By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent businessman yesterday blasted “frivolous” criticism of Prime Minister Perry Christie’s recent travels, and questioned: “How else can the Bahamas attract foreign direct investment?”

Franklyn Wilson, the Arawak Homes and Sunshine Holdings chairman, told Tribune Business that it was impossible to view Mr Christie’s meetings with Hutchison Whampoa’s leadership, and other current and prospective investors, as “a negative” given the country’s need for major capital inflows.

Calling on the country not to get caught up in semantics over how much the Prime Minister’s trip cost, Mr Wilson said: “It’s my hope and prayer that our politicians can get over the frivolous debate over whether the Primer Minister should travel or not.

“How otherwise do you get foreign direct investment? If the Prime Minister goes and has the chance to sit with the leadership of Hutchison Whampoa, how can that be a negative?”

The Prime Minister and his government have been subjected to criticism over both the cost of his trip, which took in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka, a meeting with the Pope and numerous meetings in London with foreign investors, and the size of the delegation that accompanied him.

The trip came at a time when many believe the Government should be belt-tightening and cutting unnecessary spending, given its fiscal constraints.

Yet Mr Wilson told Tribune Business: “What difference does it make if it cost $200,000 or $300,000.”

The Arawak Homes chairman yesterday said economic growth was one of three key elements to turning around both the Bahamas’ overall economic position and the Government’s finances, with foreign direct investment (FDI) playing a vital role in that.

Arguing that it does not make sense for Mr Christie and his government to sit at home, Mr Wilson said the Prime Minister was right to aggressively target foreign direct investment (FDI) by going to investors’ home countries.

“We need economic growth,” he said. “We need to get higher levels of foreign direct investment. How do you get foreign direct investment? You need to go out and court it.

“To be arguing about that, why? You can’t say you get foreign direct investment by sitting in your office and waiting for the phone to ring.”

Meanwhile, Mr Wilson branded as “a joke” Tribune Business’s revelation last Friday that the Public Treasury had admitted breaching its own internal policy guidelines that limited civil service salary deductions to a collective maximum 75 per cent of their income.

“To be quite candid with you, I think everyone who has ears to hear knows there is something seriously wrong with that, and we can’t keep doing it,” he told Tribune Business.

“What else can I say? The point’s been made. I agree with you, it’s terrible and so on and so forth.

“To me, that’s a joke. It shouldn’t be a 75 per cent limit to start with, that’s the problem.”

The Auditor-General, in its report on the 2010-2011 fiscal year, said that in reviewing public officers’ loans, “a number of employees were allowed to have deductions that exceeded 75 per cent of their gross monthly salary”.

This, the report noted, breached the Treasury’s own internal policy that, from July 1, 2009, civil servants could have no more than 75 per cent of their salary assigned for debt servicing deductions.

“The net take home pay should in no way be allowed to fall below 25 per cent of gross salary,” the Treasury document said.

Admitting that it had failed to follow its own advice, the Treasurer confessed “that some employees’ payroll deductions exceed the threshold of the policy, [but] only in extenuating circumstances is this allowed”.

In mitigation, the Treasurer said an unspecified number of civil servants were already above the 75 per cent threshold when the 2009 policy was implemented, and “there has been very little change to this number thereafter”.