Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697639874148.pdf (Bahamas)
Remarks by The Honourable Damian Gomez Minister of State for Legal Affairs Budget Communication 2014 -2015 A.

Introduction I rise, Mr. Speaker, in support of the budget and the legislation attendant to it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the communities of Central and South Eleuthera.

Communities, Mr. Speaker, which commemorate in a few weeks the ravages of Hurricane Andrew and their being abandoned by successive FNM administrations whose mantra was and is "Eleuthera has had its time."
I rise as a witness to this lie!

I rise, Mr. Speaker, for the jobless, the hungry, the untrained and unskilled!

I rise Mr. Speaker, for the seriously ill abandoned over these last 22 years, left to rot in their lack of resources by those who were to busy feathering their own nests at the public's expense!

I rise Mr. Speaker, as a voice of truth before the power of the mace, and the compassion of Our Commonwealth.
Simply, Mr Speaker, I rise to ensure that those who have endured the desert of 22 years may have the opportunity to bask in a new oasis of real economic empowerment and prosperity!

1 Economic Outlook.

Mr. Speaker, Our Commonwealth exists in a global economy comprised of much larger economies than ours with much greater populations and resources than we have.
Ours is a small open economy vulnerable to external social, political and economic calamities as well as weather calamities wrought by global warming and climate change.

Our closest ally and trading partner has and continues to have profound significance to our economic fortunes.

The varied and slow improvement in the United States has benefitted us albeit at a slower rate than many of us would have hoped for.
The volitity of other major markets in Europe and elsewhere has dampened international economic performances, giving cause for cautious optimism.

In real terms, the investment report given by the Honorable Member for Pinewood evidences excellent stewardship of foreign direct investment on the part of the Bahamas Investment Authority headed by the Right Honourable Member for Centerville and the Member for Pinewood.

I salute their efforts!


W e have seen increased tourism investm ent on the island of E leuthera, and increased visitor arrivals, and increased visitor spending.

The economically depressed South Eleuthera is beginning to show small signs of resuscitation giving comfort and hope to those who still look to the hills having for so long being abandoned by the Free National Movement.

Help and hope have been long coming, but the economic change has to come.
We welcome the Four Seasons hotel development at Cotton Bay!

South Eleuthera welcomes the opening of the Seashells hotel in the spring of 2015 under the esteemed management of Noble House!

From Gregorytown in the North Eleuthera constituency to Bannerman Town in the deep South, Eleutherans look forward with anticipation for the opportunity to work, for the opportunity to earn steady sustainable wages and salaries.

2 Indeed, Mr Speaker, we will be able to breathe again!
Our despair and desolation nears its end.

Some dared not believe Indeed, such has been the 22 years of disappointment that many warn me not to count the chickens before they hatch.

Sage advice, Mr. Speaker!

In this instance, observation of work on the ground and in progress leads me to believe and to invite others to believe again!

To members of the eleutheran diaspora, it is time to return to your birthright!

It is time to return and participate in the resurrection of Eleuthera's economy!
The last two years, Mr. Speaker, have been fiscally challenging.

No government of Our Commonwealth has ever been dealt as bad an economic hand of cards to play with at the commencement of their term of office.

Mismanaged projects and programs careened into the hundreds of millions of dollars!

The unprincipled orgy of spending saw even the abandonment of free market values with a government subsidized labour program costing just under 50 million dollars.
Even they, by their actions confessed to their failure, nay, their incompetence to stimulate real and sustainable economic activity!
The BTC debacle; the self dealings in the New Providence Road Development project in which the then Deputy Prime Minister as trustee of a family trust for his children, saw the family company Bahamas Hotmix being awarded contractually hundreds of millions of dollars; and the self dealings in the APD port project in which the conflicted Deputy Prime Minister was again permitted to participate as both trustee of his family trust and as Minister of the Government of Our Commonwealth.
This multi million dollar project was one sided in favour of the family trust and the other members of the oligarchy which has haunted the recent history of Our Commonwealth.

Almost unabated and involving the public treasury, the system of conflicted interests saw the prospering of members of the 3 former administration while Bahamians suffered along with The Bahamas.
It may be said that had the members of the FNM administration been as focussed on their stewardship of the public purse as they were focussed on satiating their insatiable greed, Our Commonwealth would have been fiscally better off and not in the fiscal quagmire which members glibly jive, fix it.

Indeed Mr. Speaker, fix it we must, fixing it we are!
The budget communication of the Right Honourable Member for Centerville and the speech of the Honourable Member for Golden Isles rang like sweet hymns to people of faith.

In prayerful dogged determination to adhere to fiscal discipline, to eschew detractors particularlly those driven by self interest, we have a report that we have turned the corner, we are on course and headed in the right direction!

(SET OUT ECONOMIC DATA ON DEFICITS FOR 2012, 2013 AND 2014.)
4 Objective bystanders, such as the rating agencies have reacted positively to the balanced twin pillared approach of a graduated decreasing deficit reduction encompassing tax collection of immediate tax receivables and tax arrears coupled with tax reform.

VAT will be introduced in January, 2015 at the rate of 7.5%.
Critics of the government had until the budget communication been publicly deaf to the repeated invitation of the Right Honourable Member for Centerville to engage in dialogue with the Government on tax reform and VAT.

Now, it ought to be pellucid that we are a Government which is both open and accessible to the citizens of Our Commonwealth!

A stark contrast to those who were deaf to critics of the BTC deal and to the business owners adversely affected by the New Providence Road Project!
The nay sayers opposite speak with contradictory tongues, simultaneously calling for more fiscal restraint, less borrowing and public spending except on public spending to benefit their own businesses or their individual constituency.

The FNM penchant for conflicts of interest ought to stop!

Hypocrisy ought never to raise its ugliness in this place!

The Member for East Grand Bahama went so far as to assert that we ought to attempt to pay our international debt obligations without any further borrowing!
The following Central Bank Reports show that the FNM administrations never attempted such a socially irresponsible position!

But should we be surprised that the self proclaimed political friend of the labour movement now shows his true colours!

East Grand Bahama would have us lay off the majority of civil servants, cut social services, education and health budgets in order to make possible international debt repayment without further borrowing.
This suggestion of East Grand Bahama is only possible if Government annually finds 250 million dollars in either taxes or further deeper budget cuts.

Only the 5 DNA has been bold enough or desperate enough to utter such bile.

I cry shame on this evil, uncharitable, and anti social suggestion!

Taken from your Mid Year Budget Presentation “ The facts are what they are Mr. Speaker!

The members opposite are directly responsible for the dire straights in which we now find our economy!
But, we are not alone in the observation of the obvious: Standard and Poor, Moody’s, the IMF, the IDB were all objectively critical of fiscal policy between 2007 and 2012.

Almost in unison they have railed against the FNM’s fiscal irresponsibility and constant inability to change either the philosophy or mechanism of revenue generation while revenue collection remained consistently short of each annual projection from 2007 to 2010 and in 2011 and 2012.
What is remarkable about the fiscal policy intransigence of the Free National Movement is that its arrogance extended the bounds of stupidity to the point of being sheer madness!

Amidst the clarion warnings of international experts the FNM band played on in seeming indifference to the world around us.

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, they were even oblivious to our communities and neighborhoods, to the hardship occasioned by their consistently poor decisions.
For instance, Moodys’ report of November, 2012 is instructive.

In 23 pages, Moody’s details critically the poor performance of the FNM’s policy decisions and executions thereof.

Mr. Speaker I beg leave to refer to a number of paragraphs in that report.

