“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