est. 2007

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MAM1 + MAM2 = Business as Usual

(Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas) – Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis stepped away from the CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting on Wednesday to view first-hand a sustainable housing community that could be used as a model for the Government’s planned housing development project on Abaco. The Prime Minister toured the Villages…

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(Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas) – Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis stepped away from the CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting on Wednesday to view first-hand a sustainable housing community that could be used as a model for the Government’s planned housing development project on Abaco.

The Prime Minister toured the Villages at Coverley, a modern housing development located in Christ Church. The community features low- to middle-cost energy-efficient homes built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a 5.0 earthquake, storm surges and major flooding. The fully planned development also offers residents a medical centre, gym, restaurants, stores, recreation centres and sports fields.

Extracted from Caricom Today – PM Minnis tours Barbados sustainable housing development

 

The information conveyed in the article quoted reinforces for those in the know and should persuade others with doubt how to secure business if politicians are the decision makers. In this case the blogmaster can pick any number of concerns but there one.

Barbados Underground has featured many blogs highlighting questionable transactions with the previous government and Mark Maloney. The one which sticks in the craw is how monies sitting in the Housing Credit Fund at the Central Bank of Barbados were approved to pay Mark Maloney for the GROTTO project. The Board of the Central Bank at the time actually approved a special dividend (the first in the fund’s history) to make the payment.

central bank board

There is no need to rehash events about the GROTTO and payments from the HCF, read blogs posted on the matter in BU Archives:

The Housing Credit Fund was established in 1993 under an agreement with USAID to on-lend to financial institutions to fund low cost housing. In 2004 the Central Bank of Barbados announced the following:

The Central Bank of Barbados hereby announces that on February 1, 2004, it assumed responsibility for the management of the Housing Credit Fund (HCF), previously administered by the Ministry of Housing, Lands and the Environment.

The HCF operates as a second tier mortgage market wholesaler and provides funds to financial institutions which in turn on-lend to individual borrowers. The Fund commenced operations in 1982 with initial funding of Bds$20.0 million, the proceeds of a U.S. dollar loan raised by the Government of Barbados. The Fund’s portfolio is currently valued at over Bds$100 million.

The principal objectives of the HCF continue to be:

  • To help to alleviate the overall shortage of housing in Barbados
  • To improve significantly the existing housing stock
  • To shift the initiative for housing towards the private sector and
  • To broaden the ownership base of housing in Barbados.

Source: Central Bank

The irregularities with the GROTTO are well documented starting with a read of Auditor General reports. Mark Maloney was paid with public funds for the GROTTO project that to this day demands the government of the day start an investigation. Instead, it is businesses as usual for the usual suspects even with a change in government. While the government of the day was creative in finding money to pay Mark Maloney, several small contractors had to suck salt because government was unable to pay invoices. Several have folded. Maloney however is still flying high on the hog.

Disclaimer: The blogmaster has nothing against the gentlemen,

 

276 responses to “MAM1 + MAM2 = Business as Usual”

  1. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    The government does it to taxpayers/employees all the time so the wannabes and parasites believe they have all rights to do it too, after all how many of them have been saying for decades that they have paid bribes to lowlife ministers/lawyers and their imps and pimps so they can practice racism and commit any number of crimes against the citizens and country without any consequences because the DPPs office has always been corrupt as hell and the neutered police are afraid of them.

    “A disturbing breach of the Employment Rights Act is how Deputy General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Wayne Walrond has described the abrupt closure of three restaurants by Chaps Restaurant Limited leaving 149 workers jobless.

    Declaring that he did not intend to comment on the reason Chap’s Chief Executive Officer Joanne Pooler gave for closing the restaurants, Walrond said he hoped this was not an example of the new way business would be done in Barbados.

    Walrond said employers should not believe that they are allowed to drop employees when they want to without prior notice and reasonable explanation, and any required compensation.”

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Have they paid the national insurance, VAT and income tax? Is government moving to claim this debt?

  3. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Have they paid their income tax, VAT, national insurance, suppliers, etc?

  4. WURA-War-U Avatar
    WURA-War-U

    Why dont these clowns in Barbados dont stop their crap…..that is yall business though …glad to tell everybody ah dont know any of you negros…not one of u can say that ya are my friends or family… i consider myself well blessed.

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157017102540983&id=702935982

  5. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    Have they paid their income tax, VAT, national insurance, suppliers, etc? (Unquote).
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You can sure wager your last tenner that Bajan eatery business -which has collapsed like flybe with John Lewis on the horizon- would be in serious arrears when it comes to its statutory obligations.