6 “The economy contracted at an average rate of 0.8% annually between 2007 and 2011 and Moody’s expect the post-crisis recovery to remain fragile.
Tourism, offshore financial services, and construction sectors-the main drivers of economic activity- continues to face downside risks, exacerbated by an uncertain recovery in the US, The Bahamas’ main tourism market.

Our assessment of weak government financial strength incorporates a marked deterioration of the public sector financial balance over the past five years.
Expenditure growth has continued following the election of a new government in May 2012, and the state plays an increasingly dominant role in the economy through elevated levels of capital spending on public works projects, social safety net transfers, public sector employment, and increased budgetary support to public sector corporations.

This fiscal stimulus program is yet to yield growth dividends and unemployment remains close to 15%, depressing domestic demand.
We see limited prospects for the fiscal consolidation necessary strengthen the government’s balance sheer and stabilized debt levels.

The Bahamas has a limited revenue base and government relies disproportionately on volatile trade-related tax revenue and property taxes.
A one-time revenue windfall from the divestment of The Bahamas Telecommunications Company eased financing needs in 2011 and stamp duties on several large tourism projects financed by foreign investment compensated for a decline in recurrent revenue in 2011, but these developments will nor be credit supportive going forward.
As a result of expanding financing needs, the central government’s debt level rose to 53% of GDP in 2012 from 31.7% in 2007 and debt sustainability metrics have 7 deteriorated relative to peers.

The combination of historically high debt levels and large fiscal deficits has left the government with limited fiscal buffers to effect further stimulus or respond to external shocks.

Revenue-side reforms will be a key ingredient to improving the rating outlook.
Enhancements to public infrastructure, in combination with a number of new tourism developments expected to significantly expand capacity in next 12-24 months, will be credit positive if they translate into an improvement in the growth outlook.

While the high degree of political consensus that has historically characterized the country remains one of its most significant credit strengths, Moody’s believes that tax increases could nevertheless become politically contentious and difficult to implement.
Finally, a continued recovery in the US will be critical to support the rating.

Revenue-side reforms will be a key ingredient to stabilizing the rating outlook.

Enhancements to public infrastructure, in combination with a number of new tourism developments expected to significantly expand capacity in next 12-24 months, will be credit positive if they translate into an improvement in the growth outlook.

Finally, a continued recovery in the US will be critical to support the rating.
We expect the government to find it difficult to rationalize spending and achieve the fiscal consolidation necessary to stabilize the debt and place it on a sustainable trajectory in the near term.

While the pace of increase in government debt ratios is likely to slow in the coming years, a failure to reverse the recent trend of rising debt will place downward pressure on the Bahamas’ rating.
In addition, the crystallization of contingent liabilities from debt held by public sector corporations such as the loss- making Bahamas Electricity Corporation could adversely affect the rating.

A further 8 deterioration of the public sector balance sheet due to external shocks in the form of weather-driven events like hurricanes will also be credit negative.
Growth post-crisis in The Bahamas has been primarily driven by investment (Figure 5) - a combination of foreign direct investment in tourism-related projects and government capital expenditure on infrastructure.

After GDP contracted 2.3% in 2008 and 4.9% in 2009, the economy emerged from recession in 2010 but growth prospects remain fragile.
We are forecasting growth rates of 2% and 2.5% for 2012 and 2013 respectively on the back of higher investment and construction activity, as well as modest recovery in tourism.

The government’s stimulus spending is yet to yield a growth dividend and unemployment remains close to 15%, dampening domestic demand (high unemployment and underemployment also reflect efficiency gains in the tourism sector that had to downscale significantly during the recession).
In contrast to the public works program and several externally-funded tourism developments, construction activity in the residential/commercial sectors – a major source of growth and employment – has continued to decline due to anaemic demand and tighter credit (underwriting standards in the mortgage sector have become more stringent in response to higher NPLs).

We expect construction to continue to be a drag on growth while banks deal with an elevated level of non-performing and delinquent loans.
The “low” score on The Bahamas’ government financial strength reflects weak fiscal metrics relative to Baa 1-rated peers, as well as our expectation that these metrics will deteriorate further, challenged by the fragile recovery, a relatively low revenue base, 9 and the government’s capital-intensive stimulus spending.

Government spending is critical to generate employment and maintain significant social entitlement programs.
Public sector capital expenditure is focused on a public work program to upgrade road infrastructure and will remain elevated for the next two years to complement a number of private sector investments in the tourism sector.

The Bahamas’ government debt has doubled over the past decade to nearly 54% of GDP, and with government guaranteed debt this figure rises even further.

The accumulation of debt has been driven by a deteriorating financial balance.
Fiscal deficits widened from 1.6% of GDP in 2008 to 6>3% in 2012 and we expect the deterioration to continue through 2015/16.

Although the government envisions tighter spending and healthier revenues to balance the budget by the 2016 fiscal year, in our opinion this is an overly ambitious target given the country’s weak growth prospects, structural spending rigidities, and rising debt servicing costs.
The deterioration of the government’s financial balance has been driven by a combination of higher spending and lower revenues (Figure 11; in 2011 there was a temporary improvement in the government’s financial balance due to a one-time revenue windfall from privatization proceeds, primarily used to pay down debt).

Two structural trends will continue to drive fiscal performance in the medium term (through 2015).
First, the revenue base is small relative to peers (under 20% of GDP; Figure 13) and relies disproportionately on volatile trade-related customs duties.

Due to significant tax concessions, tourism-related revenues account for only 11.2% of the total revenue intake.

Revenues are further dampened through an implicit subsidy provided to Bahamas Electricity Company (BEC) in the form of waived import duties 10 on fuel.
Reforms necessary to increase revenue – most importantly focused on introducing a VAT, modernizing property taxes, and reducing tax concessions granted to foreign-owned tourism projects – will not be implemented before 2014/15.

Until then, the government’s balance sheet will continue to deteriorate.
The government’s gross financing needs have escalated to 7.7% of GDP in 2011 from 3% in 2005, met primarily through long-term domestic instruments (mostly in local currency); the government has not tapped international markets since 2009 (Figure 15).

Bahamas is also increasingly relying on bilateral and multilateral loans to cover capital expenditure.

The banking system and the National Insurance Board (NIB) are very liquid and will continue to form a captive domestic investor base.
However, debt servicing costs are relatively high relative to Baa1 and F3=MEDIUN peers (interest payments account for over 14% of central government revenues, up from around 9.3% in 2007).

This is primarily driven by the low revenue base since the effective interest rate on Bahamas debt has averaged 5.5% in 2005-2012, on par with the median for Baa1-rated peers (5.2%).
(SET OUT CENTRAL BANK FIGURES ON DEBT REPAYMENTS) Budget 2011: PM Ingraham “Government Debt at the end of June is now estimated at $3.5 billion, or 44.9 per cent of GDP, a marked improvement from the expected level of 49.2 per cent.

11 Budget 2012: Budget 2011 - 2012.

National Debt Table 2000 -2010 Budget 2012 -2013.

National Debt Table 2000 -2011 Budget 2013 - 2014.

National Debt Table 2000 -2012 12 Budget 2014- 2015.
National Debt Table 2000 -2013 Mr Speaker, North Eleuthera gave a rousing eloquent and impassioned speech in which he excoriated the Government for not rebuilding the fired portions of the North Eleuthera High School, the fired Administrative office in the Bogue and the Gregorytown school during the course of the last fiscal period.
The Honourable Member went further, and suggested that the Government ought to provide more funds to local Government going so far as to assert that Local Government should collect taxes and be enabled to keep 50% of such collections for the benefit of local communities.

The passion with which my friend spoke was only equalled by his condemnation of Government spending!

But the Honourable Member can not have it both ways!

I have checked to see what Government revenues collected on Eleuthera actually are.
I have checked to see what Government expenditures are and what Local Government expenditures are.

