Would love to see a detailed breakdown of expenses for the trips taken by this minister since taking up the post. There is no reason for $120k to be budgeted per annum for travel... BUT I guess when other Ministers are paying $15k per month for their office rent, why shouldn't he be tripping around the world. Everybody want their piece of the pie.

How funny! This coalition has shown that the only reason they oppose the VAT is to save themselves more money; forget the poor man. They should be made to EAT their proposal page by page.
The bottom line is, the government needs to hire a private group to set up a regulatory tax authority strictly responsible for ensuring the collection of existing taxes. In addition, the existing tax rates need updating eg. $3 for a character reference/$2 for a dog license; seriously? introduce late fees on taxes such as those related to road traffic (motor vehicles/driver licenses etc.).
BEC, W&S, Bahamasair and any other "government corporation" need to be privatized instead of having to be subsidized by millions of tax payer dollars annually. sell them and keep the minority share. I guarantee a corporation whose majority share is owned by private investors will NOT see annual shortfalls like those currently being experienced.
At the end of the day it is obvious that government cannot manage proper collection of tax and to introduce a VAT would only speed up the process of the Bahamas going bankrupt.

Perhaps I should clarify and should not have generalized all rbdf officers. I'm sure there are some that try doing their job to the best of their ability, but for the most part, the force is a debacle.

bismark, I don't know what fantasy world you're living in but I literally had to laugh out loud when I read your comment. If you want to know how "hardworking" these "marines" are, perhaps you should go and party with them in Ragged Island where they barhop instead of patrolling the banks. Dozens of phone calls have been made to the RBDF, specific coordinates of Dominican vessels given, and IF the "marines" show up they either:
1) don't arrive until the Dominicans are long gone/days later; or
2) board and search the boat that filed the complaint and then once they're done, head in the opposite direction of the Dominicans.
Go speak with the fishermen of Spanish Wells who have been shot at, harassed and held at gun point by Dominican fishermen in bahamian waters. These same fishermen have been told by Cabinet Ministers that their photos of poaching vessels were "ghost ships" or "I'm too busy to deal with that right now."
To suggest that Government should pump more money into a flawed system is utter nonsense. someone, somewhere is getting paid off.
What this country NEEDS is for international forces to patrol the waters. The same goes for every form of law enforcement in this country. The Bahamas is too small to handle the criminal element because "everybody knows everybody."
I guess the "RUBI 1" will be used as a spectacle to fool the Bahamian public into thinking that something is actually being done out on the banks. Maybe they forgot to drop off the notorious "briefcase" full of money.

embarrassing