Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis yesterday dismissed as an untruth the opposition's claim that the government of The Bahamas is facing a "cash crunch" notwithstanding record revenues.
The minister said the claim is a continuation of a false gloom and doom narrative the Free National Movement has been spreading ever since the current administration assumed office in 2021.
"We're paying our obligations," Halkitis insisted when asked to respond to the opposition.
"Having payables is not unusual for the government. Paying contractors who are owed large sums on a schedule is not unusual for the government of The Bahamas.
"We're not broke. We're not cash strapped."
The minister added, "At any point in time, the government will have a level of payables which we [pay] off as quickly as we can, as soon as we get verification of payments and services rendered. That's a normal course of business. The government will never have zero payables, but you know [I wouldn't use the term cash strapped at all]. We're paying our obligations."
In a statement on Tuesday, the opposition alleged the government is in a "severe cash crunch".
The opposition also said it is "gravely concerned with the significant number of complaints we have received from Bahamian vendors and financial institutions regarding extreme delays with being paid for goods and services".
"The issues with timely payments have progressively worsened over the two years of the PLP administration," the opposition claimed.
"We understand that the government has been increasingly tardy in remitting the funds deducted from civil servants to the various credit unions, insurance companies and other institutions.
"Even though the funds are deducted from their salaries monthly, an unacceptable number of public servants are now facing late fees and lapsed insurance policies because the government is not sending the monies out of these institutions on time."
Kimsley Ferguson, president of the Bahamas Public Services Union, made the same claim in a story that ran this week on Eyewitness News.
"The dues and premiums for persons who are a part of our medical plan and members who are part of the union proper, for some reason or another, [were] late on at least about three occasions," Ferguson said.
He also claimed, "We are satisfied through information received that the treasury is making selective payments to particular entities, and so it suggests to us that there is indeed a cash flow problem in our country. And so, the union is not asking for anything or any favor. These are payments made by our members and we expect that the payments will be forthcoming in a timely fashion."
But Halkitis, who was responding to the opposition, said it is just untrue to suggest the government has become increasingly tardy in making such payments.
He said, "Traditionally what happens is, people are paid their salary and then sometime later the treasury makes a payment; they pay out the deductions, and that is made to the various financial institutions, and so, I saw his commentary there about insurance premiums lapsing and all of that. That has not come to our attention. I don't think that's the case. I think it's just another case of the opposition trying to preach doom and gloom on the economy of The Bahamas."
Halkitis said the opposition has been "consistently wrong from day one" in making its claims on fiscal issues.
"Once again, in my view, the opposition is just preaching doom and gloom, which they've been doing from the get go," he said.
"Remember their commentary on the 'bond crisis' of The Bahamas government? Then they said we will not meet our deficit targets, which we have routinely met and exceeded, and now they come with this, more doom and gloom about the government of The Bahamas being cash strapped.
"That's not the case. We operate as normal. We're paying our obligations. The government of The Bahamas always runs a level of payables. We liquidate them and we move on."
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