I have also checked the Local Government Act to ascertain the duties of Local Government.

Central Government pays the expenses of maintaing public school including building, utilities, salaries of teachers, janitors and handymen.

Central Government pays for maintaining clinics including buildings, utilities, salaries of doctors, nurses, janitors.
Central Government pays for maintaining police stations including paying salaries for policemen, utilities, accommodation, vehicles including cars, jeeps, motorcycles, trucks.

Central Government 13 pays for the magistrate court facilities, for immigration and customs, for ministry of transportation matters, airports, road traffic etc.
The longstanding FNM neglect of Eleuthera has so retarded the island economy that taxes collected on Eleuthera are exceeded by the cost of public services undertaken in Eleuthera.

The golden age of Harbour Island being a net profit center for the Consolidated Fund are over and have been over for some time!

The same can also be said of Spanish Wells!

We have collected more Customs duties from Central and South Eleuthera than either of Harbour Island or Spanish Wells.
Indeed, it is only since the 7th May, 2012 that any real effort has been made to collect Customs duties, Business Licence fees and real property and hotel occupancy taxes.

Ironically, an FNM from the Current was responsible for collections of business licenses and real property taxes.

At least he can thank his Member of Parliament for drawing attention to his failings!
(SET OUT MOF FIGURES AND FIGURES FROM MR KING) 2011 - 2012 14 15 16 2012 – 2013 17 18 2013 - 2014 19 20 Mr. Speaker, the Constitution requires all taxes to be placed in the Consolidated Fund.

Besides this legal truth, the economic performance of Eleuthera does not commend the suggestion of North Eleuthera.
If public spending in Eleuthera were limited to 50% of taxes collected in Eleuthera our respective constituencies would be further cheated and victimized than they have been under the Ingraham administration.

Education, sports and community affairs, social services would all be decimated through his suggested back door budget cuts.

There are many people particularly in South Eleuthera who would starve if social services were so draconianly and savagely cut.
Our people would literally die while waiting for the imminent hotel developments.

In truth, the education facilities and local government facilities and other government facilities are in differing stages of critical decay.

We inherited the decadence of the former administration!

Its carcinogenic threat to Eleuthera was replicated in the national economy of Our Commonwealth.

Our national currency was at risk by the profligate spending of the Free National Movement.
We were warned by international rating agencies, by the IMF, by local experts, by local and international bankers that drastic measures were needed to avoid devaluation and a further erosion of living standards for Bahamians including Eleutherans.

Until we are out of the woods, choices are required to be made.

In the same way that we have waited for schools to be fixed over these long years we will wait longer.
But our wait is now fortified with the hope grounded in the new reality of competent fiscal management we have turned the corner, we are on course and headed in the right direction!
Mr. Speaker, in the same way that we have waited since the life and death of the Great Preston Albury, through the career of the visionary the Honorable Reverend Philip 21 Bethel, through the tenures of Mr. Anthony Miller and of the Honorable Oswald Ingraham the island of Eleuthera will see in this fiscal period the construction of a hospital facility in Palmetto Point comprising over 37,000 square feet.

Central and South Eleuthera, indeed all of Eleuthera, for all who have eyes behold the floor plan!
We have turned the corner, we are on course and we are headed in the right direction!

Mr. Speaker The Government of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas is very optimistic about the prospects for the new fiscal year.

Very early on in our term in office there was a great deal of adjustment to Governance.

Mr. Speaker any Government coming into office must become acclimated to the environment in which it will govern and so it is in this regard that our critics have been with us from day one.
IT would have been easy of the country was not in the state that it was when we came into office but when we sought to be elected we did not expect the road to be easy.

Indeed we were committed to stabilizing growth of our economy, creating new prospects and employment opportunities for ordinary Bahamians, and reducing the rate of crime and social decay in our country.
We approached these issues with enthusiasm and diligence consistent with our pre- election campaign because this Government truly “Believes in Bahamians”.

This has always been the mark of this Government.

I would like to say a few words to critics of the Government.

You know in everything that you do you will have critics.
Most of whom are individuals who have little understanding of what it takes to govern, how to develop public policy that is effective or how to make hard decisions which will in some cases create short term austerity and have 22 long term positive effects on the economy.

I have found it astounding that this PLP Government has received so much criticism for attempting to put the economy back on track.
I am deeply disappointed that our adherence to fiscal discipline has not been appreciated even though such discipline has been suggested to us by the experts both local and foreign.

I want to let the Bahamian people know that this is not an easy task considering the damage that we found the economy in when we came into office two years ago.

You have to really be a strong Government to sometimes go against public opinion of the moment and make strong decisions for tomorrow.
That is good governance and it takes a strong Government to make those kinds of decisions.

I think American President Teddy Roosevelt put it best in his famous quote from his speech “The Man in the Arena”.

Roosevelt’s quote goes; “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, (Mr. Speaker the PLP Government is presently in the arena!!!)
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” 23 Theodore Roosevelt ( echoing the biblical observation of Saint John “ We have fallen short of the mark”) Mr. Speaker we are the Men and Women in the Arena.
I want to remind the Bahamian people that they must be careful of not to buy into a critique of the new policy measures.

Often when this Government is introducing new policy measures it is often met with a large degree of opposition and criticism.

I will speak on how successful we have been with swift justice and you will remember that when we first introduced the concept of swift justice in 2006 there was significant criticism from the Opposition and also from certain members of the media.
Today swift justice is improving efficiencies in prosecution of matters coming to the courts.

We are seeing real gains.

Concrete evidence of social progress.

So I urge members opposite to consider the value of the programmes and the potential these programs can have on the administration of justice in the Bahamas.

Sometimes these things should be looked at from a wider national impact perspective than a political perspective.
Indeed in opposition your role is to provide valid criticism of policies we present.

I implore your to accept your role in the process and to please stop deviating from being constructive.

It is often very distracting and misleading to the members of the public.

But we have come to expect that kind of political mischief from the other side.

These gurillea tactics which are meant to distract.
But we will not be distracted and when I get into how swift justice has been so effective over the last two years you will see that the distractions have not worked.

We are focused on doing our part in the fight against crime.

Mr. Speaker not one constructive suggestion has come from the other side concerning 24 crime.

Yet at every instance they represent to the Bahamian people that the Government is not doing its job in administering justice.

But I am not surprised.


In fact that is expected with any new policy we put forward.

Especially when that policy is set towards restoration of the our society and economy.

Their entire line is negative but I suspect they will have to agree that we have been successful the deeper we go into our term.

They will have to accept the truth Mr. Speaker.

Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860) once stated: All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed.


Second, it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Mr. Speaker, we are very mindful of the concerns of the Bahamian public when it comes to matters such as Crime, the Growth of Economy, Jobs , New taxes and Constitutional reform and gaming.

You turn on the news and these are the topics we are discussing in The Bahamas 2014.

Every one of these issues is a hot button issues.


The talk shows are buzzing and Bahamians have so many ideas and views about these topics.

You listen in and you realize that Bahamians are talking about the issues the PLP government has brought to the table.

We brought these topics to the table because we were not afraid to solve these issues.

This Government is not afraid of tackling the difficult issues that have faced our country for years.

So Mr. Speaker I expect criticism.


It is a sign that we are doing something.

We are stirring the pot.

We are cooking in the kitchen and as we cook Mr. Speaker the other side is trying to tell the Bahamian people that we are never going to put anything on the table.

I am here to tell the Bahamian people that we have been plating solutions and we are at the point where we are serving new public goods and services to the public.
25 Mr. Speaker, this Government is the one willing to take on the challenges that the Bahamas faces in 2014.

