrowing “like a drunken sailor,” wanting to cripple the “one black-owned industry in this country,” reducing taxes for “special interests,” and “putting numbers before the people”.

“Today we heard a lot of gibberish,” Mr Cooper said. “We heard nothing to uplift the Bahamian people. There has been no announcement of growth opportunities or relief to the Bahamian people as their quality of life diminished. The poor continues to catch eternal hell at the hands of this uncaring government. It’s no wonder the level of union unrest is unprecedented.

“As expected, this administration has not met its own flawed revenue projections. In the face of their almost $240m shortfall, their reckless abandonment of the Revenue Enhancement Unit amplifies the colossal failure of this administration.

“For the love of country, we hate to say that we told them so, but we did tell them.

“Whilst they boast of meeting their deficit target, we note vendors and contractors across the country who complain of not being paid. We therefore look forward to comparing year over year when the books close in October/November

as the minister did in prior years.”

When he gave his communication earlier yesterday, Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest noted in the first ten months of the fiscal year, aggregate revenue increased by $272.6m to $1.9bn.

“All told, we project that remaining two months of the fiscal year will perform positively,” Mr Turnquest continued. “For the fiscal year as a whole, revenue is estimated to come in at about $2.4bn, some $238m or 9.0 percent lower than what was budget at the start of the fiscal year.”

To this, Mr Cooper said: “In the face of the minister’s transparency soap box, we question how the minister will collect an average of $250m per month in the last two months when it only received an average of $190m over the first ten months.

“We see more of the same from this administration, particularly the absence of any plan to grow the economy.”

He also said that if the government had not “reduced taxes” for special interests and given a value-added tax refund to “special interests on Grand Bahama,” “revenue targets would have been met.”

Mr Cooper also called for the government to inform

My sister surprised me but I agree with her, says the MP in the family from page one family of its heritage and stole from Bahamians.

The outburst had been made more surprising by the fact that senators and the Chipman family were the only two groups in the gallery that House Speaker Halson Moultrie acknowledged at the beginning of the sitting. The Chipman family is celebrating the 100th anniversary of their ancestor Howard Nelson Chipman’s election to Parliament, the Speaker had said. Less than 20 minutes later he was calling the woman’s outburst “criminal” and announced she would be banned from the House of Assembly for the rest of the session. He also said the woman was in police custody when the House of Assembly returned from a brief suspension following her outburst.

The Budget communication is traditionally the most anticipated event on Parliament’s calendar. This was the first outburst of the session so far.

The Chipman family has been a part of a longrunning dispute over land.

Last year Mr Chipman said in the lower chamber that maps showed his family owned the Tucker Estate between Tusculum and Orange Hill “on and off West Bay Street.”

Moments after his relative was pulled from the House of Assembly, Mr Chipman picked up the wrist bands she had thrown and mouthed “sorry” to governing party members while walking away.

He later told reporters that while he was surprised by his sister’s action, he supports her fully.

“I make no apologies for what she said because I believe in the same things she believes in,” he said, “which is justice and righteousness in Parliament and without. I think at this time we have a lot of Bahamians frustrated with the way the system has not given them a chance. For me, I can appreciate her position.”

Speaking about any repercussions his sister may face, he said: “We have to fight. We have to fight for

young people so it’s more to it than just being charged.

It’s about charting a course for the next generation of the Bahamas.”

Near the end of the sitting, Speaker Moultrie said Mrs Chipman-Rolle’s behaviour was a serious breach. He also noted, according to House rules, it is prohibited to broadcast such disruptive incidents.

By then, however, videos of the outburst had already been circulated widely through social media and a portion of it had been broadcast by the Parliamentary Channel.

“I see this incident this morning as a very, very serious breach of the security of the Parliament of the Bahamas and such breach cannot be tolerated whether it be by strangers or by members,” Speaker Moultrie said. “Any act in the chair’s estimation where a stranger would enter the precincts of the Parliament and cast objects onto the floor of the Parliament must be considered a very, very serious breach of the precincts of the Parliament and should be dealt with accordingly.”

TODAY we heard a lot of gibberish, said PLP deputy leader Chester Cooper the public of the status of the Royal Bank of Canada overdraft facility - including the current limit and the interest rate.

He also criticised the fact that VAT was increased by 60 per cent yet the government only collected 21 percent VAT revenue.

Mr Cooper also questioned who will employ recent graduates, wondering if it will be the gaming industry.

“That was one of the few sectors that had positive growth in the last year, according to the Department of Statistics. And it is the one black-owned industry in this country that the government has openly admitted it wants to cripple.

“This government, despite all its talk of old bills, borrowed like a drunken sailor, increased recurrent expenditure by $246m, increased the debt

THE POLICE move in as Fontella Chipman-Rolle, sister of Centreville MP Reece Chipman, makes her point yesterday.

to GDP ratio from 54.4 percent in 2016/2017 to 58.2 percent in 2018/2019 and the national debt increased to $8.2bn,” he continued.

“I think now that it is apparent to all that this administration no longer governs for the people, but for the select few who believe it is their right to be fattened at the government trough.

“When will it be the people’s time?”

PAGE 6, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

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Steady as she goes TAKING care of the cents seems to be saving the dollars when it comes to the latest budget.

The headline numbers were that there was nothing major that was new – but it’s the detail that proves most interesting this time around.

Deputy Prime Minister Peter Turnquest, wearing his Minister of Finance hat, told how a line-by-line analysis of each department’s budget has helped to trim spending.

Rather than just letting departments throw in the same budget request as the year before plus a little bit extra for new projects, taking care of the details seems to have shown areas where some spending wasn’t needed. Funds for salaries that were no longer being paid, for example, with members of staff having moved on but the required funding still sitting in the request list.

We perhaps shouldn’t be too enthusiastic in applauding this – it is, after all, a fairly basic piece of management. Add to that the more disciplined approach to real property tax collections and you have an extra $21m coming in at a time when less money is required. No bad combination.

Ahead of the budget, the whispers had been that VAT might go up – no such measure, as Mr Turnquest signaled ahead of time. Indeed, funds are steady enough it seems that tax breaks have been put forward that will help families in particular – refrigerators and stoves, crayons and pencils among the new duty free items, while a reduction in duty on furniture.

Electric bills of $300 or lower or water bills of $50 per billing cycle being made

VAT free permanently will also be welcomed by those in that range.

Overall, rather than leaving us all with a sense that the government is still struggling to right the ship as it wrestles through turbulent economic waters, instead it seems to be steady as it goes for the good ship Bahamas.

