So the debt to NAD is money collected by the airline for NAD?
Dude, that is a pass thru, not squatters rights!
Why is it every time we get someone standing up and seemingly intelligent speaking on a relevant subject we find out they doing foolishness?
I swear when the light shines it ain't never good!
Is there nothing in this country that can withstand even minimal scrutiny?

U.S. states add it to vehicle licensing, but with the road traffic revenue leakage........

bcitizen is correct, our Government claims it has "consulted" with the private sector but one could hardly call what little they've done consultation. The like the word "engaged" when talking about the private sector, but it is more a divorce.
One WTO presenter actually said they have to consult with and educate the public but have to keep the Bahamas negotiating position a Secret!
Oxymoronic at best, downright stupid at best.
Most nations negotiating teams are made up of Private sector Business people but not the Bahamas. This process started in 2001, and the public knows as much now as was known in '01!

The Awards themselves are mired in PLP mediocrity and therefore worthless.
Funny that all most of them want is the queens honors.
Got Fred hopping mad though. Maybe aught to award them twice a year just for that show!
Remember, no real pride without shame, Yin/Yang, but I haven't seen a shameful PLP yet!
Aught to be the party theme.

“Every approved applicant,” the bill notes, “who imports into the Bahamas any machinery, materials or articles with the benefit of any exemption from customs duty under this section, shall upon being required to do so by the comptroller of customs, cause such machinery, materials or articles to be marked with such marks and in such manner as may be required by the comptroller of customs.”
Now there is a bit of Idiocy, we gonna mark stuff somehow? What, for surprise Customs inspections?
When you offer incentives such as these in a country such as the Bahamas you aught to be expecting some % of "items" to go sideways!
Investigate and prove, prosecute as the law provides.

High taxes foster tax avoidance and civil service graft/corruption.
Having said that, Customs has never utilized their prerogative of suspect, investigate, prove and prosecute.
Like the layers of an onion, one never knows who is involved in the corruption.
It did start at the top after all.

DaGoobs is right, self serving Political failures self dealing awards after self dealing spoils.
Trying desperately to re-write history.

One distinction is that Pre 1973 MP served at the queens disposal, and were not paid.
It was the queens treasury.
First thing SLOP did was give themselves salaries, ostensibly to thwart Corruption and graft.
Right. And converted the treasury to the Cookie Jar!
Made Permanent secretaries temporary, got rid of the expats with experience, Appointed cronies who did their bidding without question.
Gave dedicated expat teachers days to leave,
The list goes on and on, the evidence is all around us.
We crapped on a really good start and deal.

Bahamas air was created by driving 2-3 other local airlines out of business!
COB was created and staffed by mostly expat teachers culled from other Government schools,
And the level of education has never been what it could have been!
You think the D average is limited to our high schools?
You got the FNM living rent free in your head Birdie, it is holding you back.
Looking at history through the eyes of today is problematic at best, downright dangerous at worst.

Did you know the vote for independence in Bahamian Parliament was unanimous?
Not one dissenting vote.
From the Hansard, May 1973, British Parliament: "The people are deeply perturbed at finding themselves involved in this kind of black nationalism. They refuse to take part in it and are denounced by the leaders of the PLP, the present ruling party, as "Uncle Toms and Aunt Chloes." That is a quotation from the Minister of Health in Parliament following the election and the question of independence becoming an issue.the Deputy Prime Minister, said: To all the Uncle Toms and all the Aunt Chloes I say—your days of prosperous destruction"— I do not know what he meant by that— are numbered and a doom, swift and terrible, is upon your behaviour—for we have overcome you and to the victor goes the glory. He had previously said the same thing at his party's convention a month after the election. By "Uncle Toms and Aunt Chloes" he and his colleagues mean people of colour who are not anti-whiteThat perfectly sums up the population of Abaco. Political victimisation is the first thing they have to fear and they have already experienced the appropriate 1405 threats and, more than that, examples of it. The election was hardly over before individual cases of victimisation of the most alarming kind began to be manifested. I will not weary hon. Members, as I shall in Committee, with the specific examples. There are all too many of them. There is no lack of evidence. When I say in general terms that political victimisation is feared I can prove it with ample cases after the General Election in September. When I speak of black nationalism I can again justify it by specific quotations from Ministers of the Crown, as they are at present in the Bahamas. When I speak of corruption I can illustrate it with precision.

Contracts have been given to the highest tenderer instead of the lowest, because that tenderer is a PLP supporter. Abaco is a good case. A very big road had to be built there, 120 miles long. The contract was given to a company formed by a PLP supporter which owned no equipment at all and which put in the highest tender by a big margin. The company did not even own a wheelbarrow and had never built anything. It was given the contract and immediately sub-contracted the work to another company in the construction business. The first company put in a bid of 30,000 dollars a mile and sub-contracted for 20,000 dollars a mile. The two companies pocketed the difference. That kind of case can be multiplied in the island. This has produced a sense of profound depression among the people of Abaco. What are they to do? They do not want to become part of a black nationalist State of sharp antagonisms between black and white."
Quite the legacy.
The destruction has not been swift, but it has been sure, and at the Hands of Bahamians, of many hues.