The questions facing this Government now are indeed the same questions, which faced the previously elected Government but they did nothing.

The main difference between them and us is that we are not afraid to answer the questions in fact the first thing we did was table all the difficult questions in public and set out to answer them.

And we intend to answer them swiftly and resolutely.
Mr. Speaker this is our cause in this elected house and this is what we have continued to be about as a Government.

We continue to answer at the call.

Mr. Speaker, when you consider the Global economy is showing steady but slow growth, especially among small and vulnerable economies you have to wonder if a lot of this criticism you see in the public is just naked political mischief.
I would want to remind the Bahamian people that when you consider the effectiveness of a governing administration you must always reflect on the experiences and unmet expectations of the previous administration.

When I say the unmet expectations I am referring to unfinished roads, I am referring to the lack of economic activity in the family islands, the social decay because of the lack of community programs like urban renewal and on and on.
Mr. Speaker they complain and say urban renewal isn’t doing anything but to the people that the program has touched and to the youth that are growing up with the positive community programs it means a big difference.

They can’t vote so you won’t hear their opinions on the talk shows or in the media.

This government also believes in providing a voice for those who have no voice for themselves.
The kids being affected by urban renewal will lift us out of the problems we have with crime today because they 26 themselves will revolt against the criminal mentality.

This is what I meant by a visionary Government Mr. Speaker.

We look beyond the five years.

The Bahamas we are building is larger than a political term.

I encourage the Bahamian people to look beyond political pandering and look to developing our country.

We need to support programs like urban renewal.


Indeed the Government is encouraging more programs like it.

The Government does not have a monopoly on good ideas.

I think I will get the support of my colleagues if I say that we fully endorse any programme which will bring hope to the future of the Bahamas and that is what Urban Renewal is, a programme of hope.

Mr. Speaker as we consider this budget we can see that this is a budget which highlights that the Government is a Government of action.
We are taking the necessary steps towards fiscal reform in the case of Taxes VAT, social reform in the form of Constitutional reform and Gaming reform, we are seeing that each island in our Commonwealth is poised to get direct stimulus from large investment projects, we are seeing that the infrastructure to complement these investment projects are a high priority interest areas for the Government.

We are seeing from this Budget that family islands are receiving more attention.
We are seeing that the citizens of our country residing in the family islands are getting the attention they deserve.

As a family island representative I am encouraged by this budget.

I want to remind the Bahamian people that this has been the thrust of the Government from day one.

The focus has always been about the Bahamian people and we are a little over two years in office.

27 B.
27 B.

Office of the Attorney General Crime Mr. Speaker, it would be remiss of me if I did not address what the team at the Office of the Attorney General is doing in the fight against crime.

I would commend the diligence of the Minister of National Security and the Honorable Member of Parliament for Bain and Grants Town and the Commissioner of Police who stand on the frontlines of law enforcement in our country.
Their steadfast dedication, conviction and belief in a safe Bahamas are what drive the fight against crime.

Many of our Police officers put their lives on the line everyday to protect law-abiding citizens.

Each officer should be honored for their commitment to law enforcement in our commonwealth.

There is always a lot of criticism against the agencies involved in the fight against crime.

It is often said that we are not doing our job.


Though I would say to our critics that anyone involved in the fight against crime, “the men and women in the arena” will not tell you that the crime level we face is because the Police Officers are not doing their job nor is it because we are not prosecuting enough criminals.

Rather we are seeing that some of these criminals do not fear the law.
There are a significant amount of repeat offenders in our system and they themselves have a belligerent attitude towards the enforcement of the rule of law.

These individuals are not the law-abiding citizens that make up the majority of the citizens of this country.

Indeed there are a few bad apples in the barrel who seek to mar the reputation of our small country.
They do not act in ignorance of the law but they do act ignorantly and without 28 fear of the effect that crime has on each and every one of us.

Indeed most of these thugs and bad boys have family members, mother, daughters, sons and fathers who are law abiding citizens.

I could only conclude that when they are committing a crime they are not thinking about how these crimes affect the lives of their family members.
In what seems to be retaliation killings the sadness that a murder can bring to family members and relatives never seems immediate in the mind of would be murderer, rapist or thief or if it is it would seem that they do not care.

This goes beyond the efforts of Government institutions.

This culture of criminality, which pervades certain parts of our society and these, few deviant individuals have left a cloud of despair hanging over our nation.

Mr. Speaker, I am a father and a husband and a son.
I too have family members to be concerned about.

I look around this Honorable house and I see mothers and daughters and sons and fathers and cousins and sisters and brothers.

I see Bahamians.

I see us.

Crime discourages us from accomplishing our goals as a nation and it is meant to deters us from achieving our common loftier goals.

As a society we must remind the criminal or the would be criminal that we will not accept criminality and we will not live in fear of criminality.
The first thing we must tell the criminal is that we do not fear you and that we will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

This is the exact message that the RBPF and the Office of the Attorney General is sending.

If you look at the Bills we have been promoting over the last year we are reminding criminals that if you do the crime you will do the time.

A simple case of cause and effect.

You commit a crime and we will prosecute you in the swiftest time possible.
These guys are very versed in the criminal law.

If you spend time before the courts you would learn 29 that these guys are really bush lawyers.

So what we have been doing is tightening the laws to ensure that these deviants do not abuse due process.

Realistically we can not interfere in the Courts discretion to grant or refuse bail.

The Courts have made this clear and they have expressed their abhorrence of any such suggestion.
What we must do is to increase the speed and efficiency in which persons are charged and brought to trial.

Criminal Legislation over the last fiscal year We have introduced several Bills in this Honorable House to supplement and support to Criminal Legislation in this country.

There is always need to amend laws to reflect the circumstances which face our criminal justice system.
As the incidence of crime occurs the natural inclination of a responsible Government is to analyze the effectiveness of legislative tools.

These amendments were intended to fill in the gaps in the law with respect to several areas where we noted the need for clarification in legislation.

We had grown past the usage of the common law as it is common in jurisdictions with similar legal traditions such as our and we believe it would be best to codify these principles and presumptions in legislation.
We were also minded of our international obligations under various treaties.

A responsible Government ensures that such obligations are implemented into national laws especially when the effect is to bolster confidence from the Global Community.

We are always mindful of our role as an Independent Nation and the importance of role as a nation in providing peace and security to those who would traverse our borders.
We have introduced amendments to: The Evidence (Amendment) Bill : Which sought to provide for the best possible use of available footage on the closed circuit television (CCTV), thereby exploiting the 30 benefits of the recorded information in both crime prevention and detection.

Similarly, the rebuttable presumption of the presence of the accused at the scene of an alleged crime, once his electronic monitoring device is recently discovered at such a location is also introduced in this Bill.
The Justice Protection (Amendment) Bill: Which sought to bring the principal Act in line with The Bahamas' international obligations to suppress organized crime and to provide for justice and witness protection under the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
That Bill sought to create the new offence of “Obstruction of Justice”, which complies with The Bahamas' international obligations under the Convention but more importantly it provides a robust, timely and sensitive response and protection of key officials in the criminal justice system and the innocent individuals who must appear before them, for example, witnesses and juror.
The Penal Code ( Amendment) Bill: many amendments to Penal Code to bring that Bill in line with International Conventions which we have signed specifically The Palermo Convention.
The Extradition( Amendment) Bill : which sought will extend the amount of countries from, and to which persons may be extradited, increase the type and nature of offences for which extradition can be sought, and will now provide for additional multilateral treaties between states party to this Convention, expand the ambit and scope of extradition, remove international barriers to eradicate crime.
31 The Firearms (Amendment) Bill: which sought to amend the Firearms Act to include offences relating to the illicit manufacture and trafficking in firearms, their parts, components and ammunition and to provide for an offence relating to the export of firearms creates the offence of possession of a high powered weapons and for connected purposes.’ The Anti-terrorism (Amendment) Bill: Which sought to extend the maximum period (i.e., from eighteen months to two years) in which the Court shall grant a freezing order.
The Bill also sought to insert a new ground (i.e.

