By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

EXPRESSING disappointment, former State Minister for Finance James Smith said yesterday that the US State Department’s 2014 investment report on the Bahamas failed to uphold the high intellectual standards one would expect from the United States of America.

“Any report that makes very critical commentary without supporting documentation and empirical information, I find strange,” he said about the widely discussed report. The report praised conditions in the Bahamas in many respects, but highlighted an alleged lack of transparency in the government’s contract and procurement process, said the PLP has failed to fulfil many of its campaign promises and described the government’s efforts to implement economic and fiscal reform as “sluggish”.

Mr Smith said the report will have little impact on future investments in the country because potential investors will conduct a more thorough investigation into the country’s investment climate.

“Investors do much more thorough work since they are putting their money at risk,” he said. “This report wouldn’t be effective because it cites anecdotal evidence.”

He added: “Does the report accurately reflect or report issues? That has not been demonstrated in an empirical way. It doesn’t lend itself to the kind of analysis one would expect from a country of that size and capability. It’s rather disappointing because they know people listen very carefully to what they say out of respect for their analysis. This doesn’t meet the test to me.”

Echoing comments by Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis on Wednesday, Mr Smith specified that if complaints were made to the US Embassy about the contract and procurement process in the Bahamas, the allegations should have been tested.

He said: “How many cases of the allegations were made and how were they dealt with? How far out of line are these allegations and what impact might it have had? To me I would need much more definitive information. Otherwise it amounts to hearsay.”

Asked to comment on the criticism of the government’s contract and procurement process, Mr Smith said he is not knowledgeable about the issue, but conceded that distrust over the process exists in the country.

He suggested that, historically, Commonwealth countries like the Bahamas have followed the United Kingdom in being slow to disclose information about various government processes, choosing to disclose on a “need to know basis.”

While saying that the UK has progressed in this regard, he said Commonwealth countries have been slow to do the same.

“This culture of secrecy,” he said, “gives rise to leaks, with insiders leaking information out. The problem needs to be addressed in a more general way. We focus on specific issues like contracts, but it goes way beyond that.”

“There’s a belief I think, a distrust of public service agencies which goes to the root of everything else. Maybe it’s deserving. But what it means is even when something is being done properly you have to spend a lot of time explaining how it’s being done. The  system needs to be seen as fair and just and representative of an efficient allocation of tax resources, contracts and that sort of thing. If we don’t meet those minimum standards we need to improve the process.”

Mr Smith said the government is being advised on how to improve the procurement process.

“I don’t know of any recent changes, but I know the government over the past several years has gotten advice on improving the procurement process. The question is how far have they gone and what is being done. This is not my area, but it ought to be very fair and transparent, we all agree to that.”