2019/20 Budget Communication Final Budget Communication | Page 9

All in all, we are talking about citizen empowerment: making the Government work for
Bahamians, instead of making the citizens feel like they work for the Government.
Mr. Speaker,
In my presentation, I will provide more details about this summary, and more
information will be presented about the new Budget during the Budget Debate.
However, I now turn to a brief review of what the Government has achieved during the
current fiscal year in respect of the implementation of its transformational policy agenda.
III. Progress on the Government’s Policy Agenda
i. Enhancing Transparency, Accountability and Responsibility
Mr. Speaker,
I begin with the initiatives that we have pursued to appreciably enhance transparency,
accountability and responsibility in the area of fiscal management.
The landmark passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2018 will hold this, and future
governments, accountable for the way in which public funds are collected and spent. The Fiscal
Responsibility Act binds the government of The Bahamas to a strategic plan to meet core fiscal
goals. These include: achieving a sustainable level of debt of no more than 50 percent of GDP over
the medium term, and a target fiscal balance that does not exceed 0.5 percent of GDP by 2020/21
and beyond.
As mandated by the Act, the Government published the very first Fiscal Strategy
Report last November. It was tabled and discussed in Parliament in January of this year, setting
out the priorities for the next Budget, as well as a clear path to fiscal reform over the medium-term
horizon. In this way, the public is clearly made aware of exactly how the Government plans to
meet its fiscal objectives for each fiscal year, accompanied by a comprehensive macroeconomic
assessment of the economy, and how the two intertwine. Obviously, as circumstances may change,
8