“sex”) upon which extradition shall be refused if the intention is to punish or prosecute on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, political opinion, or if, to comply with a request prejudices a people’s rank or status.
In the Bahamas Article 15 of the Constitution guarantees “whatever his race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex”, the fundamental rights of “liberty, security of the person and the protection of the law” This amendment brings the Act in harmony with the Constitution and the international obligations of The Bahamas.
Juries (Amendment) Bill: which sought to improve the efficiency of criminal trials, provide effective mechanisms which would allow the courts to dispose of matters in a radically swifter and more organized manner.

The pool of jurors is to be expanded to include residents of the Family Islands and to make proper provision for their accommodation and stipend whilst they serve.
Mr. Speaker These are just some of the Bills that we have been working on over the course of the last fiscal year and Mr. Speaker I want to briefly touch this issue we face in passing legislation in this house.

We often get a lot of criticism from Members opposite 32 over the Bills we bring to the house.
Their criticisms are always noted ( even when they are nonsensical) and if a criticism is valid we make the necessary adjustments but Mr. Speaker, if the matter is something you can call me on why bring it before this honorable house.

It is a complete waste of time to challenge legislation when you yourself don’t understand the legislation.

Instead members should call the Office of the Attorney General or email us to gain further clarity.
We shouldn’t at the point of debating a Bill be asking for clarity on things we could have asked after a Bill has been laid in the house.

Mr. Speaker we recognize that we are promoting legislation which benefits all Bahamians and not just PLP supporters.

Unlike the members opposite we see our job as parliamentarians as representative of all the citizens of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas even the FNM supporters.

In truth we need to take this responsibility to our Constituents and citizens more seriously.
A lot of the criticisms of the Bills we lay in this house are purely political and a waste of time.

I would encourage the Opposition to be more loyal to the people and not to spend the upcoming year attacking legislation just to attack Government.

When we table a Bill in this house all of the Members have the opportunity to speak on the Bill but there are some criticisms that you can call me at my office and say Damian I have a problem with how this is worded or Damian What does this provision mean?
Instead of coming to the house wasting time, spending half hour trying to frustrate the passage of legislation that will positively affect all of our citizens.

When people elect a representative they want a representative that also represents them outside the house.

They don’t want a representative that stops representing them outside 33 the House of Assembly.
Mr. Speaker I believe if we take the approach of representing when the cameras are off and people are not watching then both Government and Opposition can get a lot more done.
So I encourage members opposite to give me a call or email me if there are issues with Bills that are not of a substantive nature or if there are matters, which would need to be interpreted Mr. Speaker we have completed work (with minor adjustments being made as we speak) in the 5 new courts, which will allow us to further, reduce the backlog in both the Criminal Side and the Civil Side.
Mr. Speaker, in the next few months, there will be eight of the ten criminal courts operational : which we anticipate will assist in reducing the backlog and creating more efficiencies in the judicial system ( ie more judgments, more convictions, shorter trials etc.).

I want to highlight that this year we have scheduled 222 matters before the Supreme Court.

These are scheduled matters.

The reality is that the completion of a criminal matter requires a combination of things.
It requires:  Completed investigation and a complete case file  Prepared prosecutors  The Courts must have available dates  The accused must have access to legal representation  In the case of serious indictable offenses there must be a written record of the proceedings  There must be a jury 34 Mr. Speaker I say all this to suggest that it is not an easy process.

The prosecution of a criminal matter is significantly time consuming, intellectually demanding and costly.
It bears heavily upon the resources of the State and directly this cost is passed on to the taxpayer.

So we have to manage these resources efficiently to maximize the result of public prosecutions.

At the Office of the Attorney General we have made it a priority to manage the resources in an efficient manner which would produce optimum results and we have had some measure of success.
The year to date statistics reveal that while we have some distance to go we are seeing a positive trend in how efficiently we prosecute matters.

Mr. Speaker this is an important aspect in the fight against crime.

Mr. Speaker the state is not severely disadvantaged by the lack of resources.

What we lack in numbers we make up in dedication.

Mr. Speaker have a very dedicated group prosecutors that have completed 81 trials so far in 2014.
Prosecution of a criminal matter is in itself is not an easy process and it is demanding on the lives of all those prosecuting matters before our Courts.

We have to remember prosecutors are individuals to just like you and me.

They have families, and lives as well.

Mr. Speaker we will spread the 141 remaining matters across those courts and we anticipate that we will have the majority of this remaining figure heard and completed before we begin 2015.
We are seeking to have these Courts up and running by August but there are a number of minor matters which will have to be redressed.

Currently there is some minor work being done to the roof of one of the Court rooms.

Our Case management division is strategically organizing how matters will be brought before these 35 new Courts.

Depending on the seriousness of the matter we may even attempt to bring 2015 matters up so that they can be heard ahead of time.
When we revisit these figure again next fiscal year I suspect that we might have seen a significant increase of matters completed.

Mr. Speaker this is our intention to complete matters within a 12 month timeframe.

From start to finish in 12 months.

Mr. Speaker as far as efficiency at the Office of the Attorney General and in terms of general trial efficiency we have done more in two years than the last administration has done over the entire 15 years they remained in office.

That is a fact!!!
That is a fact!!!

The fact of the matter is we have begun to address some of the problems that existed in the prosecution of matters.

We have done so by legislative amendments and we have done so administratively!

Mr. Speaker we have turned the corner, we are on course and headed in the right direction.

Swift Justice Mr. Speaker I want to state in this Honorable House, “Swift Justice is working”.

I want to let the Bahamian people know that Swift Justice is working.
Since 2006 when we first introduced Swift Justice we have seen significant improvements in the prosecution of criminal matters.

In 2012 when we came into office we observed a crime situation that had grown out of control.

I believe the issue of the previous government was that there was an attempt to “control” crime (by things like ankle bracelets etc).

The Government of the Bahamas is today not trying to control crime but rather we are trying to reduce crime.
36 In order to reduce crime the Government must employ tactical and strategic measures to improve the criminal justice system.

The Criminal Justice System is comprised specifically of the enforcement arm being the RBPF, the Department of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary.

Mr. Speaker there is a fourth stakeholder that plays an important role in the system.

The Public.
The Public.

The Bahamian people play an important role in reducing crime in our country and their impact on crime reduction cannot be underestimated.

Mr. Speaker the citizen of the State are central to crime reduction strategies.

The citizen must hold himself accountable for his fellow citizen.

Fathers must account for their sons.

Mothers must take responsibility for their daughters.

All citizens must live responsibly and abide by the Rule of Law set under the constitution.
If each citizen made an effort to abide by the Rule of Law in our Commonwealth we would instantly lower the crime rate in our Commonwealth.

It takes collective social consciousness to defeat crime.

We must remind the citizen that it begins with the man in the mirror, with him or her.

The Bahamian people have the power in themselves to lower the crime rate.

Mr. Speaker every week we hear the reports of crime in our communities, mostly among the young people of our nation.
The types of crime are seemingly damning on our people, on our economy and on our future.

Crime is a danger to the future of our country.

A Government has the very important responsibility of reducing the incidence of crime in a country.

Programmes like Swift Justice and Integrated Justice improve the Governments ability to reduce the incidence of crime by simply organizing how we charge, prosecute and convict individuals entering the criminal justice system.
The intention of improving 37 the system is to set examples for would be criminals.

