By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest yesterday denied claims that the Minnis administration is seeking to inflict “pain” with its conservative fiscal measures, insisting the government will not participate in “any action that is going to further cause the Bahamian people to suffer”.

Mr Turnquest, also the minister of finance, said the government will “not be using a blunt instrument for which a precision scalpel is required” as it attempts to reduce spending, but will aggressively seek to “bring discipline to government finances and rationalisation of the programmes we are engaged in”.

Mr Turnquest also said the government is not seeking to stifle the essential services provided by such entities as the Department of Social Services and Ministry of Education in its attempts to introduce fiscal reform, but is more focused on “the wastage and the excess in these ministries.”

Mr Turnquest also said the government, by its austerity measures, is not seeking to inflict discomfort on government workers, but instead is undertaking measures to “rationalise their service” and “ensure” their services are needed.

In the event workers have to be disengaged, Mr Turnquest said the Minnis administration will do so with “full analysis of what the consequences are” for both sides and “to the extent that we can help them transition into the private sector.”

However, the East Grand Bahama MP stressed the need to “clear the system” so that “we have opportunity at the bottom for new entrants.”

Mr Turnquest’s statements came a day after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced a variety of conservative fiscal measures to get the country’s finances in order, including a ten per cent cut in spending in all government ministries and no new public sector hiring.

Dr Minnis also said there will be no renewal of contracts for salaries which exceed $100,000 per year and announced a reduction in government vehicles as part of a “new era of financial discipline.”

Yesterday, while speaking at a meeting of the Rotary Club of West Nassau, Mr Turnquest said the government has “to make some very difficult and painful decisions” if it is to get its financial affairs in order.

“…It is not the intention of the government to inflict pain on anybody,” he said. “…But we recognise that we cannot continue business as usual and expect a different result. And so those of us who have the capability must do our part. That’s what we’re saying.

“We recognise that the economy is still challenged, particularly in some areas of New Providence and some Family Islands, and so anything that we do has to take in mind the human resource, because we’re not going to be participating in any action that is going to further cause the Bahamian people to suffer

“That’s not the intent at all. But the intent is to bring discipline to government finances, and rationalization of the programmes we are engaged in.”

Mr Turnquest suggested that the Minnis administration’s austerity measures may inevitably affect some employed by the government, adding that should the worst case scenario occur — disengagement — it would have been done after careful consideration of the consequences.

“We recognise that there are people out there right now that have not been employed, some for years,” he said. “Some households have no wage (earners), and they are being disadvantaged because the system is clogged by these high wage earners. We believe that we have to clear the system so that we have opportunity at the bottom for new entrants.

“And so it’s not a matter of trying to inflict any kind of pain or dislocation on government workers. What we want to do is rationalise their service, ensure that we need their service, and to the extent that we have to disengage that we do so with clear intent, with full analysis of what the consequences are, both for us and for them, and to the extent that we can help them transition into the private sector.”

Taxes

Mr Turnquest also said the government is faced with the question of whether it should continue to pay for free garbage collection for private residences, notwithstanding the “crisis” at the New Providence landfill and New Providence being “generally unclean.”

He said a more “efficient way” of dealing with the issue is through “appropriate service fees” so that “we balance the cost of providing the service specifically with the revenue from that activity.”

Mr Turnquest also said all state-owned enterprises, such as the Water and Sewerage Corporation, will now have to look at “rebalancing” their “revenue yields against fixed costs,” and ensure that they “reduce expenditures to be in line with internationally accepted norms and best practices.”

He said while no plans currently exist to increase the rates offered by any state-owned utility provider, should the government yield no significant savings due to their austerity measures, then the Minnis administration will have to start looking at the “revenue side” of those agencies.

“We have no intention of raising taxes, and so the first order of business for all of the utilities and all of these state-owned enterprises is to do their own internal reviews,” he said. “And just as the government is cutting back on 10 per cent and scrubbing accounts to make sure that they get value for money, we expect them to do the same thing. And hopefully that will yield the kind of savings that we need, but to the extent that it can’t, then we’re going to have to look at the revenue side.”

Mr Turnquest also said the government is conducting a full evaluation on the usage of government vehicles with an aim to formulating a “new vehicle policy” to govern their usage.

“…We are looking at the allocation of vehicles across the system, to see who has a vehicle, what purpose they use it for, whether we ought to be looking at restricting usage to office hours, who gets to take a vehicle home, etc,” he said. “Because it’s not just the vehicle, it’s also the cost of maintenance and fuel for those vehicles. And so starting at the very top, we’re doing a full assessment. We’re coming up with a new vehicle policy that will govern all of this allocation usage, and again the intent is to reduce the cost of our fuel.”