All I can say right now is: here we go again.

Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Philip Davis has announced that, on preliminary figures, The Bahamas recorded a $39.3 million fiscal surplus for the 2025/26 financial year. He describes it as the first fiscal surplus recorded since Independence.

Before the Government celebrates, the Bahamian people deserve a clear explanation of what these figures include and how they relate to the country’s debt.

According to the Prime Minister, annual revenue reached approximately 3.92 billion. On the Government’s reported accounting basis, revenue therefore exceeded expenditure. But these are preliminary figures, and the public deserves the detailed accounts supporting them.

A fiscal surplus does not mean that the national debt has disappeared, and debt can rise even in a year when the budget records a surplus. Nevertheless, if the Government’s debt increased during this same financial year, it should publish a clear reconciliation showing how much it borrowed, how much principal it repaid, how its cash balances changed, and what other transactions affected the debt.

There is also a specific question about the revenue used to produce this result. The Prime Minister says June’s non-tax revenue increase was driven by dividend receipts, largely used to settle outstanding government obligations. Where did those dividends come from? Did any receipts involve the National Investment Fund or another government-controlled entity? If so, what was the transaction, and why was it classified as revenue?

Were all relevant payments included in expenditure? What unpaid bills and other obligations remained at year-end? And would the Government still have recorded a surplus without any exceptional or one-off receipts?

These questions matter because a one-year surplus supported by unusual receipts may say less about the long-term health of the public finances than the headline suggests.

Popularity does not answer accounting questions. Publish the full figures, explain the fund transactions, reconcile the debt movement, and let the Bahamian people judge the result.

Obviously, there will be those that will say that to question the claim of this surplus is rooting against the government, but this is not so.  This is right-thinking Bahamians simply asking for accountability and transparency – was once promised.

The Bahamin people deserve better.

END