There are valid concerns – PLP Deputy Leader Chester Cooper certainly has solid questions about the projected extra income from VAT and the likelihood of bringing in $250m a month according to projections for the last two months when only $190m on average has been raised for the first ten.

However, his cry that the budget is an “epic failure” is the kind of overblown hyperbole that makes people roll their eyes at politicians. Indeed, were he to glance across at the mess that transpired over the BAMSI fire under his leader’s tenure at Ministry of Works, he might in his heart applaud the more detailed look at departmental spending advocated by Mr Turnquest.

More, in saying the government might have hit its revenue targets if not for “reduced taxes” for special interests and a VAT refund to “special interests in Grand Bahama”, he’s essentially admitting that the general shape of the economy is on course barring those areas.

We hope this is the shape of things to come – and that the government doesn’t lapse into politically motivated giveaways as we come closer to the next election.

Now that the ship is sailing more smoothly, let’s keep it that way.

We have allowed tyrant governments to wreak havoc EDITOR, The Tribune YOUR editorial (May 28), castigating Brent Symonette and Immigration, could have had some balance if it were recognised that Immigration has been, (second only perhaps next to Fox Hill Prison in terms of dysfunctional Government Agencies), a disastrous department over the last 50 years.

Not long after 1968, a very close family friend of mine, who had come here at the age of three, with a Bahamian mother of long Bahamian ancestry, and was working for IBM, realised that he did not have Bahamian Citizenship, and therefore began the process of applying. He had recently married, bought a house, and had two

children in Nassau. Several years went by and IBM was under pressure I suppose to regularise his status, but probably because he was white, and born in the UK, nothing happened.

Eventually, IBM offered him a job in Canada, so he sold his house and moved his family lock stock and barrel to Canada, at great personal cost. A couple of years later, a letter arrived saying that his Citizenship had been approved! Say no more.

There were thousands of these cases back then, particularly when The Bahamas was being Rokerised, and one case that seemed quite funny at the time, was of a lady client of one of my uncles, who had applied for Citizenship, and waited the rest of her life for it to be granted. One

day my uncle got a letter from Immigration saying that so and so’s Citizenship had been approved. He had to write back thanking them, but advising that the poor soul had died a year or two before.

So, Brent is indeed at the tail end of a Ministry that, to use a popular term now, SUCCESSIVE Bahamas governments, have frequently weaponised for political advantage or punishment. In many ways the Bahamian people should have to bear the cost of this political war because for the most part of this time, they have allowed tyrant governments to wreak havoc on the people.

BRUCE G RAINE Nassau May 28, 2019

We’re not controlled by Beijing EDITOR, The Tribune YOU kindly published my opinion of the comment of the Assistant Secretary US on Chinese influence in The Bahamas…a reader commented electronically and I think it appropriate to respond.

Pre-clearance…1.3 million visitors plus 240,000 residents go through Pre-clearance to the US. Believe me the US will not pull that service – far far too important to the efficient management

of movement at their Border and they make a very, very large sum… conservative estimate US$40 million annually.

If not in Nassau, chaos in Miami.

Visitors? The Bahamas location blends extremely well to the closet eastern seaboard tourist destination outside of the US. Remember historically the opening of casinos, then US owned, really opened the doors for US travel before it was seasonal and only the rich who

came here between September - May. We purchase $2 plus billion annually from the South Miami area alone…

The Bahamas is not controlled by Beijing, but it has to be said the loans, yes loans, they have made have assisted us…the private investment in Baha Mar, note private investment I presume someone is paying that back.

W THOMPSON Nassau May 26, 2019

Projects were never meant to influence an election EDITOR, The Tribune I TAKE exception to opinions proffered in the editorial appearing in the May 21, 2019 edition of The Tribune under the heading “Nothing lessens the purse strings like an election”.

The editorial writer sought to connect the New Providence Infrastructure Improvement Project (NPIIP) undertaken by my Government to a “classic moment of loosening the purse strings before an election”.

I attach for your information my Communication in the House of Assembly on 5 March, 2012 in which I addressed the 19-year history of the Project envisioned since 1994 when we engaged a Canadian firm, MM Dillon to prepare a transportation development plan for New Providence.

This plan formed the basis of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) funded NPIIP (“the Project”).

The elaboration of the Project, which included the selection of a consulting firm, Mott MacDonald Consultants, a UK firm, for the development of the project and the sourcing of its funding from the IDB was a well thought out and planned programme of infrastructural improvements for our Capital Island.

The Project was conceived in response to an imperative to transform our aged and outdated public infrastructure, i.e. water mains and laterals, electric and communication conduits, poor drainage and congested road network in New Providence, an island

LETTERS letters@tribunemedia.net whose population had more than doubled in the previous four decades. The Project broke ground in April, 2001.

The Charles Saunders Highway, Milo Butler Highway to Fire Trail Road and the realignment of Gladstone Road had been substantially completed and opened before the 2002 General Elections.

Subsequent to the 2002 General Election the company contracted to carry out the project, Associated Asphalt of the United Kingdom, went bankrupt due to circumstances unrelated to The Bahamas Project.

The Project was underpinned by Performance and Advance Payments Bonds. At that time, the Government chose not to enforce the Performance and Advance Payment Bonds which could have resulted in the project being completed by Interbetton, a Dutch company.

Interbetton had been an acceptable bidder in the original bid process and was the contractor of the second Paradise Island Bridge. Had the Government enforced the Bonds the Project could have been completed in 2005.

Instead the first Christie Administration chose to continue only some aspects of the Project, including widening a section of Harrold Road and Blue Hill Road south between Harrold Road and Robinson Road and extending the

Milo Butler Highway to Carmichael Road.

When the FNM was returned to office in 2007 my government immediately resumed our programme of infrastructure upgrades, including harbour deepening, water works, telecommunications and, of course, the completion of the Project.

Markedly roads in the city and other heavily populated areas were to be ungraded along with the underlying water and electrical and telecommunications infrastructure.

That these works created nuisances and temporary inconveniences to businesses and the motoring public are acknowledged.

I note the obvious, without the inner city infrastructural upgrades planned in the Project to include upgrade to distribution water mains and road drainage, improved road intersections, the installation of sidewalks and landscape, the long sought after renewal of the Overthe-Hill areas cannot happen.

It never occurred to me that any of these projects were meant to influence an election. Our initiatives were fulfillment of pledges and commitments dating from our first coming to office in August 1992; hence, my rejection of the editor’s conclusion that the work was undertaken for re-election purposes.

Clearly your editorial writer did not let the facts get in the way of his uninformed opinion.

HUBERT INGRAHAM Nassau May 29, 2019

Time for some lateral thinking EDITOR, The Tribune INTELLECTUAL question: am I the only one who does not like that the sun sets at 10 to 8pm, or waking up in the dark?

