Unemployment numbers have been said to have decreased during the last six months due largely to the impact of Hurricane Matthew and the country’s ongoing re-building efforts but now the Prime Minister would blame the same storm – an act of God – as being one of the major factors as to why the country’s sovereign credit rating has been downgraded by rating’s agency Standards and Poor’s (S&P) because it could not possibly be due to the poor stewardship of the country’s economy by his Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government.

“PM on defensive over downgrade – Christie says act of God caused negative S&P action” – The Nassau Guardian.

Excerpt from this article; “In the face of another downgrade of the country’s sovereign credit rating to sub investment level grade level, Prime Minister Perry Christie said yesterday that it must be acknowledged that international rating agency Standards and Poor’s noted in its report that the downgrade is in part due to the impact and costs associated with hurricanes Joaquin and Matthew.

‘We’re talking about a country that has been devastated not by the decisions of the government, but by the allowances of God.” Christie said in Grand Bahama.

‘There is nothing we could have done other than pray that nobody loses their lives, thank God.”

The first and most obvious question of the Prime Minister in the wake of this statement is what about the three downgraded before this one?

Yes, thank God that no one lost their life, Mr. Prime Minister, but at the same time that you wish to blame God for the current state of the economy, I must ask just how serious are you?

 There is still widespread belief that the manner in which the government reacted to the filing of Chapter 11 by the original developer of Baha Mar, Sarkis Izmirlian, was not only unwarranted but a total act of incompetence and ineptitude and has contributed to the resort having stalled but the Prime Minister would have us believe that him and his government did nothing wrong to contribute to Baha Mar being delayed and to cause this recent downgrade.

“S&P threatens to downgrade Bahamas – The Nassau Guardian; July 02, 2016

Excerpt from this article; “The international credit rating agency Standards and Poor’s said yesterday it was placing the long-term and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for the Bahamas on Credit Watch with negative implication as a result of Baha Mar’s decision to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States on Monday.

S&P warned, ‘ We could lower our ratings on The Bahamas by one or more notches if we believe there will be a prolonged delay reopening of the resort, or if the project fails.”

It would seem that S&P had taken a “wait and see approach” to the outcome of the chapter 11 proceedings that the developer had filed in a US court to gain protection from his US based construction partner; as they had become locked in a bitter ‘war’ into which the government decided to then biasly intercede but still they wish to claim that nothing that they have done has contributed to the latest downgrade – the point being that the S&P downgrade was predicated largely on the outcome of Baha Mar, even with significant tax reform (Value-Added Tax) in place and outperforming all projections.

“They say ‘you must be crazy, you’ve lost your mind, delusional’; subjecting the prime minister of The Bahamas with the responsibility to leading the government of The Bahamas in dealing with this adverse impact that did not come about through negligence or bad decision making of the government,’ he said” and they just may be correct in their assessment, Mr. Prime Minister, especially once you had told us once that you have been anointed by God to be Prime Minister and we can call out to our member of Parliament to help you but in the end you would have to come to you [Gods appointed] for assistance but now you wish blames God for the recent ills of the country and your short comings?

Shame.

The Progressive Liberal Party fails for one reason, it is their nature.

END