Editor,
Assorted personalities in the economic and political spheres have long used banking institutions and entrepreneurial inertia as posters and whipping ‘boys’ as to why there is a stark lack of new entrepreneurs coming on stream and ‘adequate’ funding for such persons. As a trained Economist with a degree from a UK based college, I beg to differ.
No less a person than the Prime Minister, a former banker with Barclay’s Bank, has postulated that ‘banks and lending institutions may wish to consider liberalizing their lend policies to stir business development and growth. Such institutions are in the business of earning the maximum profits for their shareholders and their client bases. They are not in the business of philanthropy. They are anxious to lend out funds to qualified borrowers with adequate security, usually real estate; stocks and bonds.
The real problems are not with the banks and lending institutions, in my considered experience and opinion but rather with the bureaucracy commonly known as the civil service. Politicians come and they go like clockwork. Today they wax eloquently about what should be done with the economy and how more Bahamians should be participating. Once a Bahamian would be entrepreneur applies for government permits and approvals, that application enters an unfathomable maze of no small proportions and is, more often than not, lost or misplaced within that maze.
A politician may direct a civil servant to facilitate such applications but he/she cannot simply demand the pace at which such directions are carried out. Civil servants have their prejudices and partisan affiliation. That being said, some applications, depending on the relevant applicant, I suspect, are simply ignored or thrown into the waste basket. Them norm is NOT TO formally acknowledge an application or to respond on a timely basis. This causes bottlenecks and ends up in gross frustration and even abandonment by would be entrepreneurs.
Land it has long been declared is the basis of wealth generation and sustainable economic growth. In our wonderful nation there are tens of thousands of acres of so called Crown Land, which despite the terminology actually belongs to the unwashed masses but is held ‘in trust’ by the relevant governmental minister, usually the Prime Minister de jour. I personally know of scores of Bahamians who would have applied for the smallest plot of Crown Land either to construct a modest home for himself and family or to construct a commercial enterprise.
This process in and of itself is fraught with delays; the bamboozle beyond comprehension and could take years and years to successfully conclude, if at all in this lifetime. This stifles the economy and economic advancement for generations of Bahamians. I know of an elderly Bahamian woman who lives on Crown Land in the Cow Pen Road area. She been in occupation since the 1950’s. ALL of her children, now adults, were born and raised on that property. Yet, almost Five decades later, she’s still awaiting the relevant Crown Grant!! This is dead wrong.
Prime Minister, you wish to empower as many Bahamians as possible through the liberalization of the granting and sale of Crown Land. without all of the red; blue and green tape. Land is the key to wealth generation and the stimulus of the economy generally. The bureaucracy is the biggest Elephant in the room when it comes down to starting or sustaining a viable business. Reshuffle those civil servants, especially the Permanent Secretaries and other Senior Officers who have absolutely no business background and never had to make a payroll in their entire careers. To God then, in all things, be the glory.
Written by: Ortland H. Bodie, Jr.