And I wonder why, with our scorched plants waiting desperately for the rain, we are in the same time change zone as those in the north who are desperately looking for sun to bring the first buds out of the ground?

Perhaps the time changes should be lateral not horizontal? Latitude not longitude?

The farmers in Saskatchewan refuse to go with the time change, could we?

Too hot to sit on the porch…

TOO HOT Nassau May 25, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 7

Father’s fury as son comes home from school ‘black and blue’

By AVA TURNQUEST Tribune Chief Reporter aturnquest@tribunemedia.net A FATHER’s outrage over the beating of a seventh grade student by a senior official at St Augustine’s College has reignited viral debate over the use of corporal punishment in schools.

The private Catholic school is investigating the incident, and The Tribune was told the matter is also being investigated by the police.

Ian Mills took to Facebook to share a photo of his son’s bruised buttocks on Tuesday evening, alleging that his child was beaten that day for “clowning and talking in class”.

The picture of a large raised purple bruise across the child’s bottom has been deleted but the post had attracted more than 400 comments, 144 likes, and 173 shares by midday yesterday.

“So I’m trying my hardest to keep my cool,” Mr Mills wrote, “this is how my son 7th grader at SAC came home just now. Spoke to the principal and she asked me what I wanted her to say to the dean!

“Asked me to come into school in the morning. I already said 15 prayers for the Lord to please take this anger out of me cause I know me. MY children.”

The post continued: “This what he got for clowning and talking in class. I don’t even beat my children! And this how he’s coming home black and blue. I told them I’m going to put it on Facebook. This is crazy, I told him he was joking when he told me he got beating and was falling on the ground hoping that he would stop beating him.”

Parents of the seventh grader met with school officials yesterday morning, and SAC has declined comment at this time.

The Bahamas Catholic Board of Education does not have any regulatory oversight of SAC as the school has its own private board.

Yesterday, Catholic Archbishop Patrick Pinder declined comment on the matter as it was under active investigation by the school and police.

The use of corporal punishment in public schools has been discouraged in recent years, with Education Minister Jeffrey Lloyd stating that children should only be beaten in schools if all other options have been exhausted, and in the most egregious of circumstances.

Yesterday, Mr Lloyd said he had not been fully briefed on the incident at SAC and reserved comment on the matter.

However, he reiterated the ministry’s position on corporal punishment,

To advertise in The Tribune, contact 502-2394

noting the public tension over whether the practice should be discontinued.

“There is a debate where those who feel that corporal punishment should be eliminated, there are those who believe that corporal punishment should remain as at least some possible sanction in the hand of a mother, teacher, or administrator.

That debate obviously will continue, the government will have a final position sometime after proper vetting of the discussion with relevant stakeholders.

“However, there is a very clear rule in the government’s manual with regard to corporal punishment,” Mr Lloyd said, “it is administered as a last resort and it is only administered by an administrator in the presence of another administrator.

“So this issue of corporal punishment being willy-nilly applied is something that is not sanctioned by the government, and it is repudiated at every instance, anywhere that it occurs. Our children are not to be abused, that is not the intention, that is not going to be accepted and any incident of abuse whether it’s physical, moral, intellectual, or otherwise will be strictly met with the most vigorous of resistance by this minister and the ministry.”

Mr Mills’ post invoked a wide range of responses, with some expressing shock and disgust, others advocating for violent retaliation, and SAC alum coming to the defence of the senior official and the instrument used to administer

punishment, named “black beauty”.

FB user Glenisha Albury wrote: ‘I know everyone is upset with SAC…but (senior official) really and truly uses corporal punishment as last resort. He talks several times to students about their behaviour before he gets to that level.

Everyone is threatening his life when (the official) has saved more lives than your favs (sic).”

Another user Rayne Heastie wrote: “I didn’t know there were parents that sent their kids to SAC without knowing that they would be beaten with ‘black beauty’ if they misbehaved.

I remember when (the official) beat my *** in grade eight in front of the whole class. I didn’t tell Mummy about that until long after I graduated.”

Tio Panza wrote: “Y’all in here giving yinna testimony about y’all kids. No one knows what these kids be like in school. We acted out as kids an’ got cut *** for it. If you don’t want your child spanked, home school them. Or put them in an institution that does not believe in it. None of y’all talking bout moving y’all kids that got cut ***, so either shut it up or fix ya situation (sic).”

Another user Renea Mariea Joseph-Deveaux wrote: “I will never understand why people feel that beating a child to the point where they can’t sit down is discipline, it’s damn abuse, pure and simple. . .Not because our parents did it means it’s right. It’s still abuse.”

THE DECEASED is believed to be James “Jay” Alfred

17-YEAR-OLD DIES AFTER SHOOTING

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the circumstances surrounding a shooting incident that left a teenager dead and two other men in hospital on Tuesday night.

According to police, shortly after 11pm, three males were walking on Raymond Road when they were approached by three armed men. The men opened fire in their direction injuring them before fleeing the scene.

The injured males were taken to hospital and a short time later the 17-year-old boy was pronounced dead. The other two men are listed in stable condition.

The Tribune understands the deceased is James “Jay” Alfred, however, his identity was not released by police.

This latest incident marked the country’s 33rd murder for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police at 919, 502-9991 or the Crime Stoppers hotline at 328-TIPS (8477).

Ship and logistics company, seeks an experienced, proven leader to join its team.

In search of a Logistics Coordinator who is a natural self-starter for our Nassau office. The ideal candidate will be responsible for providing leadership for all operational aspects of the Nassau office including scheduling, organizing and coordinating business to ensure efficient and effective growth and operation.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS • Bachelor’s Degree in Logistics, Supply Chain Management or Business Administration is preferred. 5+ years’ experience in management/logistics management preferably within the shipping industry.

• Experience in managing complex systems, distribution and logistics systems. Advanced computer skills in Microsoft Office and databases • Strong leadership and interpersonal skills are a must in addition to the ability to multitask, work under pressure and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment • Demonstrated ability to professionally and diplomatically communicate well in writing, over the phone, and face to face • Strong work ethic, integrity and personal accountability • A proven track record of success and improvement • Strong time & priority management, organizational and planning skills • Experience using Supply Chain systems, tools and applications • Ability to manage through a problem, think and make decisions independently Interested & qualified applicants, please send your resumé to hrmgr.bahamas@gmail.com by June 10.

Include Nassau in the Subject Line.