In other words if we can prosecute an individual from start to finish within 12 months of being charged, individuals will think twice about committing crime.

This is the logic behind improving efficiencies in the Criminal Justice System.
Mr. Speaker we are well aware that some individuals will ignore any efficiencies in the criminal justice system and it is be unrealistic to think that we can stamp out 100% of crime but reducing the existing crime rate is a possibility and it takes work.

Mr. Speaker, Swift Justice has been one of our hallmark programmes as this Government.

Indeed it has been very effective ever since we implemented it.
I think a lot of the time we focus on what is not going right with the justice system and specifically how many violent crimes (in particular murders) are occurring on our streets every week.

This concern is a valid concern.

People should be concerned about their safety and the Government should exhaust every avenue to reduce the incidence of violent crime occurring every week.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is that every time a murder occurs public confidence in the Criminal Justice System goes down and this is reasonable because the public only interacts with the realities of the criminal justice system after a crime is committed.

The Job of the Government is to restore this lost confidence in the criminal justice system.
It is a little disturbing is that the members of the Opposition have made statements in the media about the safety of citizens in todays Bahamas solutions to the gaps in the criminal justice system.

Besides the glaring fact that little was done to curb crime under the 38 previous Administration we are now being blamed for a problem, which escalated under their Administration.
Since we have come to office and since we brought back Swift Justice we are seeing that matters are being swiftly disposed of and that we are seeking synchronization of efforts between the police and prosecutions towards an increasing conviction rate.

Addressing the fear of Crime Mr. Speaker we are all disturbed by the occurrence of crime especially in New Providence because of how small the island is and because of the fact that we have the greatest density of people here in New Providence.
The occurrence of violent crime is becoming more real to the average Bahamian because it is occurring right outside our front door or not to far from places we frequent.

Murder in particular has the greatest fear inducing effects because each citizen is guaranteed the right to life under our Constitution.

Fear of the threat of violent crime is what leads to some degree of sensationalism about our crime rate.
There is also the somewhat artificial comparison of crime in other countries and statistics which measure the incidence of violent crime per capita.

We should not disregard these comparative studies but when the Government is implementing strategies to reduce crime the focus is squarely on what is occurring in the streets of the Bahamas.
The more information we collect on what is occurring in our streets, what is occurring in our courts and what is occurring in our prisons the clearer the solution becomes to the Government.

In this regard the fear of violent crime must be considered against the information that is available.
39 Mr. Speaker that is why if the Commissioner of Police were to come out tomorrow and say as he did last year that by the year to date statistics crime is down there are some individuals who will say this figure is rigged or set to make the Government look good.

When in fact the statistics are showing that the RBPF, the OAG and other relevant agencies are in fact doing their job.

Ordinary Bahamians like you and me doing their job and still not being appreciated for it.
What it is Mr. Speaker, It is unfair to those civil servants who are doing their jobs to make this a safer country and what it also does is it says to the criminal you are not in danger of being caught and you can continue to terrorize the law abiding members of the community.

Mr. Speaker public Confidence in the Criminal Justice System is important and we cannot continue to sell fear to the Bahamian Community.

There is nothing wrong with stating facts.


If a political party wants to say this is the murder rate and the figures are accurate then that is the case but do not say the murder rate is directly related to the crime rate.

That is misleading.

The Crime Rate (including violent crimes) is decreasing Mr. Speaker and that is a fact.
Murder is not the only crime affecting our crime rate and thanks to the partnership of the RBPF and OAG we are seeing more criminals convicted of offences in a shorter space of time.

I would only use the case of Sup.

Clayton Fernander whose attackers were captured, prosecuted and sentenced within a period of nine months after they were charged.

Mr. Speaker I want to be clear that I am not trying to down play the importance of reducing crime in the Bahamas, in particular murder.
Indeed one murder is one murder to many and I believe we can all agree on that.

The Government must at times seek to build consensus on what are matters of national importance and many Bahamians will agree 40 that crime is a matter of national importance.

So I say to the members opposite that we should treat with crime as a national matter and not as a political volleyball.

There comes a point when you have to stop being political about a national issue and attempt to solve it.
In the House of Assembly we are Representatives of the People and when it comes to crime the people have had enough.

As the Government we must seek to do everything in our power to address it and address it with immediacy and determination.
Mr. Speaker the Government has been addressing the crime problem with a significant amount of zeal and it continues to do this by creating a vortex around criminal activity by saturation patrols, increasing the volume of prosecutions weekly , increased efficiencies in the trial process by legislative amendment, and by recording data on trial efficiency which gives us a clear picture of the things we need to improve on as we continue to improve the criminal justice system.
In this way we can restore public confidence.

Mr. speaker this Government wants the People of the Bahamas to know that we are actively pursuing results and the only way you can prove there have been results is if you have established statistics which can be verified Mr. Speaker, Swift Justice is essentially a programme, which is targeted at rectifying the weaknesses in the prosecution of criminal offences and on eliminating the social ills associated with crime.
The objects of Swift Justice are to:  Concentrate on the effective management of serious cases (especially murder) from the investigative stage.

 Have all murder cases committed since May, 2012 tried within a year of the commission of the offence.

41  Have persons who attack a member of a disciplined force, a judicial officer or any other person involved in the administration of justice tried within six months of the commission of the offence.
 Review existing murder cases to determine those which are heinous in nature and warrant the death penalty.

These cases will be dealt with expeditiously at every level in the courts.

 Ensure that backlog cases are put in a state of readiness and prosecuted expeditiously.

 Implement the Integrated Justice System to establish automation and connectivity of all the stakeholders in the criminal justice system.

 Revitalize and strengthen the Witness Protection Programme.
 Report regularly to the public.

 Provide the means by which victims can be notified when accused persons have been released on bail.

The Office of the Attorney General has from day one used Swift Justice to develop solutions toward reducing crime.

One of the reasons why the programme has been 42 successful is because we have been collecting data on matters being prosecuted before the courts.

Gone are the days where we count criminal statistics.
That statistic is not as important as the statistics on the efficiency of criminal prosecution.

How are we treating with people who commit crimes?

How efficiently do we prosecute these matters and how quickly we move them through the system.

Mr. Speaker before we came into office files would come to the OAG incomplete with key pieces of evidence missing.
Prosecutors would be inundated with case files to the point where they were not be able to give each file the necessary attention to ensure the matter is properly prosecuted These sorts of things have set back prosecution of matters and in some instances lead to failure to get convictions.

When we came into office we immediately employed business process reengineering in the Department of Public Prosecutions.
We adjusted work flow, we ensured that the DPP and the Deputy Directors had oversight over all matters being prosecuted and the Attorney General and I receive weekly updates on all matters being prosecuted in the Courts.

Mr. Speaker I said weekly but it can be daily depending on what happens in the Courts.

This leads to real time strategy at even the executive levels of the Office of the Attorney General.

Public Prosecutions is becoming a well oiled machine and we have the statistics to prove it.
During their tenure in office the former Administration did precious little to rectify the problems faced by Public Prosecutions.

Mr. Speaker a lot of the criticisms of how Government Offices are run are valid and as a Government we have made efforts to improve business processes thereby improving service to the public.

This is straight across the board in the Office of the Attorney General, From Public Prosecutions, to 43 Drafting, to Civil Chambers to Case Management, to Integrated Justice.
Process Re- engineering was a critical aspect of solving the problem we faced when we first came into office.

Now that we have put out that fire we have moved to monitoring and evaluating of our systems.

Mr. Speaker everything is a process.

