My God! hasn't this man been punished enough?? He is clearly qualified for the position and is a proven fundraiser for COB. We are such a messed up country where our murderers get more second chances than someone that has committed plagiarism. What this no-name BNCC need to be concentrating on is calling for the resignation of this corrupt and inept government that we have! Shame Gibson got caught up in all kind of scandals when the PLP was in power the last time and I didn't hear Snake Wilson and anyone complaining when he was made a government minister again! We have another scandal involving the signing of a letter and I don't see or hear any Coalition asking for any resignations. Ya'll get your priorities right and let the man move on with his life as President of COB.

And people wonder why two-thirds of our college-educated Bahamians aren't returning home??!! The Bahamas is going down the drain faster than a turd in a toilet.

Lol! By birdiestrachan you sure are a diehard PLP. I hope you still have this sense of humour when your leader and his band of cohorts finish running this country into the ground.

I suspect Shame Gibson will now be communicating via carrier pigeons!

Well, the Right Honourable His Excellency Sir Frederick Mitchell said that he has to travel to get money for the Bahamas since Mr. Pinder and Mr. Rolle ain' doing nuttin'. So far his travels have netted the Bahamas over $500,000 in high quality manure (please pardon the irony)! Lol!!

As they say, "the Devil is in the details". It is easy to sell the 5,000 potential jobs (1/2 of the 10,000 Brave Davis promised by the way), the largest casino in the Caribbean and all the possible economic benefits to the Bahamas, but the reality is that any reputable company will read the fine print to reduce their risk to any potential failings. For a resort that is so highly leveraged with the Chinese, the Morgans Hotel Group were right to demand a 'non-disturbance agreement'. Just look at what the last recession did to Atlantis' finances. The fact is that Baha Mar represents a huge risk that may deliver in the short-term because it will be the newest thing on the block, but the long-term prospects are still uncertain. But I guess, 'no risk, no reward'.........??

Amen!! (or is that too religious?)

Though I personally sympathise with the plight of individuals who are experiencing this problem, in NO way should the Bahamas start providing immediate citizenship to children of illegal parents that enter and continue to stay in the Bahamas illegally. This will only exacerbate the problem. Everyone will want to take their chances to get here at all costs knowing that getting pregnant and having children right away will ensure some type of legal status in a more desirable country.

People already know that the Bahamas is a free-for-all place where the right amount of money can buy you what you want. The Bahamas is a very small country and it is our right to preserve what little heritage and national identity that we have left. Some nationalities think it is their right to come here, overcrowd our public schools and hospital, use up most of our social services, and live anywhere they please with little consequences. This MUST be stopped!

Successive governments have allowed this problem to persist too long and now we have developed a huge social underclass of people who are angry and disenchanted. The majority of our illegal 'visitors' come from countries that have populations in the millions. Do we really want to open the floodgates into our tiny islands?? These so called 'stateless' persons should apply for citizenship of their parents' home country before they should be considered for any legal status in the Bahamas. And once that happens, only then should a **lengthy** path to citizenship be considered.

You can have all the technology and identification documents in the world but as long as the people who are using the new technology to create ID documents are corrupt, it won't make any difference. We are essentially in this mess due to the corrupt practices of some Bahamians who are always trying to make a dollar 'under the table'. The vast amount of problems in our nation are too far gone to rectify. You can blame the 25 year governance of the PLP for the ingrained Bahamian corruption and entitlement that so many of us possess. The "all for me baby" crew with their maximum leader L.O. Pindling at the helm has created this monster and I'm afraid that nothing will ever be done as long as there are votes to be bought.

The following article shows that Barbados is making the tough decisions. And this is being done by a country that already has VAT implemented. We need to start doing the same. Let's start with Fred Mitchell and his excessive travelling.

• bridgetown

Barbados’s Finance Minister, Chris Sinckler, has announced cost-saving measures that will result in approximately 3,000 public sector employees on the island losing their jobs.
Sinckler made the announcement in a ministerial statement to the Barbados Parliament yesterday.

“We have estimated that it will affect 3,000 employees across the public service, central government and statutory entities.

“We have agreed that, if possible, there should be an even split in the proposed retrenchments between central government and statutory entities; but if not possible, then the split of 2,000 from the general service and 1,000 from the statutory entities must be imposed.”

He also disclosed that effective January 1, there will also be a freeze on all increments.
“Effective January 1, 2014, there shall be enforced a freeze on the payment of increments for the next two years. Appropriate arrangements will be made for the lost of income to be properly factored in to the computation of overall pension benefits... both the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Civil Service, including the Personnel Administration division, have been mandated to continue consultation and negotiations with the workers’ representatives to ensure all appropriate steps are taken to safeguard the rights of all workers affected by these measures and to craft interventions aimed at mitigating the dislocation which will undoubtedly be caused, including those interested to enter into retraining and redeployment programmes in the private sector,” he said.
He said all members of parliament, permanent secretaries and personal assistants were taking a ten per cent salary reduction.

Ministries have also been instructed to immediately cut travel budgets by 50 per cent.
According to the finance minister, the governing Democratic Labour Party government is trying to plug a gap of BDS$143 million annually, including BDS$34 million in the last quarter of the year.