PAGE 8, Thursday, May 30, 2019

T

HE US annually commemorates its fallen military heroes on Memorial Day, creating the first three-day weekend of the summer at the end of May. For the past 32 years, one of the most impressive Memorial Day demonstrations has been organised by 74-year-old army veteran Artie Muller. He and a few associates started the motorcycle-driven Rolling Thunder rally in 1988, but have announced that this year’s huge assemblage will be the organisation’s last.

For many years now, during the days before and after Memorial Day, the highways around Washington DC and throughout America’s Mid-Atlantic region have been jammed with motorcycles heading to the capital for a demonstration of solidarity with both dead military heroes and those who may still be held in captivity by enemies of America’s many foreign wars. The POW/MIA drama reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, fuelled by movie myths and some truth around the notion that American soldiers, sailors

THE TRIBUNE

Trump insists tribute to heroes won’t fall silent - but can he deliver?

STATESIDE

with Charlie Harper and aviators were still being held in grim Vietnamese prisons decades after that war’s end in 1975.

While the roar of hundreds of thousands of motorcycles is indeed an impressive tribute by and for veterans, it turns out that the logistical cost of $200,000 to stage the rally had become too much for

the organisers to sustain.

A big part of those costs reportedly covered parking lot rental fees at the Department of Defence, whose massive Pentagon parking lot serves as the rallying and start-off point for the bikers’ traditional passage across the Potomac River to the National Mall and the US Capitol.

It’s kind of ironic, since the Vietnam veterans served commanders who sat in the same Pentagon.

Amid all the rumours that this year’s rally would be the last, US President Trump tweeted from a state visit to Japan that “The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, DC

next year. It is where they should be.” But not everyone seemed to fall in line with or believe the president.

A Pentagon spokesperson warned ominously that “effective preparation for an event like Rolling Thunder is a complicated and lengthy process”. The White House declined to comment on Trump’s tweet, offering

little hope for Rolling Thunder in 2020.

“They (the government) would have to do a lot before we would agree to come back next year,” Muller said to reporters. Still, the size of the turnout this year did impress him.

“It shows there are some people who still care about others – not just about themselves.”

Canada hoping Raptors pull surprise against Golden State TORONTO Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard during practice for the NBA finals in Toronto yesterday.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Raptors and Golden State Warriors is tonight in Toronto.

A CANADIAN professional team last won a North American championship in 1993, when the Toronto Blue Jays successfully defended their World Series baseball title. Since then, it’s been a long drought for Canadian teams – a particularly painful period for fans of the nation’s seven NHL hockey teams.

Hockey is, after all, Canada’s national sport, and Canadian teams regularly triumph in international competitions.

Now comes the latest Canadian championship hope in basketball’s Toronto Raptors. They begin play tonight in the NBA finals against the powerhouse Golden State Warriors, and the Raptors will hold the home court advantage in this best-ofseven series because they had a better regular-season record. Few observers expect the Raptors to beat the Warriors in the series, but Toronto was the early betting favourite to win the opener at home.

This season marks the fifth straight NBA finals appearance for Golden State, which will move after the finals from Oakland across the bay to San Francisco, where more residents can afford their ticket and luxury suite prices. The Warriors have won four of those five most recent finals, with their only defeat coming

to the Cleveland Cavaliers of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love three years ago. After that stunning defeat, the Warriors kept intact the nucleus of their team and then added probably the most talented player in basketball in Kevin Durant. Since then, the Warriors have been unbeatable when it counts most.

The Raptors have had their own problems recently with LeBron and the Cavs. Cleveland swept the Raptors out of the playoffs in both 2017 and 2018 by 4-0 counts each time. Now LeBron is at home for the playoffs and Toronto has taken advantage, most recently by upsetting the strong and deep Milwaukee Bucks in six games. The Raptors are led by long-time stalwart guard Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard, the all-star acquired after last season from San Antonio in one of the most daring trades in NBA history.

Credit for the trade goes to Toronto President of Basketball Operations and Nigerian citizen Masai Ujiri, who also fired NBA Coach of the Year Dwayne Casey after last season. Ujiri’s moves have succeeded brilliantly.

Leonard will become a free agent after this season and may well not choose to return to Toronto, meaning his

might be a one-year tenure in Canada. So what? No one in Ontario or anywhere else North of the Border is complaining. The Raptors are in the finals!

The Warriors, meanwhile, have been confidently waiting. As they should. This team may be the best team in NBA history, but if they’re not, very few could rank above them. They are the best team in professional basketball history without a true centre. (Sorry, Bulls fans.) They have just breezed through the Western Conference playoffs again, vanquishing the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets (who were purpose-built to challenge them) and the Portland Trail Blazers with their two brilliant guards.

And, by the way, Kevin Durant hasn’t played in weeks. The rest of the Warriors, led by the inimitable Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, have been easily up to the task of carrying on in Durant’s absence. In fact, if the Raptors don’t put an early scare into Golden State, Durant might not even play any more this year before departing after the finals in free agency.

When he leaves, he’ll take another championship ring with him.

Game preview - See Sport

A cautionary tale for The Bahamas EVERY once in a while, local curiosity surfaces about possible oil reserves sitting tantalisingly under the surface of Bahamian waters in the area of Cay Sal, a southwestern Bahamian territory closer to Cuba and even to parts of the Florida Keys than it is to Nassau. Some reports as far back as 1956 link the eccentric and enigmatic American entrepreneur Howard Hughes with development deals with Bahamians who had acquired crown leases for the purpose of oil exploration.

Nothing too significant has come from this sporadic interest. Maybe that’s a good thing. From New Orleans and other locations comes new information that might serve as a new cautionary tale for The Bahamas.

We all remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010 that

fouled beaches and severely harmed marine life all along the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. British Petroleum, which had leased the platform, eventually was assigned two-thirds of the liability for the catastrophe and has paid out billions of dollars in compensation and penalties. A movie starring Kurt Russell was made about the disaster.

But new information is only now emerging about another rig failure in the Gulf of Mexico - the Taylor Energy spill. This occurred in September 2004. Taylorowned oil wells ruptured when the force of Hurricane Ivan collapsed deep sea canyon walls and sank an oil platform. The US Coast Guard and various other American agencies have been overseeing efforts by Taylor to contain the estimated 2.5 million barrels of oil that have slowly leaked into the Gulf

of Mexico over nearly 15 years, and until this month have continued to foul the sea. The Taylor spill could eventually be larger than Deepwater Horizon, though spread over a much longer time period. Taylor has also reportedly tried to contain the flow of information on the spill, presumably to limit its liability.

Energy watchdogs in New Orleans, investigative reporters from The Times Picayune, The Washington Post and other news outlets and citizens groups have followed the case and now report that a new Coast Guard contractor may have been able to finally stem the oil flow and engage in a potentially successful clean-up.

