"The future of The Bahamas is a bright one." - Prime Minister Perry Christie

As the Cabinet strode across Rawson Square on its short trip from the Churchill Building to Parliament last Wednesday, Bahamians across the nation anxiously awaited the budget communication that the prime minister, in his capacity as minister of finance, would deliver moments later.

The anticipation accelerated as the prime minister rose to report to the nation on his government's performance in the last fiscal year and, more importantly, what would be contained in the annual budget for the fiscal year 2015/2016.

In short, the budget communication painted a positive portrait, particularizing the government's performance over the preceding year and presenting prospective public policy pronouncements that would affect our daily lives for the remaining two years of its current term in office and beyond. The prime minister's tone and tenor were generally upbeat as he thematically expounded on his government's commitment to building a stronger Bahamas.

Therefore this week, we would like to Consider This... What can be said about the prime minister's communication on the national budget that he delivered on May 27, 2015?

The first part of this series will address what he articulated about the foundational and conceptual framework upon which the budget was formulated.

Next week, in part 2, we will specifically address budgetary provisions and allocations and how they affect key macroeconomic indices in order to provide a sense of whether they will put us solidly on the correct trajectory to achieve the stated national objectives.

In the third and final installment, we will critically assess what, in our opinion, was inadequately addressed in the budget, and whether the stated objectives are actually achievable in the remaining years of this Government's term in office.

A stronger Bahamas
The prime minister expressed the essential elements that would be required to build a stronger Bahamas, noting that those elements would focus on three core priorities: "to secure a safer Bahamas, a more prosperous Bahamas and, through a world-class education system and targeted social investments, a modern Bahamas."

A safer Bahamas
Clearly the government recognizes that crime and the fear of crime remain an intractably intricate conundrum that continuously confounds them and confronts us daily and that the safety and security of its citizens is of paramount importance. This challenge requires a holistic approach if it is to be resolved anytime soon.

The prime minister emphasized the importance of the full participation and focused engagement of the organs of state, especially the criminal justice system and the Ministry of National Security, in making their contributions to build a safer Bahamas. He announced that $20 million would be allocated to address youth unemployment through the Urban Renewal Programme.

A prosperous Bahamas
The objective of building a prosperous Bahamas significantly depends upon strengthening the growth and diversification of the economy, with the primary objective of arresting and reversing the national unemployment rate. At November 2014, this rate stood at 15.7 percent, with the unemployment amongst youthful Bahamians twice that at 31 percent.

The prime minister emphasized that the solution to the unemployment challenge rested principally on sustained economic growth and focused training and placement opportunities. This would be done through public private partnerships that would enable unemployed persons to enjoy greater participation in emerging employment opportunities.

In order to achieve this objective, the prime minister stressed the importance of creating an environment characterized by sound policies that would promote market confidence in The Bahamas by both domestic and foreign investors. He also noted the importance of devising educational and vocational systems designed to address the human capital needs as the economy expands.

The prime minister accentuated the need to constantly modernize our infrastructure in order to facilitate a buoyant economy. He placed particular emphasis on our key public utilities, including cellular liberalization and the implementation of an energy policy to address the excessively high costs associated with those operations.

In addition, a more prosperous Bahamas would necessarily require greater attention to and reform of our taxation regime, which for too long we have approached lackadaisically, both in the public and private sectors. If we are honest about building a prosperous Bahamas, the government must also revisit its mortgage relief plan, which ended in dismal failure earlier in this term. The prime minister has promised to do that.

A modern Bahamas
The government's pronouncements about building a modern Bahamas include strengthening the educational system, transforming The College of The Bahamas into a university, and implementing a universal health care program.

Undoubtedly, the singular public policy that will concretize Christie's legacy is his planned introduction of National Health Insurance (AKA universal health care for all Bahamians who cannot afford such care) in January next year.

The prime minister's assertion that the program will be introduced without imposing additional taxes or contributions to fund the scheme, at this time, was very surprising. The operative words are "at this time". It remains to be seen precisely how the government intends to fund such an urgently needed, monumentally transformative and expenditure-laden scheme without the introduction of taxes or user-contributions if it is to be sustainable. Much more about that in part 3 of this series.

In addressing the development of a modern Bahamas, the prime minister characterized the investment climate as buoyant as he itemized numerous foreign direct investments that have started and foreshadowed others that are being considered throughout the Islands of The Bahamas.

Overall assessment
The overall assessment of the budget communication is that, while there were no new policies that introduced innovative ideas, it was encouraging that the government's custodianship of the public purse resulted in a reversal of perennially persistent and excessively enormous budget deficits. It might appear to some that the budget communication is too vague and lacks the details of how the government intends to achieve its ambitious agenda in the time it has left. Some will go so far to suggest that the communication is a repackaging of its election promises of 2012 and that there is not much new ground here.

However, it should be noted that any budget communication, by design, is precisely that: a communication of accomplishments, aims and objectives, usually providing a review of the fiscal road recently traveled and forecasts of plans for the journey that lies ahead. This sometimes includes reiterating and reenergizing campaign promises in order to move them from the promise stage to creating an action plan for their realization. Therefore, next week we will examine the details that are included in the estimates of revenue and expenditure for fiscal 2015/2016 to determine whether the budgetary details support the prime minister's assertion that "the future of The Bahamas is a bright one."

o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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