We have accumulated statistics to suggest what is working and what is not working and I will share a few of these with the members of this Honorable House.
(Note: Set up Poster Board or Show Color statistics) Fact 1: Trial time from start to completion has decreased by 44 Fig 1.

Average Time for VBI Presentation & Average time to Trial  Mr. Speaker under the former administration a criminal prosecution could take in excess of 900 days to come to trial.

Today we have reduce that number to less than 300 days and 127 days after the VBI stage is passed.

That is what I call an improvement Mr. Speaker.

Efficency Mr. Speaker Efficency!!!


Mr. Speaker there have been significant efficiency gains in the system over the last fiscal year.

The Average Time for the presentation of a Voluntary Bill of Indictment is down from 344 days to 127 days from October 2012 to April 2014.

That is a 63% improvement.

This is significant.

Also the average time between presenting of a VBI and a criminal trial has improved from 900 days Mr. Speaker to 230 days.

That is a 74 % improvement.


Mr. Speaker on average it takes 357 days to complete a trial from start (presentation of the VBI) to finish (sentencing) In the past it took on average 1,244 days.

That’s a 350% improvement in little over two years.

Mr. Speaker I believe that is swift justice.

If you can recall at the outset I said we want to bring cases to completion within one year, (12 months from the commission of the offence.

We are very close to achieving that objective.


That is swift Justice Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker what we have been doing is using the case management system to analyze case files from charge to conviction.

The Director of Public Prosecution and the Deputy Directors have the responsibility of monitoring all prosecutions in the courts on a daily basis.

They report to both the AG and myself on a weekly basis and sometimes every 45 other day depending on the prosecution.
So we are always abreast of what is going on in the courts.

Strategically Public Prosecutions meet weekly to discuss prosecution strategy for matters set for trial and those matters, which are in progress.

Prosecutors are no longer left alone with their files to manage on their own.

While they do have to manage their files they receive assistance from our case management department who would do some of the footwork and communicate with the RBPF to ensure that files are complete for prosecution.
This allows the prosecutor to apply his or her legal mind to each matter without the distraction of administrative work.

This proves a tremendous difference in the outcome of a criminal prosecution.

We must consider that we have some very astute criminal defense attorneys at the Bar and in order to balance the scales of justice we must allow the prosecutor time to prepare his case.

All of these ‘small’ adjustments to internal process significantly reduce the time frame between charge and conviction.
Fact No.

2 Guilty Verdicts Are Up In 2013 we had a 46% Guilty Verdict rate coming out of trials.

Forty-six percent is not where we wanted to be and we set out this year to improve that figure.

But Mr. Speaker in 2014 so far we have seen a guilty Verdict coming in 60% of the cases that go to trial.

This is approaching the standard that we want to set for Public Prosecutions in this country.
We want to tell the individual that would seek to disrespect the Rule of Law in this country that the Justice System will not waste time in sending him to Fox Hill Prison.

As quick as we get you that’s as quick as you will be processed and going to jail.

We the conviction rate up so high that bail cant save you.

When we catch you, you are off the 46 streets and you belong to the state.

Mr. Speaker we don’t have anytime to play around and we want the criminals to know we are serious.
By the end of this year we want to see this percentage increase and hopefully we can get the number of cases going to trial increased to ensure that accused persons are tried within one year after being charged.

Fig.

2 Mr. Speaker, I would like the members to consider yet another set of numbers that prove Guilty Verdicts are up.. (See pgs.

4 -6)    In 2012 when we came into office the period of May 2012 to December 2012 we saw 29 guilty verdicts.
In 2013 between January to December we saw 48 guilty verdicts In 2014 for the first six months we have 38 guilty verdicts 47 Fact No.

3.

Trial efficiency is up Mr. Speaker in 2014 we have had 222 matters scheduled for trial and so far we have had 81 trials concluded on an average of 4.26 trials per week.

We currently have five judges sitting on criminal matters.

This means that all just about our entire criminal courts have criminal matters set down for trial every week.
Mr. Speaker we have an average of 4.26 trials per week.

We are maximizing the use of the courts and if you consider that convictions are up as well we are seeing a positive trend in terms of efficiency.

From January to May 2014 the statistics show that of the 81 matters completed we have had 39 guilty verdicts, 29 Not Guilty Verdicts, 7 Mistrials and 11 Nolle’s.

Fig.

3 48 Fact No.

4: Murder prosecutions take up the bulk of the matters scheduled for 2014.
Mr. Speaker I want to look at the 222 scheduled trials for 2014.

Of the 222 prosecutions scheduled 72 of those are murder trials.

Most of the prosecutions going to trial are for murder.

That’s 32.4% of all prosecutions set for the year.

What this means is that those 49 persons being charged with murder are being brought before the courts in a swift manner.
Anyone who has sat as a juror or has witnessed a murder trial knows that a murder trial takes a while to complete given the nature of evidence, witnesses and the deliberations of the jury.

Even the forensic reports take six to eight weeks minimum to be completed on a Murder investigation.

For 2014 we have had 27 trials completed with 12 Guilty verdicts, 10 not guilty verdicts, 3 mistrials and 2 Nolle’s.
Armed Robbery had 50 trials scheduled, 16 have been heard so far with 4 Guilty verdicts, 6 Not Guilty verdicts, 2 Mistrials and 5 Nolle’s.

If you look at the table that I am looking at you will see that we have statistics on all categories of serious offences and our success in each of these types of matters.

What this allows us to do is to consider what our weaknesses are per each legal matter and to determine how best we can strategically address those weaknesses.
We can then go back to case management and the investigators and highlight where we are coming short so that as the RBPF investigates matters we they know what they are looking for.

The aim is to tighten the noose around the criminal by ensuring that our investigators get what is needed to ensure convictions of criminals.

We do not intend to see the same numbers next year.
We expect that as the system improves the numbers will improve and as the numbers improve we intend to see the crime decrease in the streets.

For the criminal the risk of getting caught and convicted would be so high that he or she would reconsider committing a crime.

Mr. Speaker there is a phrase “ Beat the System” .

We intend to turn that phrase around.

The system will be 50 beating the Criminal and it will beat the criminal badly.

They will think twice Mr. Speaker.


We want to be so efficient that they have to think twice because crime isn’t worth it.

In effect we are intelligently improving the system so that the system works properly and fairly.

This suggest two things and I want to point out to members of the public.

 We are about to double the amount of criminal cases we prosecute in one year  We are about to double the amount of guilty verdicts per year.
What I am saying is that the Office of the Attorney General is becoming more efficient in getting matters to trial in a short period of time and we are also seeing more complete case files with evidence which meets the evidential burden of beyond a reasonable doubt.

This also means the investigators the police are also doing their job.

This is what we call integrated justice.

Criminals should pay attention because we are getting really good at investigations and prosecutions.
They should cease and desist because going to jail isn’t worth the trouble.

The police will arrest you and we will prosecute you and you will convicted and sentenced to go to jail.

Integrated Justice Mr. Speaker, we have also employed a measure that we refer to as integrated justice.

There is a team of stakeholders at the Office of the Attorney General (the Attorney 51 General, Myself, Prosecutors) meet with the Commissioner of Police or Senior Members of his team to discuss matters before the Courts.
We do this every week as apart of our Case Management system.

Mr. Speaker the OAG along with its partner agencies are about to launch software, which will bring the stakeholders together on one information sharing system between the agencies.

The RBPF, the hospitals, the courts and the Office of the Attorney General will all be sharing information across a virtual platform.
From the time a person is arrested their name will be entered into the system and will be available across central information networks.

If the person is charged with a criminal offence the file will follow the person throughout the system.

All agencies will be involved.

