The government will not be able to claim insurance on any of its buildings damaged by the storm, because the central government does not carry property insurance. It is a policy that comes into focus since the government has pegged initial cost estimates for the damage done by category four Hurricane Joaquin around $60 million, amid questions of where that money will come from.

The policy means that any public schools, clinics, airports (with the possible exception of the Lynden Pindling International Airport, because of the structure of the Nassau Airport Development Company) or other buildings belonging to the central government were not insured, and the government will have to pay to rebuild or repair those structures itself.

Minister of State for Finance Michael Halkitis confirmed that it has "always" been the government's policy to self-insure.

"That means you don't take out insurance, and basically you fix damage yourself," he told Guardian Business. "The government has never insured buildings. This has been the case from inception. It has just never been done.

"I believe the feeling is that the premiums saved over all the years can pay for any repairs, and the cost to insure every government building is too costly," he said.

Pressed to say why the private sector should use insurance if the government does not, Halkitis said: "To repair their damage."

"Government takes a risk that over the years the cost of premiums to cover every facility would be more than the cost of any damage," he said. "Everyone does it, to my knowledge, and he insisted that this is a policy which has worked over the years. We in Nassau, where there is the most infrastructure, have been mostly spared over the years."

The minister stressed that places like Lynden Pindling International Airport, The College of The Bahamas and the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI) - when it is finished - operate differently, as they are corporations and insure their buildings as assets of the corporation. He added that the insurance that is mandated during construction is to help ensure completion.

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