WHERE IS THE PEOPLE’S MONEY TO PAY BILLS? Watch they say water bills are going up!!!
Nassau – Now most people would have missed this but we at BP wanted to bring it to your attention. This morning in the papers we are learning that Consolidated Water is owed some $16.1 million
Now the company on Friday warned of potential supply disruptions if the Government does not pay its $16.1m debt that has skyrocketed by 76.9 percent just this year. The group, which we know supplies water to all of New Providence, said it will not be business as usual in the capital if the Minnis Government, through the Ministry of Finance, fails to stick to its payment plans.
Now this is interesting because readers should remember the commentary of Peter Turnquest who told Parliament back in June 2017 that his government needed some $400m to satisfy expenditure for the past year. Remember that? He told the House that he was paying off huge former government debts. During that budget contribution, Peter said $322,462,707 will be borrowed for the 2017-2018 Budget, amounting to a whopping $722,462,707.
Describing the borrowing exercise as a “historically high burden” of government debt, Turnquest described this track of borrowing as “destructive.” Now watch this.
When he stood on his feet in Parliament after castigating the PLP Government for leaving bills, Turnquest said this, “What it means is that we have bills outstanding today that we have to borrow to meet because of the fact that there was no provision made for those expenditures in the previous budget. So, in order to make sure that we can pay salaries and that we can pay all of the existing payables that we know about as well as some of them that we are aware of that are still coming in, we need to provide the Treasury with funding to be able to do that.” Now that was 2017.
June 2018 came and, guess what, Turnquest again said he needed to borrow money to meet old bills [which could only mean he didn’t pay off following the 2017 budget borrowing]. And this time when he came, he raised – to the shock and dismay of the country – VAT to 12%.
Putting heat on the government after borrowing some $1.4 Billion, Opposition Leader Philip Brave Davis Q.C. described how, for the first 11 months in office, all this money was borrowed and yet the administration still overspent by half a billion dollars! And did so despite vowing to rein in spending. YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST MINNIS DEM!
And now look what is unfolding in the news: Water and Sewerage owed its leading water supplier some $16.1 Million and cannot guarantee when Consolidated Water could be paid.
PM Minnis told Eleutherans on the weekend he has spending under control. He said he has cut the deficit spending. He said the economy is growing, but guess what? Creditors like Consolidated Water and many others are NOT BEING PAID FROM THE MONEY BORROWED! What has finance really done with your money?
We report yinner decide!
