By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s finance spokesman yesterday asserted that “what the Government is selling does not match what the Bahamian public are feeling” in relation to the projected $223m Budget surplus for the current 2026-2027 fiscal and optimistic economic outlook.

Kwasi Thompson, the east Grand Bahama MP, told Tribune Business that such a positive fiscal outlook as set out by the Davis administration in its Budget forecasts and documents should show up - and be felt - by improved public services benefiting from increased investment, vendors and suppliers to the Government being paid on time and their arrears wiped out, and civil servants receiving compensation due to them.

However, he argued that none of this is happening based on complaints from Bahamian nurses and teachers, the private sector and taxpayers at-large, which suggests a disconnect for many between what the Government is forecasting on paper and the daily reality they see and feel.

Mr Thompson, responding to the Government’s just-released 2026-2027 annual borrowing plan, told this newspaper that “the central issue” is “whatever the Government is portraying themselves to be doing, it must translate into better for the Bahamian people. It must translate into better lives, better services for the Bahamian public. These are the things the Bahamian public are interested in.

“The challenge the Bahamian public are having is that things are not better. If things are better, as the Government is portraying, then all the vendors providing goods and services to the Government should be paid. All public servants - police, teachers and nurses - their increments, back pay and salary increases ought to be paid.”

Mr Thompson, referring to the planned recruitment of 300 Ghanaian teachers to cover shortfalls in the country’s education system, said that - while he backed the move given the importance of education for Bahamian children - it is also “a slap in the face” for local educators still waiting to be paid what they have been promised.

The east Grand Bahama MP contrasted the Government’s ability to find funding for the recruitment of expatriate teachers with a seeming inability to pay its domestic educators. “The public are interested in, if you are saying things are fiscally better and have a $223m surplus, ensure all the vendors are paid, all the teachers are paid, all the nurses are paid, all the police are paid,” he argued.

“The Bahamian public must feel it. What the Government is selling does not match what the Bahamian public is feeling. I don’t think I can put it any better than that.” Mr Thompson conceded that the annual borrowing plan shows The Bahamas’ public finances are improving, but reiterated his challenge over whether this is creating “meaningful improvements in the lives of the Bahamian people”.

“Fiscal discipline is not an end in itself. Its purpose must be to improve the lives of Bahamians,” he argued in a subsequent statement. “As the country's finances improve, the Government should ensure that its priorities reflect the needs of the Bahamian people.

“That means honouring its obligations to those who have already provided goods and services to the Government by paying outstanding amounts owed to small businesses and vendors. It means providing targeted cost of living relief to families who continue to struggle with rising prices. And it means settling outstanding increments, back pay and other commitments owed to teachers and public servants.

“Today, our teachers and many other public servants continue to wait for outstanding increments and back pay, fair salary adjustments, better working conditions and the recognition they have earned through years of dedicated service. At the same time, the Government has announced plans to recruit approximately 300 teachers from overseas to help address shortages in our classrooms.”

While conceding that all Bahamian children need a qualified teacher in their classrooms, Mr Thompson asserted: “We are not properly prioritising our public finances. Shouldn't our first priority be retaining experienced Bahamian teachers, recruiting more Bahamian graduates into the profession and ensuring that teaching remains an attractive career for future generations?

“If the Government has the resources to strengthen its fiscal position, it should also have a plan to strengthen the people who provide our essential public services. The same principle applies to our nurses, police officers and other essential public servants. Retaining experienced Bahamian professionals should always be the first priority.

“Strong public finances should strengthen our classrooms. They should strengthen our hospitals. They should strengthen our small businesses. They should strengthen the people who dedicate their lives to serving the Bahamian people,” he added.

“The true measure of fiscal success is whether stronger public finances produce stronger public services, stronger businesses and greater opportunities for the Bahamian people.”

Tribune Business reported previously how a “cash buffer framework” has been developed to ease the Government’s cash flow and liquidity pressures during the weaker first half of its fiscal year amid plans to refinance near-$3.4bn in total public debt during the 2026-2027 Budget period.

The Davis administration, in unveiling its annual borrowing plan for the new fiscal year, disclosed that the Government has worked jointly with the Central Bank to develop a mechanism to relieve any pressures that may result from the traditionally-lower revenue inflows during the six months to end-December plus investors’ aversion to 10 and 20-year bonds.

“Given the concentration of revenue receipts in the second half of the fiscal year, along with investor concentration at the short end of the yield curve, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance have jointly developed a cash buffer framework to manage in-year gross financing needs,” the Plan reveals.

“This arrangement helps reduce liquidity risks associated with government securities auctions, provides greater scope to manage borrowing costs and, together with the active use of Treasury Bills, strengthens co-ordination between cash and debt management.”

No other details were provided on “the buffer”, especially what it involves and how it will work. However, financial sources consulted by Tribune Business suggested the likeliest explanation is that the Government will rely heavily on Central Bank advances to plug any revenue gaps, and make up funding shortfalls, during the fiscal year’s first-half and then pay these down during the tax and fee-rich six months to end-June.

Several sources, though, yesterday challenged how this will work when set against recently-enacted reforms to the Central Bank Act that tightened the conditions surrounding the regulator’s lending to the Government. These cut the lending limits “from 30 percent to 15.5 percent of the average revenue of the Government or the estimated ordinary revenue of the Government, whichever is less”, although Treasury bills and other securities are excluded from this calculation.

The Central Bank’s last two annual reports, for 2024 and 2025, as well as the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Article IV consultation, disclose that the Davis administration effectively ‘maxed out’ these short-term advances during the fiscal year’s first half. It increased these from $192.046m at the start of 2024 to $332.811m at year-end, representing a $140m or 72 percent jump.