> "That was on purpose," he told this newspaper, when asked to give a specific percentage. "Until we do these financial assessments and dig through those numbers, it's difficult to commit to a percentage.

Then stop making such pledges. Goodness, what is wrong with these people?

Yet spending is budgeted to increase this upcoming budget year, not decrease. Madness.

> The minister said when the workers’ contracts expire, the government will have to make a decision on what to do next.

What in the world is Turnquest talking about? There is no decision to make. Their employment term would be over. There are no legal obligations to them beyond that. Turnquest is not behaving at all like we are in a financial crisis.

> “So, no, we are not terminating. That’s not the fact. But we are going to insist on efficiency. We are going to insist on the redeployment of some resources.

What?! This is madness! Turnquest is behaving as though his party is trying to get elected and hence, does not want to piss anyone off. What a disappointing start.

> In response, Mr Turnquest said before the election he disclosed all his interests to the relevant authorities because he had nothing to hide. He also admitted that he did not realise the aircraft exemptions were in the budget until he read them in the House of Assembly because he had "very little to do" with the changing of anything in the budget...."It is no secret in this place or in public that I do have an interest in Sky Bahamas airline. I have said throughout my budget that this minister of finance has had very little to do with changing anything in the budget, as a matter of fact, it may be interesting to note, that I didn't recognise that was in there until I was reading it," Mr Turnquest said.

Absolutely unbelievable.

As long as it is "easy" from the government's perspective to borrow, the excessive borrowing will not stop. Successive governments take comfort in what they feel is our continued ability to afford to borrow. It is why they do not make any of the hard choices and there is zero innovation and little to no common sense injected into the country's financial management. When you look at the budget, recurrent spending is projected to continue to be higher and higher year to year than that of the Christie's administration's final year in office. That is madness. The government is not behaving as if we are in a state of emergency. On this track we might as well call it a day right now.

Right. The worst thing you could do to Freeport is try to repeal the HCA to give the city to the government.

@banker I agree with much of what you stated.

Happens all the time in the public service unfortunately; rarely fired, simply transferred to do more damage elsewhere.

> Asked about the status of this aspect of national interest, Dr Minnis said: “We are still reviewing. We are still reviewing. And I want to speak from a position of facts.”

Oh really? When was the full and true file unsealed by the Courts?

What does that $126M figure actually account for in terms of infrastructure and resources, including human resources? People in public health are not getting any new care that they were not getting before, so what was the money Dr. Sands speaks of, allocated toward?