The Bahamian political elite do not want an effective local government. An effective local government will reduce their political patronage and power. Renward Wells ,the minister for local government in the last administration made this comment.If you have real local government, what will the MPs do.He also said that the report prepared by the committee looking into local government on New Providence, gave the proposed local government officials too much power.

The Bahamians who fly to Florida to shop, don't realize this.All of those cities they love to shop in are governed by local government and not the President of the US and his cabinet.Miami, Fort Lauderdale ,Hialeah and Orlando. Some body made this comment in a text to the morning blend talk show on Guardian Radio this morning.They should do a series of programs to educate the Bahamian people about local government.

@ The Oracle.
Laws should be constantly reviewed, updated, amended and repeal. New laws should also be drafted and passed to reflect the changing circumstances of the country. One of key people in this regard is the law reform commissioner. Bahamians have no understanding of why that position exist and it's function. The Bahamas parliament is way behind in it's legislative function. It has gotten worse over the last three parliaments.
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I want to see a listings of all contracts awarded since the September 2017 election. I also want a listing off all contracts given under the Minnis administration. Just to compare and prove something to me. Politics in the Bahamas is just like in Jamaica. A jamaican prime minister said that politics there is the right for the scarce benefits of the state.

@ This is Ours. You are conflating the issue. Department of Inland Revenue doesn't deal with immigration fees. Immigration fees are dealt with by the Department of Immigration. The food program is expenditure and not taxes. The food program came under the Social Services Ministry.

What is happening is the result of something you constantly posted about. Reviews of business licence filings, vat returns and internal operations.ThE director of inland revenue and her team are doing this. Also the custom comptroller and his team are doing something similar there.

@ You have no clue what you are talking about. There is widespread tax evasion in this country. A CPA was talking about that today to me in a conversation. All that is being attempted is collection of outstanding tax revenues and increased compliance. You should know better.You went off to university in a first world country as you like to say.

@ This is Ours. The expression originated with Theodore Roosevelt the American president.

This is a compliance and enforcement issue. Peter Turnquest spoke about the need for this to be done in an address to the last parliament..Of course, the journalists merely reported his words. They never questioned and attempted to find out what he meant.

There is widespread tax avoidance and evasion in this country. That is why the revenue enhancement unit was formed. It was to attempt to collect some of the many outstanding tax revenues.It was disbanded by the Minnis administration in their stupidity. However circumstances force them to restart it, Peter Turnquest admitted that.

I am not arguing with you. That is what is going to happen. The government will give them a period of time to remit the taxes that were collected by them. Situations like this has gone on in this country for years. A retired civil servant told me that. What is happening now ,is measures are taken to increase the level of tax compliance and reduce the level of tax delinquencies.

Bahamians like you who have studied aboard, should know this.

@ This is Ours. The situation with those courier firms would not be tolerated in other tax jurisdictions. Not in Canada, Barbados, the United Kingdom and definitely not in the United States.One of the major problems in this country is the low level of tax compliance in this country. Of course, the media in this country do not discuss or do not understand that.

@ This is Ours. Do you know what you are talking about?

You don't understand . Do you? This is customs compliance issue which has nothing to do with the financial secretary.Bahamas Customs after doing a review,realize that some courier companies have cleared goods and have not remitted the prescribed duties in the appropriate time.
The persons who the courier firms cleared the goods for,already paid the duties to them .They have failed in part of their fiduciary duties.These duties don't belong to them and are not their cash flow for their operations. These duties rightfully belong to the Bahamas government. These firms know exactly what they were doing.It is really a form of arbitrage.
This is the same reason First Caribbean International Bank had a loss on some mortgages , a couple of years ago.The loss was in the million dollar range. I know one of the lawyers who fail in his fiduciary duty in that matter and subsequently disbarred. Some one also told me some of some Canadian real estate investors who got burned in a similar situation. They purchase property and the lawyer never paid to record the sale of the property. So they discovered,they have no title for the property they purchase in the Bahamas.