so you can start now. the 7.5% will not even enough to patch the wholes that exist. what it will do though, is open the box of Pandora for all the nice to haves from the Government. NHI, New Parliament Building, etc. A VAT only makes sense if the people that have to pay it have the means to pay it.

if you want big windfall or an annuity payment built into a private public partnership, RUN in the next election.

why not raise $200bn USD? or $500bn USD? and if that does not work, you get the money from BOB. It seems to me that some of the persons that make themselves publicly heard got their 1x1 in economics from BravoTV.

I am shocked. the Government has money to place into a black hole?

you are right - these banks took us for a ride for a long time, however they also helped creating this so important middle class in the Bahamas, that is educated and has some $$ in the savings account. Unfortunately the Bahamas economy is a prime example that all boats are floating when the tide is high. However now at low tide, the shortfalls, lack of investment into education, infrastructure (schools not pavements!), mismanagement of public assets and funds, and lack of talent in the leadership of this country are displayed brutally. The unwillingness and inability of Bahamians and residents to pay interest on their mortgages is just one clear indication of this.

how is this country ever going to advance economically? How can a broke company pay salary increases and Christmas bonuses? The Christmas present to each and every employee of BEC is that they still have a job.

This way of giving-a-trophy-to-everyone (even the ones that don't show up) - mentality has to stop. Life is hard.

I hope the people receiving these incentives are not spending them, the way this country and the government run entities is going, they will need this in the near future to pay for bare essentials.

The salary is only one side of the being a Politician in the Bahamas, benefits (Car, driver, office etc.), fringe benefits (invitations to dinner, formal events etc.) another, and then a post in the Cabinet offers huge economic actual or potentially future benefits to the members (jobs in quasi government entities, such as BEC, etc., board positions in companies set up by foreign investors etc.). This is a happening all day long every single day. And of course, then there is the dark side, too.

an agreement on what? BEC wont even have the money to pay its liquidators.

Who says being an M.P. is full time job. I guess most M.P.s are trying to make this a full time job with the effect that they try to make a living of that position, and to achieve an income in line with the fullness of the job and the heavy responsibility and the weight of history on their shoulders. Even if the income is received from different sources....

Private Public Partnerships they call it.