If you’ve ever worked in the public service you would know why I’ve come to this conclusion…

This way no “maintenance department” necessary, or at least minimally staffed.

“Rent” is based on local economics, landlords shouldn’t be able to get away with excessive rent when due diligence is conducted as would be done with a private company.

Of course any approach requires integrity and transparency…

Not withstanding the previous comment, with I suppose was meant to ensure transparency in government expenditure as well as the avoidance of nepotism (familial or otherwise), I think it’s prudent for our government to lease rather than purchase more properties.

Benefits:
1) We are poor on maintenance and care of government infrastructure. The building will be maintained by the owners ‘renter’.
2) The rent is the rent and other than utilities which may not be included, expenditures would be relatively ‘fixed’ and more predictable.
3) Bahamian owners and their investment vehicles can earn income, build wealth and ensure retirement savings. It stimulates the local economy!
4) Government collects taxes in the form of Business Tax, Real Property Tax and VAT. The tax authorities will know exactly what the private entity is earning on the real estate so there is less opportunity for fraud by that business.
4) The relevant government agencies occupying that building can focus on their specific tasks (they can ‘do what they do’, unencumbered by building maintenance issues).
5) Less “government employees”, as these folks will be absorbed by the empowered private sector or they themselves may be the property owners.

Defending the indefensible 🤨

🤣

NIB is a national asset. However successive governments have raided its ‘kitty’ for silly political projects. The funding of health centres is one example that on the surface would make sense (a healthy nation is a wealthy one), but were poorly planned and grossly mismanaged.

We need better accountability and Bahamians should be demanding it of our leaders 🤨

Not much love for Space X, and while I agree with much of the complaints registered here, it’s pretty Nassau-centric. Fortunately we are more than Nassau and going to almost any Family Island will reveal that. A greater attention to those islands, helping to enhance what they represent, will go a long way in protecting our environment and our national heritage…we need this approach more than ever given what’s dominating the news of late👍🏽

Great point👍🏽

“Moreover, the jailhouse grapevine will advise an accused not to plead guilty ever and will persuade him to apply for bail on the basis that he is not likely to be tried within a reasonable time. It will encourage him to use every device he can think up to frustrate the ends of justice, including demanding a new lawyer, feigning illness and what not, to delay the trial, and to buy years of time on bail, hoping that witnesses will forget their evidence, or die…” (Fmr. Justice Anita Allen).

There in lies our dilemma, it takes so so long for the wheels of justice to ‘roll’ in The Bahamas that criminals can plead not guilty, apply for bail and just ‘wait it out’ no matter the evidence against them! If you can’t put them on trial in a reasonable time, in many cases, for decades, then it really doesn’t matter what the punishment is, ‘Life with or without Parole’ or the ‘Death Penalty’. We keep talking about the punishment and we can’t even get to the ‘trial’🙄 What’s the matter with us?!🤨

Essentially if the current status continues, we’re doomed😳…🙄

Nonsense.

It boggles my mind how folks who claimed to be ‘Christian’, pretty much a New Testament religion, still hold fast to the “an eye for an eye” Old Testament philosophy. The premise of Christianity is ‘forgiveness’ and healing through forgiveness. If religion is not going to help us come together and solve our problems then we need to discard its rhetoric. We should rely on policies that have shown benefit both here and in other countries (evidence not speculation) which I am certain our local experts are cognizant of because they have been studying these problems for decades.

We need to focus our attention on helping our young people, especially our young men, BEFORE they get into trouble or when they have shown a risk of being delinquent. We once had proposals for National Service, that could be explored again, or the conversion of one of our secondary schools into a military academy with input from our National Security agencies Our meager resources, both manpower and financial (including emotional energy) is best ‘spent’ on prevention rather than the endless appeals process of intentionally having someone killed. Given the prolonged timeframe in this judicial system makes you wonder how reliable any evidence is, especially eyewitness testimony and thus the risk of false conviction is potentially increased…people can be exonerated years later, but not once put to death.

I am in favor of preventive efforts and so I will give the present government a chance with their Gang Related efforts, and the Opposition should too…this like many other of our national challenges require bipartisanship. Please PLP and FNM, put party politics to the side and come together to tackle the nation’s problems!

Amen.

Awesome group doing a worthwhile job❣️👍🏽