    Ask yourself what happened at the Apes Hill Shangri-la.

    If so-called viable enterprises- including the very government- are recalcitrant in meeting their obligations what do you expect from a fly-by-night façade of a ‘drug’ store operating in the business environment of a “failed state” where politicians and senior bureaucrats are on the business owners’ kickback Xmas list?

  6. David Avatar
    David

    How many employers are aware they can check to establish if NIS deductions are being forwarded? When is the last time NIS inspectors visited those establishments to verify records? We have checks and balances.

  7. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Employees on PAYE should get a monthly/weekly pay slip showing their earnings and deductions. If deductions are made for NI and not paid by the employer, then that is prima facie fraud.

  8. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Sargeant,

    ” Two major Canadian travel insurance providers — Manulife and TuGo — will no longer cover new customers who need to cancel their trips due to the coronavirus outbreak.”

  9. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David March 5, 2020 9:06 AM
    “We have checks and balances.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You mean on paper but not in practice.

    If those “checks and balances” were executed as mandated by law, there is no way the NIS could be so abused and the Treasury (and the SOE’s coffers) could be owed so much in taxes and fees.

    It takes only a telephone call to the political class and their top-dog lackeys to keep those competent but overly ‘nosy’ junior civil servants at bay.

    Barbados has some of the most ‘advanced’ financial integrity laws in the world along with a relatively sophisticated taxation regime.

    The problem is one of effective application in an incestuously tainted political system.

    Just look at how the business magnate MAM continues to be driven around in a duty-free luxury vehicle by a ghost for a Sales Director of an imaginary hotel as his chauffeur while the chief among the political class, the other MAM, looks the other way at this glaring heist of the Treasury similar to what took place at the SSA HQ for a spectre of a completed building.

  10. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “If deductions are made for NI and not paid by the employer, then that is prima facie fraud.”

    all of them do it including mininsters, employers, lawyers and some doctors, the aggrieved employees have to complain to NIS and if they are lucky the NIS will pay them and then go after the above mentioned lowlifes for reimbursement…but only ift hey are lucky.

    This is their decades of doing evil to the vulnerable people on the island catching up with all of them.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    This is the roundabout point the blogmaster is making. Our inspectorate leaves a lot to be desired.

  12. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Wunnah acting as if withholding of employee deductions and/or sales taxes is a serious issue. How many companies have been accused of withholding sales and other taxes over the years? Wasn’t a Gov’t Minister accused of some financial improprieties with regard to not remitting certain funds a few years ago? Isn’t that person sitting in a corner office of a Ministry to day?

    I forgive ye people of deficient memories

  13. David Avatar
    David

    @Sargean The simple point is that if NIS inspectors are doing their jobs of inspecting company records there is no reason why we should not be proactively managing delinquent payments on behalf of employees. Not to disregard the earlier point that employees should check if their payments are being made.

  14. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    I can give an all-clear to everyone regarding the closure of the three restaurants. The government is totally innocent.

    Read the comments on TripAdvisor carefully. Service has been deteriorating recently, and customers have been dissatisfied. The waiters didn’t even know the technical terms of the French cuisine, they always begged the customers for higher tips and the food itself wasn’t the best.

  15. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    lol…did a judge not have to put out a bench warrant for another BLP minister of transport years ago for refusing to pay NIS for his employees, it was in all the papers about Marshall, was a current sitting member of the BLP crowd not recently accused of the same on FB….was an MP doctor from DLP not accused of the same one Sukoo….and let’s not get started on the no good lawyers, too many of them do not even want to pay a salary to the people who work for them let alone NIS contributions…

    .they are all bottomfeeders treating the people who elect them as caged animals, yardfowls and voters…they refuse to treat their people like humans although they themselves are nothing but savages.

    the piss poor above mentioned set the stage and the tone for the no good, minority employers to treat the population the way they do…..including robbing the treasury and NIS pension fund.

  16. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Proving our point that the tourism pimps chasing after the restaurant owners this week should have instead been investigating if they paid any NIS contributions and taxes, making sure that they do or feel the consequences…

    starting to feel because of weak leadership that they are once again leaving the taxpayers to pay for everything as is the norm….instead of being arrested for violating all types of acts and legislation that is never enforced by corrupt governments..

    …remember the 1 BILLION DOLLAR stolen VAT writeoff and the tax writeoff for family and friends…feels like a repeat.