Hopefully, technological advances and closer oversight will limit future oil spills. But after the way the Taylor spill has been handled, you wouldn’t want to bet on it.

THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 9

Now Reckley faces trial over money laundering charges

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Urban Renewal Deputy Director Michelle Reckley pictured at an earlier court hearing.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

THE Court of Appeal has ordered former Urban Renewal Deputy Director Michelle Reckley and four others to stand trial over the money laundering charges a magistrate absolved them of earlier this year.

The appellate court ordered Reckley, Christopher Symonette, Stefanie Collie, Kylon Vincent and James Wildgoose to stand trial “forthwith” over “all of the offences” they were charged with in February.

In doing so, the appellate judges set aside Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister’s March 29 decision to drop all of the money laundering charges against the five accused, which resulted in all but Reckley being discharged.

Appellate President Sir Hartman Longley and fellow Justices Jon Isaacs and Stella Crane-Scoot all found that Magistrate Armbrister “fell into error” when he discharged the accused of the offences in question.

According to the ruling, on March 29, Magistrate Armbrister took issue with the money laundering charges on the basis that they were statute barred because they were levelled outside of the six-month limitation period for summary offences.

Magistrate Armbrister also declined jurisdiction on the basis that the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA), under which Reckley and the others were charged,

had been repealed and the law which replaced it was enacted on May 25, 2018, a date that was before the accused were charged, but after the alleged actions that led to the criminal charges occurred.

As a result, and having found that the criminal charges were an abuse of the process of the court, Magistrate Armbrister dismissed the charges and discharged the five accused pursuant to Section 59(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

The Crown subsequently appealed his decision, asserting that the magistrate “made serious and grave errors in law”.

In yesterday’s ruling, Sir Hartman noted that Section 213(1) of the CPC provides a six-month limitation period for laying charges pertaining to summary offences.

Sub-section 2(b) of the CPC, he said, provides that the six month limitation period does not apply when the offence is an indictable offence that can be tried summarily.

He further noted that section 45 of the POCA provides that the offence of money laundering is triable summarily or on

information, and that section 2 of the CPC defines an indictable offence as one that is triable on information.

Thus, he said since the money laundering offences are all triable on information by virtue of section 45 of the POCA, they are indictable offences for the purposes of the CPC, and as a result, the six month limitation does not apply on those offences.

The appellate president further noted that section 20 of the Interpretation and General Clauses Act (IGCA) permits the investigation, commencement, or institution of legal proceedings in respect of any offence found after any such investigation to have been committed against any written law so repealed, notwithstanding the repeal of the written law as if it had not been repealed.

He described it as a “time freezing device” that keeps intact “any possible criminal behaviour for subsequent review, investigation, institution/ commencement of prosecution found to have been committed ‘against any written law so repealed’”.

This, he said, was so as to ensure that no criminal

would escape “the dragnet of the law” on the “pernicious technicality that his or her violation is of a law that has, since the commission of the illegal act, been repealed”.

Justice Isaacs, meanwhile, found that though Magistrate Armbrister discharged Reckley and the others pursuant to section 59(2) of the CPC, that section concerns the initiation of a complaint before a magistrate.

In the present case however, Justice Isaacs said Reckley and the others had already been arraigned before the chief magistrate, and were therefore “within the cognizance” the magistrate’s jurisdiction, thus negating the need for the issuance of a summons requiring their attendance at court.

As a result, Justice Isaacs said Magistrate Ambrister’s reliance on that section as a basis for discharging the five accused was “misconceived”.

In February, Reckley was charged with defrauding the government of $1,255,637.83 via the Urban Renewal Small Homes Repair programme in Grand Bahama.

She faces 21 charges.

PAGE 10, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Some welcome clarity from Cable Bahamas IN ITS quarterly financial report through March 31, 2019, Cable Bahamas for the first time has added management comments to the usual bare-bones figures —a practice that should become standard for all BISX-listed companies.

When businessman Franklyn Butler, of the family-owned Milo Butler wholesale empire, became CEO of Cable late last year, he saw the company was losing the confidence of its shareholder base, as the quoted share price on BISX steadily declined more than 30 percent to a fraction over $2.00 and no dividends were being paid. He decided the company’s complex corporate structure and rapid asset expansion needed greater transparency to convince its owners that it was being run for long-term profitability The raw quarterly numbers showed a net loss of $11.3 million, scarcely less than the $12.7 million loss in the previous year.

To put this in perspective, Mr Butler attached an upbeat commentary headed “Cable Bahamas Group Announces Strong Financial Performance.” He

pointed out group revenue for the nine month period increased by 14 percent to $188 million. A clear chart was provided showing the breakdown of revenue and EBITDA between the group’s three operating segments: REV, ALIV, and Summit Broadband (in Florida). Each of these units has been contributing to Group performance, with REV, the largest, earning $92.5 million year to date from its “triple play” TV, internet, and fixed-line telephone services ALIV, which launched its mobile telephones only in late 2016, had to break an existing monopoly to show growth in every quarter.

Like every mobile cellular start-up, it incurred substantial initial costs that can impact EBITDA and net income for as long as five years. “Simply put, this is normal,” in Mr. Butler’s words. He expects ALIV will actually achieve positive EBITDA within the next six months, only three years after its launch.

With REV already profitable and Summit due to record stronger EBIDA positive figures, it seems likely the group will “turn

CABLE Bahamas HQ and, inset, Franklyn Butler who became CEO of the company late last year. the corner” into net profitability during next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2019.

While Mr Butler quite rightly refrained from any predictions about resuming dividends, the easing of capital demands on the part of ALIV should free up cash that can be distributed to shareholders beginning sometime in 2020.

Mr Butler plans to continue the provision of up-to-date financial information and commentary.

It will be welcome news to shareholders that unaudited figures for this year’s

fourth quarter ending June 30 are targeted for release within two months, rather than waiting for the much later publication of the full statutory annual report with auditor’s review.

These improved standards of reporting and explaining Cable’s financial picture should arouse our stodgy pension funds and their advisers to make more sophisticated analysis of the company’ s future.

Rather than simply watch the share price decline in the face of negative GAAP income, it is surprising they

have not been actively buying at today’s low prices in the strong probability of rises in the near future as start-up losses from ALIV and Summit are eventually wiped out. That is certainly what would have happened in the US, where Amazon took years to reach GAAP profitability while its investors enjoyed steadily rising cash flow and capital gains.

