And what is being done to protect government's revenue after it has hit the coffers? Too many times the public is made aware of the stealing or corruption that goes on in government, where millions is stolen or misappropriated. And in most instances the culprits are dismissed but the money never recovered. and sometimes you find that the same people are working back for the ggovernment again, or some quasi corporation or given some contracts and the cycle starts all over again.

Is the case of underage missing children b, girls especially, becoming too frequent in this country? Has the time come to do follow up investigations after the children are returned and take appropriate actions against those responsible for them going missing?

So how ready is the work force? How prepared are the unemployed to become gainfully employed? What are they doing to improve their education, work skills and make themselves more employable. Some have been unemployed for so long, will they need retraining or are they no longer suitable for the field in which they worked. As employment opportunities come along, those most suitable and best qualified are hired first and then the scale slides to the least employable. But if the economy hits a certain level of activity, even those considered 'unemployable' can find jobs. Just hope this will happen in 2019.

When there is that level of smuggling/leakage of government revenue, the real cost of living is distorted. Legitimate business cannot put the full mark up on their goods because the tax evading business actually set the market prices, exclusive of the taxes they are not paying. Imaging a company with $1 Million in sales. Assume it is not paying taxes on 50% of the goods it imports. Also it has ways of ducking its utility bills and not paying National Insurance. So its business license tax is also undervalued. At the end of the year this business could realize at least !/4 million in duties/vat it did not pay plus another $50,000-$60,000 in other unpaid taxes and bills. So assuming the company's normal net profit is 10% of sales . So while a competing company that paid all its taxes would realize profits of $100,000.00 this company would realize $300,000.00 in addition to the $100,000.00 legitimate revenue. And in some cases, the legitimate company may not be able to meet its expenses, because the company that is smuggling is undercutting prices so sharply, and may eventually go out of business. A case of bad money chasing away good money. So government must also be wary of how much it increases taxes, especially when it believes there is so much tax evasion in the economy. One strategy that is often used is government would select a basket of items that are easily smuggled and commonly and sharply reduce or eliminate the duty/vat on those items temporarily, say a year or two. So now the stores that were paying duty all along would have an even price advantage and can get a better share of the market.

BTC thought it would have more control over its cell phone recharge when it moved from ‘hard cards’ to electronic Top Up. But in the first years of Top Up, several millions in Top Up credit was unaccounted for. And with customs there have always been the talks of ‘untouchables’ among importers. Persons who have political ties on both sides of the fence or their own connections, even Amy the higher ups in the Customs Department. So when the government continues to mercilessly increase duties and tariffs and VAT, it drives up the costs of 51% of businesses that are attempting to pay while giving those whom are bringing in the 49% of goods and not paying duties and VAT a greater advantage and a greater profit margin. So while government may see increased revenue when it increases its tariffs and duties, the amount of revenue leakage also increases. And today some importers/businesses are finding that fraudulent importers have certain items on ‘lock’, meaning persons are selling the products for less here than you can import it for so they end up purchasing the items locally (from the smugglers) causing the government even more loss of revenue. When BTC had a problem with stolen phone cards, they would try to track down the cards that were selling below face value on the streets. But they found out that many legitimate vendors had forgone profits and reduced the price of their cards to compete with the ‘black market ‘ cards. Then when BTC made the profit margin so small on the cards Crooked vendors could no longer discount the cards for fear of being suspect. Similar today with Top Up.

With tourism being strong as it currently is, this should be the best time for the government to get the hotel sold. Especially now that they have gotten rid of most of the excess and overpaid staff/managers baggage. If Freeport/Grand Bahama gcan get a kick start that gets that economy rolling, the Bahamas will see an economic boom it has not experienced in 10 years. Patience is a virtue.

A pig with lipstick on is still a pig

As predicted, this case has too much merit on the side of Izmirilian to be dismissed and not go to trial and not to arbitration. To let the Chinese walk away with a whole hotel, especially one that appears to be successful, would be a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. So now the Chinese will have to put up a defense (answer) or offer settlement. No more arbitration or closed-door hearings. At least not in the immediate future. And if there's nothing to hide then why would CCA and its attornies be so agitated about public hearings or even the media reporting on the case?

The ship has been burning for over a month and they cannot seem to be able to get the fire extinguished. What are the health and safety hazards of bringing this ship here? Bypassing the entire US from Canada. A country that has the most modern fire fighting technology.

Many believe there is a connection between this song (Boom bye,bye) and BuJu getting charged, convicted, sent to jail and then kicked out of the US. The song truly reflects the non tolerance of gays in Jamaica during the time it was written. A time when many young men in Jamaica, who had gay tendencies, would try flee to the US to avoid losing their lives or being beaten up. Jamaica has become more tolerant now, at least in some places especially in light of its tourism market . But how will Bahamians fare? When this song was played in nightclubs and even at private events, wedding receptions included, it would almost always end up in riotous bloodshed, especially if the dj was ignorant and inciting the crowds to ‘headshot an bun dem.’ And ‘Dem’ being invited guests and paying customers who had just as much right to be at the event as anyone else, including the dj. So this will be a test of how much Bahamians have matured and become more tolerant of others. Some say if BuJu doesn’t sing the song, they will chant it themselves. Then after the concert is over, the wild guess is they will go back to hating on Haitians.