  17. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    it seems to me the BLP’s only concerns in this matter are that their high taxes and non hotel restaurant concessions are not to blame for the closure. the other issues are a distance second, if they count at all.

    a country deserves the govt it gets

  18. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “Wunnah acting as if withholding of employee deductions…”

    Was this not how the former administration keep the GoB afloat, by deducting public employees contributions but withholding remitting the money, and creating an IOU to be paid at a later date? We can rest assured, that any business which declares insolvency, has maximized its cash flow by not paying/remitting suppliers, government etc etc. Employees are usually the last to feel the pinch, for once not paid they cease working. Doesn’t mean PAYE/NIS etc from former pay periods have been remitted.

  19. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    Trust NOBODY.

    At least once a month, but better still once a week employeesshould go online to check whether their NIS contributions have been paid in.

    if they have not been paid, take my advise, start looking for another job.

    Trust NOBODY.

  20. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @Hants March 4, 2020 11:32 PM “Just beyond your imagination. What kinda igrunt wrasse whole idiots leaves a NEW building un-tenanted for 4 years ?”

    For 2 years igrunt wrasse whole idiots from the DLP permitted this; and for another 2 years igrunt wrasse whole idiots from the BLP permitted this.

    i trust that i have answered your question.

  21. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @Hal Austin March 5, 2020 6:40 AM “Yes, we’ll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river; Gather with the saints at the river That flows by the throne of God.”

    If the NHS can’t or won’t treat old geezers you will be singing songs beside that beautiful river sooner rather than later.

  22. Baje Avatar
    Baje

    Some Buffoon had the audacity to say that Cheryl Newman of Champers has more credibility when she doesn’t even know that VAT in the UK is less than 22% and the US HAS NEVER HAD VAT IN ANY OF ITS 50 STATES.

    IF ONE HAS TO MAKE BOLD FACED LIES TO MAKE A POINT THEN THAT INDIVIDUAL IS NOT CREDIBLE PERIOD.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    “A lot of people believe the restaurant business has a lot of money and a lot of profits in it, but with the exception of a few top-class restaurants and a few from previous eras that have since closed down you realise that we don’t get the types of sales and the types of spend that they get,” Evelyn told Barbados TODAY.

    “I’ve seen it from all angles and it is not easy. You have to be at the top of your game every single day of your life. If you’re not on top of it, exactly what happened to them will happen to me,” he added.

    According to Evelyn, times are so tough that his company has been forced to negotiate a “slight” reduction in rent, while cutting back on utility costs and human resources, particularly in the low season.

    His perspective offers a sharp contrast to that of Chiryl Newman, the owner of Champers, a high-end South Coast restaurant. On Monday, she suggested that the situation is not as dire as Chaps has claimed.

    “There must have been other factors at play that would have brought him to that point because you can’t just wake up one morning and decide you are going to close the business…There is business out there on the south coast. I can’t say that everybody is doing brilliantly and bursting at the doors but there is business out there,” Newman said on Down to Brass Tacks.

    “In the U.K and the U.S, you have VAT at 22 per cent and he [the owner of Chaps] would have been at a reduced rate of ten per cent along with the product levy at 2.5 per cent. Now this year with the reduced corporation tax, his tax level would have been reduced to five per cent. So you have to ask what else is going on in those businesses,” she argued.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/03/05/restaurants-on-slippery-path/

  23. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    To further my point earlier, this from Minister Prescod in the House

    ““We came and found a department owing $27,497,130.63 to the National Insurance Scheme, $10,679,075.34 in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to the Barbados Revenue Authority, $34 million to the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre and other suppliers, and over $3 million to other small businesses with whom it had worked.”[Quote BT]

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/03/05/suspicious-deals-potential-felonies-uncovered/

  24. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “If the NHS can’t or won’t treat old geezers you will be singing songs beside that beautiful river sooner rather than later.”

    Don’t think it’s been 3 years yet i have been warning him that he lives in a fool’s paradise…and that was years before the Windrush victim’s scam broke wide open.

  25. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Anyone notice that the Restauranteurs en masse ( except Chambers wonder what’s on its menu) are saying things dread. Where have all the Gov’t spokesmen gone? Where is the Minister of Tourism and his sidekick Who were voluble when Cin Cin bit the dust? Perhaps that’s the strategy jump in front of the cameras and then slowly disappear into the woodwork. I know I am speaking too soon, this is Gold Cup weekend the Minister is sure to be out and about.

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ Sargeant,

    Chambers is probably the choice for visiting dignitaries as it may have been when they were going with Owen.lol

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