The next couple of years will see a major structural change in Cable Bahamas when government decides to unload its 51.75 percent stake in ALIV by making

BISX SETS A PUZZLE WITH SOME HI-TECH JARGON KEITH Davies, CEO of The Bahamas International Securities Exchange (BISX), has announced creation of a new digital securities exchange, to be owned by BISX but to use its own separate platform that will become “the world’s leading regulated exchange for primary issuances and secondary trading of regulated digital instruments… where private companies will be able to list their security tokens for regulatory compliant trading.”

What this does hi-tech jargon mean in everyday financial terms ? What are “digital instruments?”

Or “security tokens?” Are these

anything like the garden variety stocks and bonds known to all mortal investors?

Not to worry. The new systems will be created and handled by BISX’s selected partner named BRX Holdings, described as a financial technology firm planning to operate in The Bahamas under a technology licencing agreement, and founded by executives “with deep roots in quantitative investing, trading and issuance of traditional and digital securities”.

However, our Google search did not reveal any “BRX Holdings” as a firm with named executives demonstrating this rare level of

expertise. We wonder why BISX does not disclose this essential background information, which would surely give confidence to followers of BISX activities. As the new arrangement has been fully discussed with the Bahamas Securities Commission while awaiting final approval, doubtless that body will resolve the puzzle.

In our view, BISX might better focus on more mundane efforts like projecting itself at the recent Financial Literacy Fair sponsored by our Central Bank at Fusion Interplex.

While our six commercial banks all made attractive presentations of

their banking products, the absence of BISX and its broker-dealer members was notable. Solid financial firms like RF Holdings (formerly Royal Fidelity), CFAL, Leno Securities and the newly-launched Investar were not present to promote the many corporate shares, government bonds and multi-product mutual funds they offer to Bahamians. Lacking a vigorous spokesman similar to the American SIMFA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association), Bahamian investors are starved of centralized, easily available information about the potential of our capital markets.

a public offering of its shares, in a sale that should reap well over $70 million for the Public Treasury.

The word from Attorney General Bethel last year suggested this will happen as soon as ALIV can meet the earnings and disclosure requirements for a public company set by of our Securities Commission. In any event, it will result in a new equity security being listed on BISX. Even if the present ALIV management agreement with Cable Bahamas is terminated, Cable will enjoy a jump in its net worth reflected by the market price of its 48.25 percent equity holding in ALIV. It will be interesting to see how these ALIV shares will be priced and distributed, and how ALIV will then progress as an independent concern. In any event, the consequences should be beneficial for the shareholders of both Cable and ALIV, and for the growth of our capital markets.

PS

PLP Leader Brave Davis as quoted in The Tribune on May 20: “Mr. Davis said the FNM has abandoned the ‘well-considered plans’ for modernisation of The Bahamas left in place by the last PLP administration.”

Those must be the plans hatched by PLP Cabinet members while being entertained with Peter Nygard’s hospitality on his Cay overlooking Clifton Bay.

THE TRIBUNE

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net BAHAMAS-born deportee Jean Rony Jean-Charles has been granted final leave to petition the Privy Council in a bid to challenge the Court of Appeal’s revocation of a landmark decision concerning his controversial detention and removal from the Bahamas in 2017.

Attorney Crispin Hall confirmed yesterday that the appellate court granted Mr Jean-Charles final leave after being satisfied that his legal team complied with certain conditions it imposed when it granted him conditional leave to appeal in December of last year.

Yesterday’s proceedings were the latest in Mr Jean-Charles’ legal battles concerning his expulsion from the Bahamas to Haiti on November 24, 2017, after being detained from September 17 of that year, and Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hilton’s subsequent landmark ruling that both his detention and expulsion were unlawful.

At the time, Justice Hilton further found that Mr Jean-Charles was deprived of his personal liberty, unlawfully arrested and detained/falsely imprisoned in breach of his rights guaranteed him under the constitution.

Justice Hilton ordered the government to issue a travel document to Mr Jean-Charles to “allow and permit” him to travel from Haiti into the Bahamas, and that it pay the “reasonable cost” of Mr Jean-Charles’ journey “forthwith upon his return”.

He further ordered that the minister and director of immigration should, no later than 60 days after Mr Jean-Charles’ return and upon his application, issue “such status” that would “permit him to remain in the Bahamas and to legally seek gainful employment.”

However, Justice Hilton dismissed the writ of habeas corpus his lead attorney Fred Smith, QC had filed on November 29, 2017 for the government to produce Mr Jean-Charles, finding as Mr Jean-Charles was not in the custody of the state at the time the application for the writ was made, the order for the writ should not have been issued.

The Crown subsequently appealed Justice Hilton’s decision, contending that it was based on “flimsy” and “very dubious” evidence, and that such evidence warranted the ruling being set aside or alternatively reheard with “proper submissions and evidence”.

The Crown also submitted that the evidence in support of Mr Jean-Charles’ constitutional motion was “third-party” evidence and not entirely reliable, as he

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 11

Jean Rony gets his final leave to appeal to Privy Council

JEAN Rony Jean-Charles.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/ Tribune Staff questioned the veracity of a lot of the claims contained in it.

In their written ruling last month, after having heard submissions from both sides, the appellate judges said there could be no finding of constitutional breach relating to Mr Jean-Charles’ detention and deportation last year because of the uncertainty over his identity.

There was much debate during the appeal over the discrepancy surrounding whether the individual immigration authorities said they deported — Jean Charles, and Mr Jean-Charles – are one and the same.

Thus, the appellate justices found that any application for constitutional, or any other relief, should not have been

entertained until that issue was resolved.

Attorney General Carl Bethel described the appellate ruling as an important vindication of due process, but Mr Smith regretted that the judgment did not address the far-reaching constitutional issues raised by the case.

In an affidavit subsequently filed to the London-based Privy Council, Mr Jean-Charles’ lawyers argued that the Court of Appeal was wrong to conclude that their constitutional application should not have proceeded because of uncertainty over Mr Jean-Charles’ identity.

In turn, the Crown, led by attorney Loren Klein, opposed Mr Smith’s application for leave to appeal to the Privy Council, charging that while the Crown

was not objecting merely to put “obstacles” in Mr Jean-Charles’ way, but to

fulfill its duty in assisting the court in filtering out any “unmeritorious” appeals.

Mr Klein contended that the appellate judges dismissed Justice Hilton’s decision on three main grounds, which were all procedural in nature, and thus did not make any determination on Justice Hilton’s findings on Mr Jean-Charles’ alleged constitutional breaches.

Mr Klein noted that the appellate judge’s ruling made it clear that Mr JeanCharles is free to pursue any appropriate remedies, including launching a court action for constitutional redress in the Supreme Court, based on his detention and removal from the Bahamas.

