By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Abaco Chamber of Commerce president said “post-Dorian lawlessness” is a “serious problem” with regard to businesses operating without licences on the island.

Daphne DeGregory-Miaoulis, told Tribune Business a recent incident involving a brawl between a golf cart operator and tourist on Guana Cay didn’t need to take place if businesses on the island were regulated properly by the authorities.

Questioning whether those involved had proper licences, she said: “We business owners, small and medium-sized business owners that have to comply with all of the rules and regulations cannot compete with those who break the law and get away with it. That’s a serious problem.”

The problem of unlicenced businesses are part and parcel of the “lawlessness” of post-hurricane Dorian recovery as unlicenced construction companies are very active in addition to landscape work and in “every process of business” in Abaco.

“The excuse is we need the help and we need the facilities and the services and there’s all of these excuses of why we need people to break the law to accommodate the needs of the people and because Abaco was devastated by a hurricane then we should turn a blind eye to it,” Ms DeGregory-Miaoulis added.

She also warned shanty towns are also popping back up in parts of Abaco, larger than before. She said: “We had a police officer come from Nassau and saw there were five illegally built homes in the Pine Barren, she had resistance from the human right’s groups and the courts. But now that we go back to the Pine Barren those five houses have multiplied into 300.” There is also more than one of these illegally constructed enclaves in Abaco as “further up north there is about 1,000 of these homes”.

Ms DeGregory-Miaoulis added: “All of this is because of post-Dorian lawlessness and because we in The Bahamas need to be humanitarian, but it’s easy for the big boys in America and Europe to say we are not humanitarian to deport and evict and to tear down people’s homes. But with all of these homes, none of them have cesspits. They don’t have proper power. They don’t have the services that a normal home would require. They don’t have permits and so this now poses a health risk because all of that feces is going to go into the water table, but are the humanitarians that are criticising us thinking about the health risks that the residents are facing?”

She argued these shanty towns are “built stronger” than they were before and they also have set up commerce inside of them, with everything from gambling houses, convenience stores, barber shops, retails stores and restaurants. “A lot of these enclaves are shanty towns, but a lot of them are not. These homes are well constructed.

“It’s a serious problem because post-Dorian lawlessness can account for a lot of businesses that have just popped up and a lot of businesses activities that are ongoing because you now have women on the side of the road without permits and the police are having a very difficult time trying to enforce the law.”

She added: “The Abaco Chamber of Commerce would really like to see the government apply final notice on businesses that have not made the necessary repairs or removal of their demolished buildings properties. If they have not done it then they need to give them six months’ notice for final notice, or by the end of 2023 that any properties that have not been cleared or rebuilt will be demolished by the government at the expense of the government and a lien will be put on their property and before they do anything with that property they will have to make arrangements to repay the government whichever way they can.”