By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Immigration Department yesterday challenged the business community to cite one specific example of a company’s growth being inhibited by the refusal of work permit applications.

Fred Mitchell, addressing the House of Assembly, said the number of work permit rejections was “so small” that there was “hardly an example” where Bahamas-based businesses were unable to import the skills needed to run their operations effectively.

Clearly irked by recent private sector concerns and criticisms, Mr Mitchell, during the mid-year Budget debate, said: “I saw a comment this morning, Mr Speaker, from representatives of the business community in which for the second time in as many weeks, statements were made from that quarter which suggest that the actions of the Department of Immigration are responsible for retarding the ability of businesses in this country to get the talent they need to do the jobs at their businesses.

“I wish, sir, that someone would give me an example of that. The rate of refusals of work permits is so small that I venture to guess that there is hardly an example – not one – to be found where any business has been unable to get the talent that they need to run the businesses in this country.

“And if that is the case, then they need to let me know where that happens and where that occurs. So I want to set the record straight on that.”

Mr Mitchell was likely referring to two articles in The Tribune. The second, published yesterday, quoted Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC) executives as offering to help the Immigration Department’s record keeping and application processing capacities.

The private sector has also expressed concerns about its ability to secure foreign talent when qualified Bahamians are unavailable to do the job, and Gowon Bowe, the BCCEC’s chairman, said it wants the Government to distinguish between skilled workers and unskilled workers so the former’s applications can be expedited.

“The issue with regards to importing talent and skilled people into the country should be a little more flexible,” Mr Sumner said after a Rotary Club of East Nassau meeting on Friday.

“If companies need to import certain people to work in their organisations because the skill set those people have cannot be found locally, the Government should be a little more lenient and flexible with their approach to this to allow us to bring people in.

“We fully support the Bahamianisation policies. We also support the fact that we should be developing as much talent as we can in the country. We understand that there are times when the talent and skill set that you are looking for are not available so in those cases we would like to see an easing of restrictions and the process for bringing people in for specific periods of time.”

The other article likely to have caught Mr Mitchell’s eyes is a Tribune Business interview with Mr Bowe’s predecessor, Robert Myers, in which the latter warned that the Government’s “closed door” work permit policies were exacerbating the Bahamas’ productivity crisis and making it impossible for companies to hire the “unemployable”.

Mr Myers had warned that restrictive Immigration policies were preventing businesses from recruiting middle management and skilled line staff essential to their smooth operation.

Apart from hindering the ability of local companies to expand, Mr Myers said they were also prevented from improving staff productivity and efficiency, as they could not “hire the educated to train the uneducated”.

Jerome Fitzgerald, minister of education, admitted last week that 40 per cent of the workforce lacked “a basic education”, with at least 35-38 per cent having failed to graduate from high school.

Mr Myers, though, pegged the number of high school leavers who were functionally illiterate and numerate at 55 per cent - a statistic that continues to limit business and GDP growth, and hinder government tax revenues.

“There’s a problem because the Immigration policies are only enabling these problems,” he told Tribune Business. “We have the wrong Immigration policies.

“There’s a desperate need to hire the educated to educate the uneducated and undereducated. We need to relax the Immigration policies, and do it with educated, not uneducated, people.

“The only way you can go out and hire this massive chunk in the economy is to bring in educated people capable of training those uneducated.”

Mr Myers said the Bahamas should tailor its work permit policies to reward, and incentivise, those companies who brought in expatriates to help train Bahamian staff.

“People like myself who could grow their businesses can’t, because it is cost prohibitive to bring in quality managers and line staff,” he told Tribune Business.

“It’s a layering effect. In order for me to grow and get uneducated people working, you need to bring in educated people.

“But you’ve made it so cost prohibitive to bring in line staff and middle managers, you’ve made it so expensive, that if I try to do that I become uncompetitive. So I can’t bring them in, and can’t hire uneducated people.”