The government owes ordinary Bahamians millions of dollars for land acquisitions and court judgments and is pressed to meet those obligations, Prime Minister Perry Christie said in the House of Assembly as he wrapped up the marathon budget debate early Saturday morning.
“So much land is in the process of being acquired or has been acquired…that I’m almost a little worried to tell members of the House the amount of money that is now committed or owing to people by virtue of the process of acquiring land,” the prime minister said.
Mr. Christie said the government owes landowners more than $60 million alone for land it acquired for the New Providence Road Improvement Programme.
He made the revelation while again making a case for the deferral of salaries for civil servants. The pay raises – which would amount to $24 million annually – were due to come into effect on July 1, but the prime minister revealed in his budget communication to parliament on May 28 that due to the present state of the economy, the government is not now in the position to begin paying civil servants an extra $100 a month.
Mr. Christie said incredible interest has also built up on the unpaid obligations for land acquisitions.
In some cases, he said, the government owes $70,000 in interest payments alone.
“So as we sit here and we know that there are millions and millions of dollars – 30, 40, 50 million dollars – [owed],” he said.
He said many of the persons owed are now asking for their monies and the government will begin making those payments. The prime minister said his government will begin paying what it owes “but obviously you can’t do it all one time.”ﾴ
Persons who won cases against the government in the courts are also now looking for their money, he told House members.
“So when one takes the decision that we hope people understand the nature of the economy and we ask for a deferral of payment [to civil servants], there is really no one to blame but ourselves because we have not found the formula to tell the Bahamian people all the time what we met in place and what we’re trying to do to keep this economy going in the way it should,” said Mr. Christie, whose comments drew applause from members of his governmentﾴ
The prime minister said he hopes that in the upcoming fiscal year, his government would take every step to ensure that “all of the known obligations to the government are accounted for and publicly known.”
By Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