Each file will receive an information number and it will use this number as long as the matter is active in the system.
Each agency involved will use the file number to reflect the individual as they are being processed through the system.

We anticipate that this will further increase efficiencies.

Stenographers/ Court Reporting Mr. Speaker the main problem we faced in the courts was that, (Also in the Court of Appeal), numerous matters had to be adjourned, some over a year because of lack of transcripts and records of proceedings.
In order to prevent that from impeding the operations of the higher Courts we have assigned court reporters to these Courts.

Again this is to improve the swift resolution of trials in our Courts.

The objective Mr. Speaker is to be able to be able to provide transcripts to both the Court and Counsel within twenty four hours after the record is taken in court.
52 Mr. Speaker we will be implementing real time audio digital systems in our court rooms which will ensure that in real time, counsel and the Court are able to follow the evidence and what is happening in the proceedings, This is particularly useful in the event of an appeal.

The roll out will begin in the magistrates court and eventually the roll out will be the recording will be transcribed by the stenographers.
Public Defenders Mr. Speaker we often have individuals who come before our Courts complaining about their lack of legal representation.

They would use this to delay prosecution and it is a valid expectation of accused individuals to expect legal representation but Mr. Speaker we have found that at times the absence of legal representation is a tactic meant to stymie progress of trials .
Mr. Speaker sometimes there are cases where the lawyer representing the accused or holding the crown brief do not show up and this delays matters proceeding.

We want to eliminate this type of delay from the system and we have set about to introduce Public Defenders in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

We have engaged personnel.

The office is not yet open, but will be open in time for the commencement of activities in the temporary courts.
Registrar Generals Department Mr. Speaker, The Bahamas has been rated 87th in the ease of doing business and because of this there has been a concerted effort within the Registrar Generals Office to re-brand and restructure its automation procedures to bring them in line with the Government’s E- 53 Government initiative.
Mr. Speaker, the Registrar General Department generates significant revenue for the government being the central registry for the Bahamas for Deeds and Documents, Companies, Births and Deaths, Industrial Property and Maritime Marriages.
Deeds & Documents With the introduction of a fully automated Deeds & Documents system the RGD will allow agents to login the registry’s system, complete the instrument data form (information sheet), submit it for logging in the registry and follow up on the filing of the original documents.

Mr. Speaker we expect to reduce the turn-around time for registering documents from what use to be 3 – 6 months to 2 days.
This process of automation has been on going at the RGD and we anticipate that roll out very soon.

This automation process requires high-end scanners, new software, equipment and as a result this will lead to adjustments in some of the fees for the services related to deeds and documents.

The system will allow for the filing, registering and capturing of documents such as conveyances, affidavits or any other document that requires registration.
This data once captured, will be recorded in time sequence of receipt by the Registry and it will be affixed with a page(s) and volume number electronically.

The process once introduced and launched will reduce the time for recording such documents drastically to as little as 3 days.
54 Revenue by Section Section Title July 1st, 2012 - June 30th July 1st 2013 - March 2013 14th, 2014 Deeds and Documents B$ 829,820.99 B$ 644,807.00 Companies Mr. Speaker The launch of the online company incorporation for local and international business companies, will allow agents to login to RGD’s web server from their terminals, reserve a company name at a nominal cost, upload the required documents for the type of company being incorporated (ie.
IBC or Regular), make the payment through the e- government portal and print certified copies of their documents from the online system all within 24hr.

For an express fee, the document can be processed within an hour and certified copies printed in their offices.
Revenue by Section Section Title July 1st, 2012 - June 30th July 1st 2013 - March 2013 14th, 2014 Companies B$ 14,224,785.30 B$ 7,864,389.54 Maritime Marriages The Registry has made available to Bahamian registered Cruise Lines; the ability to 55 perform weddings on the high seas sanctioned under the Bahamas flag.

Cruise line representatives are able to apply online for the Master and First Officer of a vessel to be marriage officer for a fee and be issued a license also for a fee.
The couple assisted by the cruise line representative, is able to fill out a marriage application online at the Registry site on e-government portal and submit it with all the required documents and fees as outlined in the Maritime Marriage Act.
After vetting the documents to ensure that all requirements are met and fees are paid, Maritime Marriages section will process the application, issue if approved the marriage license and upload the documents so that the relevant ship can download the documents at the appropriate time.
Revenue by Section Section Title Feb. 1, 2013 - June 30, July 1st 2013 - Feb. 28, 2013 2014 Maritime Marriages B$ 44,870.00 B$ 21,710.00 Births and Death Registry Through the collaboration of the Public Hospital Authority and the Registrar General’s Department, a sub office of the Births and Death registry will be located at the Princess Margaret Hospital to facilitate the quick and accurate recording of new births.
Information pertaining to new births will be shared with Births Registry by PMH medical records office regarding the Mother’s information and the birth.

Before or on being discharged from the hospital the mother and/or father will go into the office at PMH and complete the birth registration process and received their child’s birth certificate within 56 minutes.
Funeral homes will also be able to obtain Death certificates upon presently the required documents at the sub office thus reducing the three day turn around period to an hour.
Revenue by Section Section Title Births Deaths Industrial Properties July 1st, 2012 - June 30th July 1st 2013 - March 2013 14th, 2014 B$ 395,146.00 B$ 172,310.00 B$ 42,320.00 B$ 29,915.00 Considerable emphases have been placed on the modernization of Industrial Properties Section of the registry in an effort to become compliant with international standards and obligations.
The digitization of IP allows for the electronic Filing of IP Applications and Requests as well as the electronic generation of the Registers of Trademarks, Patents and Industrial Designs.
Once the modernization of IP would have been completed, the Bahamas would of become TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), WTO (World Trade Organization) and EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) compliant resulting in reduced processing and turnaround time of applications and issuance of certificates.
57 Revenue by Section Section Title July 1st, 2012 - June 30th July 1st 2013 - March 2013 14th, 2014 Industrial Properties B$ 395,545.75 B$ 374,335.00 Success of the World Relays In his remarks presenting the Budget Communication, the Prime Minister acknowledged the success of the Inaugural World Relays.

I would be remising if I did not say a few words on that critical success myself as I was in attendance.
I was on the ground like many Bahamians and I saw first hand how great our country can be if we come together and work together.

Many people will ignore the fact that by solidarity we become a stronger country.

For those two days we did not see ourselves as PLP nor FNM but we were one Bahamas.

This is a perspective that we should always take in our country as citizens of the Bahamas.

Mr. Speaker, for two days the gaze of entire world was set on The Bahamas.
The entire world was looking our way and what an amazing spectacle we put on for them.

We saw an amazing opening ceremony in which the talents of Bahamians were highlighted on the world stage.

We saw three new world records set.

We watched as our Golden Knights bring home the silver medal against the worlds best teams.

I want to say we are proud of those young men.

I would like to send special congratulations and thank you to Chris “Fireman” Brown from the people of Central and South Eleuthera.
Chris spent his formative years growing up in Eleuthera and every time 58 he touches the track, the people of Eleuthera, like many Bahamians are sitting on the edge of their seats.

I want to say to all of the Golden Knights that we know you wanted that Gold and so did we but we have confidence that we will have opportunities to grab the Gold again.
I must commend all the athletes on their sportsmanship over the course of the games and the Bahamian people who proved that the Bahamas is the world capital for hospitality and a good time.

The Commissioner of Police and his team must also be commended for ensuring that it was a safe weekend for our citizens and our guest.

And to all Bahamians we must all pat ourselves on the back because without the effort of the entire country the event would not have been the success that it was.
It was truly an incredible moment I the history of athletics in our country.

It has definitely set the platform for more of the same types of events.

Citizens of the Bahamas I congratulate you on a job well done!!

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