By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Marvin Dames yesterday said many of the Minnis administration’s long-term crime fighting strategies will “take some time to really bring to the fore,” adding that the country’s law enforcement agencies will have to “make do with what we have” until the government gets its fiscal affairs in order.

Mr Dames, in an interview with reporters following the 2017-2018 Budget communication in the House of Assembly, said as the country is not in the “healthy financial state” it should be to accommodate all of the government’s anti-crime initiatives, his ministry will have to peck away at crime by utilising its current resources, and implement more cost-effective strategies towards that end.

However, Mr Dames stressed the Minnis administration’s commitment to “manage the affairs of this country in a prudent manner and still get the desired results that we’re looking for,” pointing to a number of “short-term” measures his ministry has already started to implement in an attempt to “assist in the reduction of crime to bring down the level of fear throughout our communities.”

These, the Mt Moriah MP said, include increasing police visibility, increased generation and subsequent implementation of various crime fighting operations, and reviewing the existing anti-crime programmes to “see whether they’re yielding the desired results.”

Mr Dames also said the government is seeking to establish more collaboration between the country’s law enforcement agencies to not only to better “extend the reach” of law enforcement, but to allow the government to better capitalise on the “total resources of law enforcement to assist in the reduction of crime to bring down the level of fear throughout our communities.”

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister K Peter Turnquest, who is also the minister of finance, said the country’s fiscal situation is “far, far, far more bleak” than the Free National Movement anticipated, and noted that the previous administration has constrained the government’s ability to carry out its agenda in its first year.

During his first budget communication, Mr Turnquest also stressed the “historically high burden of government debt” now placed on the FNM administration, due to the former Progressive Liberal Party administration overseeing the single largest run up of debt in the country’s history.

Mr Turnquest also said the GFS deficit at the end of June is projected at $500m, five times the $100m forecast by the Christie administration. The East Grand Bahama MP also said there is an excess of $320m in commitments left by the former government, with new bills being found daily.

As a result, Mr Turnquest said the FNM administration is holding the line on expenditure and only providing money for things of the highest priority.

When questioned on the impact the country’s current fiscal position has on his ministry’s ability to carry out its mandate, Mr Dames said: “…You always wish that you had this unlimited supply of cash right? That you could change things overnight. But we’re living in the real world. And as a government we have to begin, through examples, showing the Bahamian people that we are a responsible government and that we have to manage the affairs of this country in a very, very responsible way.

“You heard the budget communications earlier by the minister of finance. We’re not in a healthy financial state. So recognising that, we have to make do with what we have. There are a lot of things that we can do as a country, that we can do in government, that we can do everywhere that you don’t need a serious expenditure of cash to do it.

“This is what responsible governance is all about,” he added. “We have to get away from this place where every time you need to do something it’s cash, cash, cash, cash. We’ve been spending carelessly now for a while, and what has it gotten us? Increased crime, high rates of unemployment.

“So what we’re saying is how can we manage the affairs of this country in a prudent manner and still get the desired results that we’re looking for, as it relates to crime, as it relates to the economy? And so this is what good governance is all about.”

To that end, Mr Dames said his ministry has already started the process of meeting with the heads of the various law enforcement agencies with an aim to “get an examination and an overview of their respective plans and strategies” for this year. He also said the government would be looking at short-term anti-crime measures to bring “immediate relief” to the Bahamian society.

“One of the things too that we will be looking at certainly as a government from a policy standpoint is to work closer with these agencies,” he added. “And we mentioned that during our campaign, that…we want to see more coming together of these organisations to extend the reach of law enforcement. But not only to extend the reach, but to also show those who are on the opposite side of the law that ours is a very, very strong and powerful reach, and we intend to from time to time use the overall resources, the total resources of law enforcement to assist in the reduction of crime to bring down the level of fear throughout our communities.”

Mr Dames noted that there have been a “few murders” since the FNM administration came to office, but said the government is “working very assiduously” with the country’s law enforcement agencies to have them start to roll out our policies so that they can begin to move as quickly as possible, to begin transforming those policies into strategies, and then to operations.

“That’s not going to happen in a few days or even a few hours,” he added. “And so we’re not saying here today that because the FNM is the government, that murders will go away. But what we are saying is that we will begin to work closely with all of the law enforcement agencies and all of the stakeholders in government to move as quickly as possible so that Bahamians could begin to see some relief from crime.

“There’s some things that we can do in the short term and we know that, and this is why we have already begun this engagement with law enforcement, such as we can increase our visibility, we can make better use of our resources, how limited they may be, but we can make better use to ensure that we can begin this process of bringing the level of crime down.”