NASSAU, Bahamas — The Ministry of Finance’s top official yesterday defended the new business licence regulations on the basis that too many companies’ financial statements “do not stand up to scrutiny”, The Tribune reported November 15.
Marlon Johnson, the financial secretary, said this was the Government’s rationale for requiring businesses earning up to $10m annually to produce a financial statement confirming their top-line turnover together with accompanying certified bank statements.
Mr Johnson’s comments at the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) conference were met with strong push back from attendees, who described the bank accounts demand as an “invasion of privacy” and too onerous a demand for Bahamian small businesses. Some slammed the government over a lack of consultation on the regulations that were brought into effect on May 30.
To the latter charge, Mr Johnson pled guilty, saying: “I accept the critique that we didn’t engage BICA earlier on that, as we ran with a whole lot of things during the last budget exercise. We have since engaged BICA through BICA’s request, and have made a commitment to work with them to come up with a solution.” http://www.tribune242.com/news/2018/nov/15/top-official-shoddy-accounting-justifies-new/?news