Thus, Mr Klein submitted that for the Court of Appeal to grant leave to appeal to the Privy Council, when the appellate court has not ruled on the Constitutional issues determined

by Justice Hilton, would have the effect of “sanctioning a leap-frog appeal from the Supreme Court to the Privy Council.”

In response, Mr Smith said his client has a right to go to the Privy Council to have his constitutional relief reinstated.

Additionally, Mr Smith said Mr Jean-Charles’ matter is “self-evidently” one that started from a constitutional matter and is a matter of “tremendous public importance,” the likes of which the Crown relied upon to argue some of the submissions its attorneys made.

PAGE 12, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Court hears that investigating exotic dancers led to woman’s arrest

By NICO SCAVELLA Tribune Staff Reporter nscavella@tribunemedia.net A POLICE officer yesterday testified how former Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade’s claims of illegal immigrants performing “exotic” acts at a bar set in motion the events that ultimately led to the arrest of a Jamaican woman who alleges she was raped by a senior immigration officer.

Superintendent Adrian Curry said he was acting on Mr Greenslade’s instructions when he led the raid on December 13, 2014 that led to him arresting Claudia Edwards Bethel, who later ended up in the custody of Norman Bastian, the man she claims raped her.

However, the officer admitted that Mrs Bethel was not dressed in “skimpy” clothing when he arrested her, in contrast to the other women he observed wearing skimpy underwear, and who were more in line with Mr Greenslade’s instructions about “exotic dancers”.

Nonetheless, he said, the Jamaican woman was still arrested on “suspicion” of breach of the Immigration Act. He said his “suspicion” was further confirmed upon his observations at the bar.

What happened next he saw Mrs Bethel being turned over to immigration officials and detained at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre (CRDC) for a stint, and later released into Mr Bastian’s custody for “continuing investigation” on December 15, 2014.

She claims she was eventually taken to his house, and raped twice between December 15 and 16, 2014, with Mr Bastian using a condom in the latter incident. She said he also made her perform oral sex on him on two occasions.

Supt Curry’s testimony came in Ms Bethel’s civil suit against the government over the alleged incident, years after the rape case against Mr Bastian was tossed out of the Magistrate’s Court. Mr Bastian has denied the rape and maintains the sex was consensual.

To that end, and in response to questions put to him by Mrs Bethel’s attorney Fred Smith, QC, Supt Curry said it would not be appropriate for him, as a policeman, to have sexual intercourse with a female prisoner in his custody.

He also agreed with suggestions that he would not have a female prisoner in his exclusive custody, for obvious reasons.

Before Supt Curry’s testimony, however, Mr Bastian’s attorney, Wayne Munroe, QC, as well as Crown attorney, Rasheed Edgecombe, said that Mrs Bethel has what was suggested is a popular stripper name: “Lexy”.

Meanwhile, Crown prosecutor Rasheed Edgecombe accused Mrs Bethel’s estranged husband, Mario Philip Bethel, of marrying her for convenience and as a way for her to gain residency in The Bahamas.

According to Mrs Bethel’s evidence, she first arrived in The Bahamas in 2010, and in February of that year, she said she got married to Mr Bethel, who was a manager at Charms Club where she worked as a waitress.

Taking the witness stand yesterday, however, Mr Bethel said he met her about a year before their marriage date.

Nonetheless, Mr Edgecombe said that if Mrs Bethel’s evidence concerning when she first arrived in The Bahamas and subsequently married Mr Bethel is to be accepted, the short period of time in between the two events would suggest a marriage of convenience.

The case continues today.

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THE TRIBUNE

Thursday, May 30, 2019, PAGE 13 FREDERICK FARRINGTON, president of The Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers’ Union, speaking to media yesterday.

Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

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‘Deal with issues or we go on strike’

By RIEL MAJOR Tribune Staff Reporter rmajor@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union has threatened to take legal and industrial action against the government if their concerns aren’t dealt with, union leader Frederick Farrington said yesterday.

Speaking at Long Wharf Beach, Mr Farrington said the union is calling for the moratorium to be lifted on bus plates. “We also have an issue that was going on for decades with the plates for the buses with the franchise. Today we have a lot of jitney drivers are now becoming bus owners, we have a lot of franchise holders do not have buses. This is fundamentally wrong how the system is set up with the leasing of these plates. We need this to be addressed,” he said.

Mr Farrington also said bus drivers should not be penalised if the proper tools and amenities aren’t in place.

He said: “We have bus drivers who are continuously being ticketed by officers for allegedly not being on marked bus stops.

Millions and millions of dollars from the bus drivers has been sent to the treasury for these infractions.

“May, this very month, now you have 330 buses have to go down to Road Traffic Department for inspection and road traffic (will be) expecting to collect $202,800 from those bus drivers.”

He added: “Not one red penny is coming from that money to the bus drivers also in the treasury not one red penny is coming back within the industry. I’m telling the bus drivers, I don’t want them to spend one red

penny to the court system for these bus drivers’ infractions unless this problem be addressed and fixed soon as possible.”

The union president said he has addressed this matter with Minister of Works Desmond Bannister and Minister of Transport Renward Wells but claimed nothing has been done.

Mr Farrington said: “We also have another issue that is stemming with the public at large where there are inadequate shelters throughout the corridors of Nassau. There are no shelters for passengers and that also needs to be addressed.

“We recognised over 100 bus stops that were either damaged and removed and not replaced back but bus drivers are being ticketed for these stops that aren’t in place. We are calling for these amenities to be in

place for the drivers to do their daily job.”

He explained: “If you were to ride down East Street corridors, there are 24 bus stops that supposed to be on East Street but there are only four bus stops. You go on to Market Street, there’s supposed to be 16 bus stops but there are only two bus stops.”

The union’s president said enough is enough and if matters aren’t addressed the union will strike.

“I had sent a letter to Mr Renward Wells about one month now in reference to these concerns and I haven’t received any answer to that letter yet. We were silent for too long... we are giving the government at least until July 1, 2019,” he said.

The Bahamas Unified Bus Drivers Union represents more than 200 of 300 bus drivers that operate in New Providence.

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PAGE 14, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Report did not exonerate Trump WASHINGTON Associated Press SPECIAL counsel Robert Mueller said yesterday that charging President Donald Trump with a crime was “not an option” because of federal rules, but he used his first public remarks on the Russia investigation to emphasise that he did not exonerate the president.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller declared.

The special counsel’s remarks stood as a pointed rebuttal to Trump’s

repeated claims that he was cleared and that the twoyear inquiry was merely a “witch hunt.” They also marked a counter to criticism, including by Attorney General William Barr, that Mueller should have reached a determination on whether the president illegally tried to obstruct the probe by taking actions such as firing his FBI director.

