The new issue of The Bahamas Investor Magazine has finally hit the newsstands.\u00a0 Gracing its front cover are Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments; Ryan Pinder, minister of financial services and Michael Halkitis, minister of state for finance.\u00a0 The lead article, entitled \u201cNew Team, New Vision\u201d, features the three PLP ministers who, according to the magazine, are charged with steering the economy to greater prosperity.<\/p>\n
The substantive minister of finance is Prime Minister Perry Christie.\u00a0 These four men are the financial policymakers of this country.\u00a0 The country will only go as far as they take it.\u00a0 And if the first nine months are any indication as to where they are leading this country, then every Bahamian should have cause for concern.<\/p>\n
Halkitis recently informed the country that the PLP government might have to borrow more money after the interim budget is presented in Parliament in early February.\u00a0 Since coming to high office in May 2012, the PLP has already borrowed $550 million.\u00a0 Yet the government is seriously contemplating borrowing an additional $100 million to $200 million in order to cover its deficit of some $700 million.\u00a0 This is only for the 2012\/2013 budget.\u00a0 That is nearly a billion dollars.<\/p>\n
How did the PLP government manage to blow through $550 million in an eight-month period?\u00a0 Where did all that money go?\u00a0 If this is the new vision The Bahamas Investor is talking about, then heaven help us.\u00a0 If the PLP government is running such massive unsustainable deficits, Christie needs to bite the bullet and cut costs across the board.\u00a0 He needs to take austerity measures before his new team of financial ministers drag this country to third world status.\u00a0 He can begin doing this by reducing the size of his bloated Cabinet of 21 ministers to 10.\u00a0 With a projected deficit of nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars, the taxpayers cannot afford such a massive Cabinet.\u00a0 Christie can also put a moratorium on international travel for government ministers and other high ranking officials.\u00a0 Christie especially needs to keep a close eye on his Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.\u00a0 Seems that Mitchell\u2019s main objective is to visit every nation in the world at the expense of taxpayers.\u00a0 His travel costs in the first Christie administration were nearly $1 million.\u00a0 And that was when the economy was healthy.<\/p>\n
Now we are in the midst of the Great Recession.\u00a0 The country cannot afford him visiting every nook and cranny in the world.\u00a0 Christie must also impose a hiring freeze.\u00a0 Since May 7, hundreds of PLPs have been added to the civil service.\u00a0 It is rumored that NIB, ZNS and other government-run agencies have been inundated with new employees who are PLPs.\u00a0 Had BTC still been under the control of the government, that organization would have also been teeming with PLPs.\u00a0 Christie should also give serious consideration to closing several of our consulate offices and embassies abroad.\u00a0 For instance, why do we have an embassy in Britain when only a handful of British visit The Bahamas?\u00a0 We are gaining very little in return for the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, that are being spent annually to maintain that office.<\/p>\n
The government has appointed several PLP stalwarts to consulate and ambassadorial positions.\u00a0 One of these appointees is in his seventies.\u00a0 This is a waste of money.\u00a0 There have been rumors of substantial contracts being awarded to PLP cronies in urban renewal to clear down old abandoned houses and bushes.\u00a0 This is done to fight crime they tell us.\u00a0 Again, the taxpayers\u2019 monies are being spent carelessly with no regard to taking prudent measures.\u00a0 I see no sense of urgency from the PLP concerning the financial mess we are presently in.\u00a0 The so-called new vision of the PLP is destroying this country.\u00a0 At this rate, we should be a third world nation in four years.<\/p>\n
By: \u00a0The Whistleblower<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The country will only go as far as the PLP takes it. And if the first nine months are any indication as to where they are leading this country, then every Bahamian should have cause for concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[93,29,142,60],"class_list":["post-30566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-corruption","tag-economy","tag-incompetence","tag-plp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}