Although the senior men's national basketball team fell short of qualifying for both the 2015 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Americas Championship and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when the team was eliminated from the 2014 Centrobasket Championships, the players were able to change the way that national teams would be assembled going forward.

That team consisted of some of the most talented Bahamian-born players in the world and was widely recognized as one of the best Bahamian teams ever assembled. They managed to make history by winning gold at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships last July and gave some of the top teams in the region a run for their money at Centrobasket Championships in Tepic, Mexico.

First vice president in the Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) and newly appointed head coach of the team Mario Bowleg said that he will look to use last year as a building block for this summer and expects even bigger things from the team now that the players have had the chance to learn each other's tendencies on the court. Bowleg said that he has confirmed a number of key returns from last year's team and thinks that although they were able to win at Centrobasket, the team still has room to get better.

"I talked to the guys and everyone is in. We're just waiting on them to come to Nassau for tryouts," he said.

Tryouts and team practices will be held in Nassau this year, as opposed to at the University of Colorado where they were held last year.

"Most of the guys are going to be wrapping up their professional seasons in a week or two. I've heard from Keno (Jaraun) Burrows, and Magnum Rolle will be in town as well. All those who played last year, we touched base with them, and we have also garnered a lot of interest locally as well."

One of the key returns to this summer's team will be University of Oklahoma guard Chavanno "Buddy" Hield, who is coming off the best season of his collegiate career. Hield made basketball headlines recently when he elected to skip this summer's National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft to return to Oklahoma for his senior season.

The 6'4" shooting guard averaged 17.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the Sooners last season and led his team to a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Sweet 16 appearance. Hield averaged 19.8 points and six rebounds in four games for The Bahamas at Centrobasket. Team Bahamas will look to defend its title at this year's CBC Championships, which will be held June 15-21 in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.

Bahamas Public Officers Choir will celebrate the retirement of its founding director, Harry Simmons this weekend. The retirement service under the theme "To Whom Honor is Due" will be held at 4 p.m. at the Church of God of Prophecy, Marshall Road.

One of the most notable achievements of Simmons, a career immigration officer, was his goodwill gesture in helping to bring together gospel choirs which spread the word through song ministry.

A devout Christian and musical enthusiast, Simmons used opportunities while stationed in the various Family Islands as a public official to stage gospel concerts in Abaco, Grand Bahama, Inagua, Mayaguana and Great Harbour Cay, where he established lasting relationships in building choirs and fostering talented musicians to use their gifts for the glory of God.

It was also his working relationship with law enforcement agencies that caused him to form a choir comprised of civil servants who are Christians called the Bahamas Public Officers Choir, which started over 15 years ago. The choir has traveled extensively throughout the Family Islands, the Caribbean and the United States.

Simmons is a member of the Church of God of Prophecy and the Bahama Brass Band. He is married to Louise Simmons and is the father of Revaughn Simmons, both of whom are musicians.

Retailers who deal in goods exempt from value-added tax (VAT), already concerned by the inconvenience to customers required to produce specific documentation in order to buy duty free, are fearful of even further complication of the process when a Swiss tax-free shopping network manager takes responsibility for managing duty-free shopping downtown, which is reportedly scheduled to happen on June 1.

Global Blue is the operator of one of the world's biggest tax free shopping networks, with 270,000 affiliated merchants in 43 countries across five continents, and according to the company's website more than 36 million tax-free shopping and other transactions processed each year.

At present, if a tourist shows a government-issued ID, the retailer has to scan a copy of it, plus another form of ID showing that they will be leaving the country within 45 days, such as an airline ticket, cruise ship card or hotel key. Once these requirements are met, the shopper is not charged VAT at the time of the sale.

"This is already a huge inconvenience to visitors who may not have these items with them, or don't want copies being taken of them," one merchant told Guardian Business.

"When Global Blue takes over, not only will the visitor have to produce (the government-issued ID plus proof of intention to leave the country within 45 days), they will now be charged VAT at the time of the sale, and will have to fill out a form that will be presented when they leave the country to get a refund of 85 percent of the VAT amount paid, to be credited to their credit card in approximately five days," a person with some knowledge of the process - but not authorized to talk to the press - explained.

