By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas Chamber of Chamber was “surprised but not shocked” by low compliance levels among Family Island businesses, some of whom had not possessed valid Business Licences for five years.

Edison Sumner, the BCCEC’s chief executive, told Tribune Business that the weaknesses exposed by Hurricane Joaquin would feature prominently at the upcoming National Chambers of Commerce conclave.

The Conclave, scheduled for April 19-20, will review Hurricane Joaquin’s aftermath and assess the capacity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - especially those in the Family Islands - to prepare for, and recover from, similar catastrophes in the future.

Mr Sumner said many businesses in the Joaquin-ravaged islands felt “so far removed” from Nassau, they were conducting their affairs without regard for compliance with the law and regulatory oversight.

“The issues we saw when we established the SME Help Desk were that a lot of small businesses were lacking the accounting and technical skills to run their own business,” he told Tribune Business.

“This was even before Joaquin. After the storm we saw this whole issue highlighted significantly, as we were exposed to hundreds of impacted businesses throughout the south-eastern Bahamas.”

Mr Sumner added: “In trying to extend assistance to them, and providing the technical support they needed, we found a lot of businesses lacking in record keeping.

“They couldn’t provide any evidence to support their damages claims and loss of revenue. We were also finding issues that should have been dealt with on a regular basis, such as Business Licences that had been expired for years.

“We’ve seen some Business Licences that had been expired for as long as five years, and a number of companies that should have been Value-Added Tax (VAT) registrants but were not.”

These weaknesses were uncovered during Rebuild Bahamas, the Chamber’s partnership with local Rotary clubs to assist companies and entrepreneurs in the storm-hit islands to recover in Joaquin’s aftermath.

Of the 117 financial assistance applications received from impacted businesses by March 2016, only 40 per cent had been approved by Rebuild Bahamas or were “pending” approval.

The problems stemmed from poor accounting records and inability to complete applications, plus non-compliance with a variety of key taxes.

Mr Sumner told Tribune Business that the Chamber had been “not shocked, but a little surprised at the level of business non-compliance we would have seen.

“So many businesses in the Family Islands felt so far removed from the centre, Nassau, that they were not getting the aid they needed, and they were doing business without any level of compliance or regulatory oversight,” he said.

“For those businesses funded by Rebuild Bahamas and its relief efforts in the aftermath of Joaquin, we’re going to provide them with ongoing support, assisting them in getting their Business Licence renewed and assisting those needing to be filing for VAT.”

Mr Sumner emphasised that too many SMEs were still being sucked into the ‘informal economy’, failing to both pay due taxes and operate in accordance with other laws.

And their failure to maintain proper records, and comply with recognised accounting standards, also threatens to impede their ability to obtain financial assistance following disasters such as Joaquin.

“We want to make sure we make every effort to pull small businesses into the formal economy,” Mr Sumner told Tribune Business, “and make sure they feel part of it, and there’s benefits and contributions to the economy in a more formal way.

“We want to make sure the level of attention is paid to them again. We’re still processing [Joaquin] claims as we speak.”

Mr Sumner said “the other half” of the Chamber’s conclave would focus on disaster preparedness, management and recovery, plus Business Continuity Planning (BCP).

This, he explained, will review the Bahamas’ experience during Hurricane Joaquin, especially complaints from residents in the south-eastern Bahamas about a “lack of communication” that left them unaware of the Category Four storm’s approach.

“We want to address that and determine how to avoid these things from happening again,” Mr Sumner said.

“When ports are closed and there are no runways open, how are we going to get relief supplies to those islands. We’ll be talking about planning, logistics, the Bahamas Building Code.”

Data management and recovery will also be addressed by the Conclave, in addition to improving communications such that companies “get customers back in the door as soon as possible once the catastrophe has passed”.

Representatives from the likes of Cable Bahamas, the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) will also participate in a panel discussion on information and communications technology (ICT) during the Conclave.

Mr Sumner said representatives from the nine island Chambers outside Nassau will also participate in “an intimate roundtable discussion” with the Prime Minister and several Cabinet ministers during the Conclave.

“This is only the third edition of this Conclave,” he added. “It’s become an extremely important meeting place. This is the only forum in the country that allows the Family Island private sector to come together with the private sector from Nassau, and have intimate discussions with the Government.”

Mr Sumner said a post-Conclave report would be completed as “a working document”, which will be used to measure the private sector’s progress “year-over-year” every time this event is held.