@ 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.

A Jamaican hotelier said years ago that the cruise cruise lines are competing against the land based hotels in the Caribbean. Cruise ship arrivals have driven the growth in the Bahamas tourism numbers since the nineties. In fact, more people visit the Bahamas by cruise ship than come by air. The cruise lines have their destinations within this country.

There needs to be a system of local government on the island of New Providence inclusive of the city of Nassau. The city of Nassau should have been governed by a mayor and council. Bahamians see it when they visit Miami,Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. Bahamians do not want change and do not understand the mechanics of the governance of a modern society.

@ This is Ours. That is why you have local government and their elected officials There should be a next layer of real local government in this archipelagic nation. Ask Prime Minister Trudeau , who is responsible for the day to day management of the cities of Ottawa and Toronto?

The problem with Bahamians, yall love to elect and appoint people for the wrong reasons. This is my lodge brother,my sweetheart, who he or she people is , they skin colour or my church brother or sister.

Each one of these islands have different developmental challenges. There is shortage of skilled personnel on these islands. Of course ,the average Nassauvian do not understand that. They simply know what they were taught at the infamous University of Wulff Road.

The two ladies mentioned in this article by the reporter are victims of crime. One is the crime of under-aged sex with minors and the next theft of national insurance contributions. The vast majority of Bahamians don't see these as crimes. However outside the Bahamas in the real world, they are.

@ This is Ours. It is Davis not Favis The financial secretary is a technocrat. He does not draft legislation. That is done by the legal draftsmen and women in the Attorney 's General office. You have no idea how the government works or should work. The FS and his team at the Ministry makes no move without consulting the Minister of Finance who is also the Prime Minster. Most times you make and infer things that are not true.

Can the former prime minister Christie say what is the New Providence experience? There is increasing precious little for tourists to do outside the hotels and cruise ships.There is also the off shore islands like Blue Lagoon and Pearl island.

Go to the old city of Havana and the colonial zone in Santo Domingo. Compare that to downtown Nassau. A bahamian made this comment, on a cruise that stopped in Ocho Rios Jamaica,there is so much things to do onshore. there. Tourism in the Bahamas is going to be increasing challenged by other destinations in this region.

The FNM under Dr.Minnis is just like the PLP in that regard. There was no forensic audit done by them on the spending in the Junkanoo Carnival fiasco. I was told the FNM had to protect a certain person. That person is related tp a very prominent FNM party member.

Fronting is very common in the Bahamas. A young lady told me just last week about a certain business. A PLP crony was fronting as the owner of that business for the foreign owners. Eventually they got tired of him and brought him out.

The system of local government in the Bahamas is a joke. The local government officials in the United States,where my sister lives has tremendous power and responsibilities They raise and collect certain taxes. They control local zoning ,education at the local level,waste collection and law enforcement at the local level. Local government existed in the United States before the American revolution.