“Davis outlines agenda for 2023 – Economy, education, crime fight to receive priority attention, PM says” – The Nassau Guardian – January 20 2033

Excerpt from this article; “Though he provided no specifics, Prime Minister Philip Davis said yesterday that his administration will focus on education, growing the economy and tackling the scourge of violent crime in the country next year.

Davis who spoke at the 23nd annual Bahamas Business Outlook, said his government intends to deal with the high cost of living in the country.

We will continue to pursue growth in GDP and revenue, maximize the amount of investment in the country, and maintain efforts to reduce our debt,’ the prime minister said.

‘That said, we will put a particular focus on reducing the cost of living and making efforts to lift people out of poverty.

‘Even though the inflationary pressures are largely the results of global events and foreign economies, we will do whatever we can to ease the burden on Bahamian consumers.’

However the prime minister did not indicate what measures his administration intends to take to lift people out of poverty or ease the burden on consumers.”

Of course the prime minister cannot offer any specifics on how he “intends to lift people of the country out of poverty or ease the burden on consumers”; let me remind you that this is the very same prime minister whose government to date has lowered Value-Added Tax (VAT) to 10 percent but has added VAT to “breadbasket items and medications” which were once exempt but cannot show how this initiative has lifted persons out of poverty or even eased the burden of on consumers, while increasing taxes in other areas and considering even more tax increases.

This is also the same prime minister, who along with his Minister of Works and Utilities, through sheer incompetence and ineptitude allowed the “fuel-hedging” initiative left in place by the previous Free National Movement (FNM) government to expire with resulted in the increase to electricity rates.  Anyone knows one thing in doing business in this country or almost any place else; the cost of electricity drives your business cost and can actually stump economic growth.

Also, the prime minister is now saying that “the inflationary pressures are largely the results of global events”.  How can anyone take him seriously when he, while in opposition, CONTINUOULSY told then Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis that he could not use Dorian nor the pandemic for the state of the economy, but now he seeks to want us to excuse his government’s inability to do as promised because of “inflationary pressures”.  This reeks of pure and utter hypocrisy and duplicity.

And how does he only now seek to address the pressure of the economy after being in office for over a year?

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

“On the issue of crime, The Bahamas saw a 7.6 percent rise in murders in 2022 compared to 2021.

So far, there has been nine murders for 2023”.

Since coming to office the Davis administration has seen a steady climb in the violent crime rate and have had no solution, so now they promise to focus on “tackling the scourge of crime”; is this to say that for over a year that the New Day government has not had a plan for crime in the country?

Is this to say now that they may have a crime plan?

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

“On education, Davis noted that there is a need to address the learning loss caused by the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education revealed that it engaged a US-based company to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the learning loss suffered by students during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide recommendations for accelerated learning recovery.”

This statement is very troubling because it was my understanding that the Minister for Education and Technical Training and Vocation; the Hon.  Glenys Hanna-Martin’s “efforts” to get students back into schools and back to “face-to-face” learning, would have been firstly met with an assessment of any “learning loss” and would at that time, given the educational system a course of action to take, if any was needed, over a year ago – why is this only happening now?

What I have found interesting that given the current concerns of the country today, there is no mention of prioritizing illegal immigration, I guess this is not a priority to this government and does not contribute in any way to any of the three issues that they wished to prioritize.

What has his administration been doing for over a year?

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

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“Opposition on SDRs: Does the govt. have liquidity issues?” – The Nassau Guardian

 Excerpt from this article; “Pintard: What has arisen that they need to draw down on advance?

• Thompson: It does raise a red flag in terms of our fiscal position”

Opposition Leader Michael Pintard yesterday questioned if the government’s “rush” to utilize financing provided through the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) special drawing rights is a signal of a liquidity crisis for the Ministry of Finance.

The opposition held a virtual press conference yesterday to further hammer the Davis administration with claims of breaking the law in accessing $233 million through the IMF’s SDRs.

“What has arisen so suddenly that they needed to draw down on this advance and they could not come to Parliament in December or November or October, to mention they are going to engage in such a sizable advance? They ought to have then tidied up the legislation, if that’s the red herring argument they want to use,” Pintard said.

“It did raise a concern as to whether they were experiencing any liquidity issues. According to the government they are ahead of revenue collections. They have given the impression really that things are going exceptionally well for them. We have said in earlier press engagements that we don’t buy it. We simply don’t buy the story, because they have sprung on the Bahamian public a series of taxes and fees that again was not a part of their budget discussions or subsequent discussions on the management of various ministries. So the increase of fees in the manner they did it with respect to the Ministry of Transport was again worrisome for us.

The opposition has taken the position that the government did not lay out its plan to use the IMF SDR funding in its annual borrowing plan, which was released last year.”

So now the question arises, does the New Day government [the Davis led Progressive Liberal Party] have The Bahamas in deep financial trouble again and is not letting the country know the truth as they did during the previous Christie led PLP administrations?

Why this ‘”Hushed and rushed” method of borrowing and is it indeed legal?

I remember when the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) introduced Value-Added Tax (VAT).  We had Michael Halkitus bragging about how the tax initiative was performing beyond expectations; he bragged about this even as the country continued to go through economic downgrades.

Now we have the PLP under “new” leadership, claiming that “It’s a New Day”, telling us that the country’s finances are rebounding exceptionally well but yet having to ‘tap into emergency funding’ and the question is where is the money going?

So while the ‘top floor’ is telling the country that all is going well; some of us are more concerned about what is going on at the ‘seventeenth floor’; the floor that only a select few have been able to access; much like Bernie Maddox’s 17^th Floor.

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

END