Chief Executive Officer of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation, Dr. Leo Rolle recently commented on the findings of an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report which stated that 73.4% of  Bahamian companies had made informal payments to government officials for necessary approvals and services.

Dr. Rolle said, “if you say 75% of businesses have been taking bribes, or 73% I think it was, but you’ve only surveyed four people then that means 3 of the 4 people have been taking the bribe.  So how many persons were surveyed?  How did this report come about? Is this anecdotal evidence, is this hearsay or are there actual records that these persons can prove that yes, we did pay bribes?  And so we want to understand, really and truly, the impetus of the information, how it came about, and of course encourage persons of all sectors to do your job.”

The IDB’s report entitled Are We There Yet?  The Path Towards Sustained Economic Growth in the Caribbean also found that crime has contributed approximately $100 million to the nation’s deficit.  “If there’s a business owner in a community that’s crime ridden they may lose business because people may not feel that its safe to shop there.  About 40% of that we looked at when we looked at the report spoke to businesses trying to find measures of security.  And so if I’m spending, as a business owner 40% of my income or whatever percentage of my income trying to increase my security measures then that obviously will have to be passed on to consumers through inflation,” Dr. Rolle said.