Small Business Agency budget Branded 'gross underestimate'

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The budget for the proposed Small and Medium-Sized Business Development Agency (SMEDA) is “grossly underestimated”, and should be increased from an initial $25 million spread over five years to that sum on an annual basis.

Recommendations for improving draft legislation seen as vital to developing a sustainable Bahamian small business sector, submitted by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC), said an annual $25 million budget for SMEDA was necessary to “fund all new projects”.

“The draft Bill outlines that there will be a $25 million budget to fund SMEDA over a five-year period,” the BCCEC said.

“When one considers all the agencies who are expected to be covered under SMEDA, along with the operations of the agency itself, the proposed budget is grossly underestimated and we submit that the budget to operate SMEDA and to fund all new projects should be a minimum of $25 million per annum.”

The suggestion, contained in an April 23, 2013, letter sent to Merrit Storr, the Chancellors Chamber managing partner responsible for drafting the SMEDA Bill, is one of several submitted by the private sector advocacy group,

While most dealt with the structure, composition and ministerial powers when it came to the SMEDA Board, the BCCEC also warned that the agency’s initial reliance on government funding “limited” it ability to attract grant and project funding from the likes of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

These was because such organisations did not make these funds available to government entities, and the BCCEC suggested SMEDA should instead be structured as a private corporation run by the private sector, but promoting the Government’s policy agenda.

This, it added, would be a similar structure to the Government-sponsored venture capital fund, and the BCCEC added: “This would also minimise the potential for political interference in the agency, and would also promote a level of efficiency and accountability by the Board in the supervision of the agency.”

The SMEDA Bill draft is proposing that the agency initially be capitalised by $5 million in cash, and $20 million in promissory notes that are encashed within five years, with all this funding coming from government.

Edison Sumner, the BCCEC’s chief executive, contacted by Tribune Business yesterday while attending a meeting in Antigua & Barbuda, said he was waiting to hear from the Ministry of Finance on the Bill’s current status.

The legislation has been championed by successive administrations as finally creating the platform for a thriving Bahamian-owned small business sector, but little has been heard since the initial consultation and after recommendations were submitted by interested parties to the Government.

Mr Sumner said his understanding was that the draft Bill and recommendations were being reviewed within the Ministry of Finance, and by various committees.

“We were advised that it would get to Parliament during this upcoming parliamentary session,” he added. “How definite that is, I can’t say.

“We would expect to see the final draft of the legislation before it goes to Parliament, and hope that is soon - before the end of summer, for sure.”

Mr Sumner told Tribune Business the BCCEC had been advised that some changes to the Bill would be made, based on the recommendations received from itself and others.

“We made some very good suggestions, very good ideas to put into it,” he added. “We certainly gave some criticisms on some of the provisions in there, and know some of the recommendations made have been considered. We want to see if they’ve put them in the document.”

Mr Sumner confirmed to Tribune Business that the BCCEC had taken issue with the proposal to “grandfather” the existing Bahamas Development Bank (BDB) Board into the SMEDA Board, believing instead that it should be “started anew”.

While individual BDB Board members could be appointed to the SMEDA Board, Mr Sumner said they should not all be brought in through a “broad sweep”.

In its submission to Mr Storr, the BCCEC said “grandfathering” in the BDB Board wholesale could “create an atmosphere of confusion and blur the lines” between it and SMEDA, plus act against creating a “new culture” in the latter.

Calling for the qualifications of SMEDA Board members to be ‘better defined, the BCCEC added that the responsible minister had too much power in appointing directors. This, it suggested, should be reduced from appointing four directors to just two.

Asking that it be allowed to appoint four Board members, including three from the Family Islands, the BCCEC also suggested to Mr Storr that the BDB and Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) “be dismantles” and their functions become SMEDA departments, with both entities’ staff redeployed in the public sector.

When contacted by Tribune Business yesterday, Mr Storr said he had submitted his report to the Government in June, and been told “unofficially” that a Cabinet paper was to be prepared for the Christie administration to further review and approve the SMEDA Bill.

He said he had heard nothing further, and told this newspaper to contact Ministry of Finance official, Simon Wilson, for an update.

Mr Wilson could not be reached for comment, despite several Tribune Business attempts to do so.

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