Christopher D. Lowe
In The Tribune of October 7th, 2010 a small notice was brought to my attention.
Namely a Government notice from the Ministry of Finance, Customs Dept with respect of a new requirement for any Licensee of the Grand Bahama Port Authority to produce a “letter of good standing” from the N.I.B. in order to obtain the “over the counter bonded purchase letter” traditionally issued by Bahamas Customs.
It would strike me that this is another attempt by Bahamas Customs to hamper and deny legitimate Port Authority licensees rights as assigned by the Hawksbill Creek Agreement, via a suspect and highly questionable “Tie in” by a Government Authority.
Insofar as The Comptroller of Bahamas Customs was in agreement ( Tribune Bus. Sect. Sept 17 article) that Bahamas Customs did not have the Authority to “withdraw” the “concessions” granted as they were not the grantor this action begs the same question.
If a licensee is in arrears with the N.I.B., Can Bahamas Customs deny this unassociated right?
To take the question one step further, is Customs even entitled to be issuing “permission” in this or any respect of licensee rights?
Should not the Port Authority be issuing this letter, just as the Port Authority is the issuer of the letter to import Bonded vehicles?
The silence from the Grand Bahama Port Authority on this assault on licensee rights by Bahamas Customs is as ominous as it is disgraceful, as is the fact that no calls placed for the President thereof by myself have been returned, therefore I can only believe we licensees have been abandoned by our licensor.
Perhaps the intent is for the Grand Bahama Port Authority to fade away, as it is politically inconvenient, a liability to once interested owners.
Not surprising really, once one looks around at the daily economic shrinkage of Freeport, but it should alarm every single licensee who will look to the Port Authority until the year 2054 for their license.
I realize it is difficult for people to understand the various clauses, rules and rights of the H.C.A. and even the laws of the commonwealth of the Bahamas, most often because we refuse to read and understand them for ourselves but it is this protection and this protection alone that is our protection against the unlawful from any quarter.
Failing to understand the law however, leaves us subject to the whim of chance, the purpose of the political, the very real possibility that we will cease to exist.
It has been said that:
A politician or Civil servant can do only that which the law proscribes, but a private citizen can do anything except that which the law prohibits.
This has been turned on its head, as we can all attest in one way or the other, in that they do as they please including apparently breaking the law, but we can do only what they allow us. And they allow less and less every day.
No country can grow or develop under those constraints and uncertainty.
