In the wake of a clarion call on the part of the prime minister to Bahamians to come forth with proposals for public-private partnerships to further develop the country, a Bahamian who attempted to do just that, only to find her proposal passed over in favor of a foreign company, said a serious and challenging "cultural shift" will be required if the government is serious about involving the domestic private sector in building the country.
Ginny McKinney, president of Waste Not, which for six years worked on developing a comprehensive proposal which would have seen a large group of Bahamians become involved with the management of the landfill, said that if politicians and civil servants at all levels of the government are not prepared to engage openly with would-be Bahamian investors, the prime minister's claim that he is committed to seeing their involvement will come to nought.
She made her comments in an interview with Guardian Business on the sidelines of the National Conclave of Chambers of Commerce in The Bahamas, a first-of-its-kind conclave organized by the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation, which took place at SuperClubs Breezes yesterday.
At the event, Prime Minister Perry Christie spoke extensively on the topic of public-private partnerships (PPPs), telling those gathered that the government now sees a "vital role for PPPs in our nation's development going forward", adding that it "will be of utmost importance that the government and the private sector collaborates".
Telling those gathered that there are "tremendous opportunities" to be had in the area of PPPs, the prime minister said that there are "so many foreign individuals who are looking to involve themselves "in this" and urged Bahamians to "seize the initiative" and come forward to the government with proposals.
"The time has come to encourage business people to look at the opportunities, to look at the manifold opportunities in our islands, but you have to look at it and manage it because foreign persons will do it for you," he said, adding that the government is looking at a PPP to build a hospital in Grand Bahama, as well as a housing project, among other areas.
PPPs are a popular and effective means of more efficiently and in a more affordable way implementing public infrastructure projects and services, in areas such as transportation, water and electricity production and distribution, the construction of roads, schools and bridges, healthcare and more.
Christie explained that they generally involve a private entity putting up the capital up-front for the project, while receiving a return over time for its involvement based on the charging of service fees to users.
In the question-and-answer session, McKinney told the prime minister that she and a group of Bahamians had spent over six years and around $1 million putting together a comprehensive PPP-type proposal to address problems at the landfill but were "rebuffed".
The government recently signed a landfill remediation contract with majority foreign-owned company Renew Bahamas.
"We came with a lot of money, enthusiasm, energy, as Bahamians. We were not asking to own the landfill, it would be a publicly-traded company, with a component for youth funding, it would be a Bahamian entity that would enhance the service provided. That was a public-private initiative and it was well thought out, we cut no corners, and we were rebuffed. We were told we were rebuffed because it was the waste-to-energy aspect, but in reality we were never given the chance to sit down... to be able to talk and look at the other options."
In an interview with Guardian Business subsequent to her comments in the question-and-answer session, McKinney suggested that her group's experience may be illustrative of the challenges the government may experience with implementing an effective PPP strategy for national development.
"We had more time with Mr. Christie than we ever had with anyone in the department. He gave us a meeting and it was longer than what I ever had, for example, with Melonie McKenzie, to talk about our proposal. We are talking about over six years having a problem accessing the experts, who would say 'we don't like that', 'this won't fly', or 'let's try this'.
"We wanted to speak with them about what they wanted, but we were operating in a void. We wanted to dialogue and know what their problems were dealing with it. We wanted to say tell us, speak to us, and help us solve the problems."
"There government has got to respond, but unfortunately I think the civil service is designed not to do that. They've always been designed to be unto themselves, so this is a big cultural shift and if we were to make (the shift to a PPP approach to development), which would be way more intelligent because all of our brains are working together, they'll have to change," said McKinney. "But how do you change huge departments of people? It's a very laudable thing that he says, but at the end of the day how do you do that?"
Christie invited McKinney to come and meet with him following her comments at the conference, suggesting that they might explore whether there are ways in which her group could be involved at the landfill.

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