Mueller made clear that his team never considered indicting Trump because the Justice Department prohibits the prosecution of a sitting president.

“Charging the president with a crime was therefore

not an option we could consider,” Mueller said during a televised statement . He said he believed such an action would be unconstitutional.

Mueller did not use the word ‘impeachment,” but said it was the job of Congress — not the criminal justice system — to hold the president accountable for any wrongdoing.

The special counsel’s statement largely echoed the central points of his 448-page report, which was released last month with some redactions. But his remarks, just under 10 minutes long and delivered from a Justice Department

podium, were extraordinary given that he had never before discussed or characterized his findings and had stayed mute during two years of feverish public speculation.

Mueller, a former FBI director, said that his work was complete and he was resigning to return to private life.

His remarks underscored the unsettled resolution, and revelations of behindthe-scenes discontent, that accompanied the end of his investigation. His refusal to reach a conclusion on criminal obstruction opened the door for Barr to clear the president, who in turn has

ROBERT MUELLER cited the attorney general’s finding as proof of his innocence.

Trump, given notice on Tuesday evening that Mueller would speak the next

morning, watched on television. For weeks, he had been nervous about the possibility about the special counsel testifying before Congress, worried about the visual power of such a public appearance.

Shortly after Mueller concluded, the president who has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the report cleared him of obstruction of justice, tweeted a subdued yet still somewhat inaccurate reaction: “Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you”.

ISRAEL HEADS FOR SECOND ELECTION JERUSALEM Associated Press

MAN SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE NEAR WHITE HOUSE A MAN set himself on fire and calmly walked around near the White House yesterday as police desperately tried to douse the flames. Video of the incident showed the man walking across the Ellipse near the Washington Mall, an area popular with tourists, with flames covering his body. Seconds later, US Secret Service staff run towards

him with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.

He managed to stand upright before officials got to him, amid reports that he was wearing a protective suit which would have given him some protection from the flames.

The man suffered burns on 85 percent of his body and there was a suspicious package on

fire near him which was also extinguished, according to TMZ. He was later transported to a nearby hospital with ‘life threatening’ injuries. More than 70 officers flocked to the scene from multiple agencies. Several tourists and visitors were in the vicinity, but there were no other injuries reported.

ISRAEL’S parliament voted to dissolve itself early today, sending the country to an unprecedented second snap election this year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition before a midnight deadline.

The dramatic vote, less than two months after parliamentary elections, marked a setback for Netanyahu and sent the longtime leader’s future into turmoil.

Netanyahu, who has led Israel for the past decade, had appeared to capture a fourth consecutive term in the April 9 election. But infighting among his allies, and disagreements over proposed bills to protect Netanyahu from prosecution stymied his efforts to put together a majority coalition.

Rather than concede that task to one of his rivals, Netanyahu’s Likud party advanced a bill to dissolve parliament and send the country to the polls for a second time this year.

“I didn’t spare any effort to avoid unnecessary elections,” Netanyahu said after the vote.

PAGE 16, Thursday, May 30, 2019

THE TRIBUNE

Former banker was not told he was under an internal investigation

By RICARDO WELLS Tribune Staff Reporter rwells@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN banker fired for collecting and days later depositing a cheque into the local First Caribbean International (FCIBC) bank account of disgraced FIFA executive Charles Blazer, was not told by the bank’s attorneys that he was under an internal investigation into the potential wrongdoing when he was contacted and questioned.

Paul Major, the former

FCIBC banker is pursuing a civil suit against his former employer, alleging he was unfairly terminated for what the company called a breech of its US Persons Policy - which barred FCIBC employees from conducting transactions on US soil.

Major reportedly flew to New York in April of 2011, where he collected the cheque in question, before flying back to New Providence where he deposited it on Blazer’s behalf.

The bank’s policy would now have permitted the act.

Mayer Brown was contracted by FCIBC to investigate and determine whether there was any wrongdoing on the part of its employees in relation to the reported illicit banking practices outlined in a federal report the bank was named in.

In testimony yesterday, Melissa Francis, a former attorney for Mayer Brown, admitted she never informed Major he was being investigated for his handling his handling of accounts.

Rather, she said she informed Major her team wanted to speak to him in reference to some of his accounts.

Ms Francis testified that over the course of a day, her team uncovered several emails and at least one airline transaction that suggested Major did travel to New York on the dates identified in the report detailing the Glazer-NewYork cheque handover.

That report stated specifically that an employee of the bank, who was unnamed, travelled to New York to collect a cheque from Blazer to be brought to New Providence and subsequently deposited.

According to Francis, her team had initially planned to question Major relative to handful of accounts he managed, but when the report highlighted a transaction carried out on Blazer’s account, she added it to the list accounts of accounts to questioned Major on.

The firm subsequently drafted a report on Major’s actions during its request to meet and discuss his accounts. Major is said to have never presented himself for an interview after it was requested saying he would need time to go over the accounts identified by the Mayer Brown team, but never followed up with the attorneys.

According to Major’s legal team, the Mayer Brown report was submitted to FCIBC - and used in its determination to sack Major - despite him being

YOUR

DISGRACED FIFA executive Charles Blazer. unaware he was under investigation.

Meanwhile, in separate testimony yesterday, Edith Sands, FCIBC’s former Risk and Control Associate, testified that while the US Persons Policy was discussed and mentioned at the time of Major’s 2011 trip, she had never seen a physical copy of the policy.

In cross examination, she testified she was unaware of the full scope of the policy because she had never seen it in full, but rather only heard it referenced to.

As such, when asked by Major’s lead attorney Krystal Rolle if she, in her daily role in FCIBCC’s compliance unit, looked out for transactions that might have fallen foul of the policy or conducted specific tests or audits that would have identified accounts influenced by acts contrary to the policy, she contended that she did not.

Moreover, Sands, when presented with physical copy of the policy by FCIBC’s legal team yesterday, she seemed a bit surprised by it. Testifying that she could not speak to the full contents of the policy because she had never seen it presented in such a way.

Additionally, when asked if she had carried out a act similar to that of Major’s, would she have volunteered that information when asked by authorities about the handling of the account.

She initially responded no, telling the court that such information wouldn’t have necessarily been volunteered by her because she did view it as “untoward.”

She asserted that she was of the view that Major didn’t “do business” in the US when he collected the cheque from Blazer When directed to view the act from the standpoint of the US Persons Policy as she was shown earlier, she conceded that she would have to, citing the section of the policy that specifically bars the collection of cheques from clients in the US. Attorney Ferron Bethel represents FCIBC in the proceedings.

Justice Keith Thompson is hearing the case.

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