"The 15 percent that they lose is a fee paid to Global Blue for handling the process. Can you imagine what this is going to do to the tourist retail business in this country?"

Guardian Business was told that retailers are already seeing a 15 percent to 25 percent decrease in business due to VAT as visitors do not wish to have credit card documents copied.

"This will be the nail in the coffin," another merchant said, noting that he was considering closing out his business and renting the space rather than operating a business which no longer makes fiscal sense.

"All appeals to the minister of finance (Prime Minister Perry Christie), (Financial Secretary) John Rolle and (Deputy Financial Secretary) Simon Wilson, have failed," a Guardian Business source with knowledge of the process said.

"As businesses now feel that they are under attack from a regime that believes business to have an endless pocket of resources to contribute to the treasury, talks of massive layoffs and shut downs are prevalent.

"We simply cannot go on in this manner. We have attempted to speak with the government behind closed doors, but the closed doors has allowed them to ignore us. The only one who is going to make money is Global Blue. I wonder who is the local representative for them; 15 percent of VAT on luxury sales is a lot of money.

"While this concept works in Europe and other places, cruise ship passengers will simply be told by cruise directors to shop in other non-tax destinations, which they are already doing. Our only response is to compensate with layoffs and store closures in order to make ends meet."

Attempts to get comment from Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis and Rolle were unsuccessful up to press time.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation Gowon Bowe - who is also the head of the Coalition for Responsible Taxation - outlined the distance between the government and private sector on the Global Blue decision.

"As far as the chamber and the coalition is concerned, we saw the silver lining as it relates to having a solution that would be beneficial for the duty-free retailers. However, we have not been actively involved in the decision as to what would be the ultimate company to provide the service, what would be their period of contract, and how there would be a reasonable transition to it being locally administered, whether through the VAT Department or through a Bahamian entity that is going to benefit the economy by circulating any monies it makes into the local economy," Bowe said.

"We are only now aware of the name of the entity, as the general public is, and have not been a part of the overall process of the selection of this company."

Bowe told Guardian Business that what is important now is understanding the terms and length of the contract, how Bahamians will be involved in it and ultimately, how Bahamians will take ownership of it.

"As it relates to back-door or under-the-table deals, those are things that the government has to appreciate that sometimes perception becomes reality, and in reality it may not be the case, but if the deal is not done in a transparent manner and very open manner, then persons will have suspicions," he said.

More than $100,000 in grant funding for local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in New Providence, Abaco and Andros will provide a crucial step in delivering sustainable economic development and climate resilience to the country, according to a regional non-governmental organization (NGO).

CARIBSAVE, an NGO specializing in providing solutions for sustainable development and climate change, yesterday awarded over $100,000 in micro grants for MSMEs and small grants for CBOs from a $400,000 grant funding program impacting eight communities across The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize and Jamaica through a joint partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank Multilateral Investment Fund (IDB-MIF).

The program, launched yesterday, will provide funding for Bahamian MSMEs and CBOs working across the agriculture, tourism, fisheries and craft sectors while providing adaptation strategies in sustainable business development, economic resilience and innovation, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and disaster risk reduction.

CARIBSAVE Founder and CEO Dr. Murray Simpson stated that the grant, which is part of the $2.5 million Climate Change, Coastal Community Enterprises: Adaptation, Resilience and Knowledge (C-ARK) Program, aims to reduce the vulnerability of The Bahamas' tourism product, the environment, as well as the hotel industry itself to those effects.

"The C-ARK Micro and Small Grants Program has significant financial and geographic scope and impact. This program will boost economic, environmental and institutional resilience in The Bahamas, and throughout the Caribbean region by building community capacity and providing the financial support required to enable sustainable economic business and adaptation interventions.

"The main focus is to increase resilience but also, of course, what we need to do is build up enterprise and economic development for the Bahamian people in every way we possibly can," Simpson said.

Director General of Tourism Joy Jibrilu also welcomed the grant as a crucial step as The Bahamas seeks ways of looking at sustainable environmental protection.

"It is incumbent upon us to ensure that we protect the environment, not just for our current youth, but also for future generations, and it's grants such as this that ensure that that takes place," she said.