Canadian Parliamentary report targets Barbados and other offshore banking and corporate centres

I have a question for our glorious leaders of the DLP and BLP…

Tourism is dying and our offshore banking sector is under serious attack. What is this island going to be doing to earn foreign revenues in 10 years time? Folks like Dr. Duguid and Owen Arthur won’t care because they are rich enough to bail out, but what will our children do to earn a living?

“Canadian banks and other financial institutions should be required to find out the beneficial owners of corporations or trusts that are transferring money overseas, according to recommendations in a new report on tax evasion by Parliament’s finance committee.

The all-party finance committee reported Wednesday on the results of a lengthy review of tax havens, but the study immediately drew criticism from NDP and Liberal members who said its 11 recommendations are too vague and will do little to halt the tide of money flowing into offshore tax havens.”

… from the Globe and Mail article: Banks urged to find out who is sending money abroad

Cameco tax case is scary for Barbados!

How a Canadian company avoided 1.4 billion in taxes by using an offshore subsidiary and what it means for Barbados

by Not Taken

Yet another interesting and scary for Barbados article in the business section of a major Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail: Cameco’s $800-million tax battle

I have been sending these recent articles as a public service so the Ministry of Finance and the Barbados Central Bank Governor have a heads up on the attack on Canadian tax evaders/avoiders that is undoubtedly about to hit the Barbados offshore industry; if in fact it has not already hit – but unreported.

This is very bad news for Barbados revenue sources.

While the Cameco case involves its Swiss subsidiary, it is probably just the tip of the iceberg in CRA’s efforts to collect taxes due to Canada. There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of  “Canadaco (Barbados) Limited” businesses doing the same same transfer pricing schemes (scams) in order to pay 2% income tax to Barbados, rather than 27% to Canada.

Even those Canadian companies not not already being audited for this this type of tax “management” may decide for close up shop in Barbados to avoid the publicity that a CRA audit will bring.

Cameco’s CFO, retorts that Cameco Europe has its own board of directors and a full-time CEO, Gerhard Glattes, who has no other duties with the company. Cameco Europe provides Cameco with compensation for the management duties – like legal advice – it does not have its own staff for. “It was established in accordance with all relevant laws and regulations when it was set up.”

The Barbados registered Canadaco subsidiaries’ own boards of directors and full-time CEOs who have no other duties with the Canadian company should start planning for alternative sources of income. And of course it will have serious implications for the Barbados services providers; the legal community,  the management/bookkeeping companies, and the accountants when it happens.

A look at some of the competition: The Seychelles Islands limit their tourist visits per year

Nice place, The Seychelles Islands. They were hit badly last January by tropical cyclone Felleng that destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, but according to press reports are well on their way to full recovery and so are their tourism arrivals. Their client markets in Europe are the same as ours, with the addition of France that is not a large market for Barbados tourism.

The Seychelles limit the number of tourists per year to 150,000, and only allow so many tourist beds per island so the country can retain its environment and social feel. It also avoids price wars between hotels and keeps tourism a viable business without the social destruction caused by walling off the coasts with hotels all struggling to stay alive in a market where the lowest price and least profit “wins” – if you call that winning.

A pity some of our Bajan leaders were not of the same mind decades ago.

“Under the 1990-94 development plan, which emphasizes that the growth of tourism should not be at the expense of the environment, the number of beds on the islands of Mahé, Praslin, and La Digue is to be limited to 4,000. Increases in total capacity are to be achieved by developing the outer islands. To avoid future threat to the natural attractions of the islands, 150,000 tourists per year are regarded as the ultimate ceiling. The higher cost of accommodations and travel, deficiencies in services and maintenance of facilities, and a limited range of diversions handicap Seychelles in attracting vacationers at the expense of other Indian Ocean tourist destinations”

Wikipedia’s entry for Tourism in Seychelles

“In 1971, with the opening of Seychelles International Airport, tourism became a serious industry, basically dividing the economy into plantations and tourism. The tourism sector paid better, and the plantation economy could only expand so far. The plantation sector of the economy declined in prominence, and tourism became the primary industry of Seychelles.”

… Wikipedia’s entry for The Seychelles

A symbol of our troubles: Tattered Barbados flag waves over stalled Four Seasons

Welcome to the Four Seasons, Barbados

The symbolism in the photo is stark: clouds obscure the Caribbean sun as weeds grow around a faded and ripped Bajan flag at yet another failed mega-project. A piece of garbage on a dead lawn provides the finishing touch.

Greed and politicians did this – mostly men who thought they were experts in leadership and running a country because they made speeches and got theyselves elected. The results of their decisions stand rotting in the sun all over the island: half built condos, closed hotels and crumbling steps. I’ve lost count of the sludge-filled swamps that used to be swimming pools surrounded by a hundred happy tourists baking and drinking Bajan rum.

It’s all over now and we did it to ourselves.

If we keep on blaming ‘the economy’ and 9/11 and Cuba we are headed only one way and that is down.

This is where we are now. Our best coasts and beaches are walled off or defended by thousands of motorcars. Our roadsides are tipping spots, while sullen shop clerks ‘greet’ visitors with about as much respect as you’d give a rat in your rubbish bin.

This is where our leaders have brought us, and when their time is up they head for Canada or Switzerland or Florida.

That’s where we are. The question is; what do we do now?

Four Seasons flag photo courtesy of The Nation: Flag shame at Four Seasons

E-readers a great idea for Bajan schools, but money isn’t the only problem

Dear BFP,

There is a move afoot to equip all secondary school students with E-readers. This is a great idea because this technology actually cuts costs over the long run when compared with physical textbooks and provides the latest learning materials.

That’s the upside. The downside is that E-Readers are more fragile than textbooks, and are more likely to be stolen. We’re not even talking about the problems with procuring and supporting the technology.

I can’t think of one educational procurement programme that has actually turned out well with the current administration and I don’t see why we should have faith that this one will be any better. I hope we have some rules in place before we spend millions on these devices with no controls about bidding and conflicts of interest etc.

(name withheld upon request)

E-readers for all

A move is now on to provide all 23,000-plus secondary school children in Barbados with e-readers.

The initiative, which is being led by the heads of the island’s 22 secondary schools, is designed to eliminate the headaches of issuing each child with nearly two dozen textbooks annually, and eliminate the tens of thousands each institution spends of book replenishment each year.

One of the education administrators who expressed delight at the progress made on the project so far noted they were aiming to have the e-readers in students hands not later than September 2014, “but sooner than that if all goes according to plan.”

One principal explained that while the evolving of the Textbook Revolving Loan Scheme into an e-reader based programme started with principals who clearly understood the benefits such a shift would bring, they all recognised that before it becomes a reality the Ministry of Education would have to be brought on board as a major player.

In the meanwhile though, the principals explained that given the continued dramatic fall in the prices of e-readers versus the escalating cost of traditional textbook, the change would significantly enhance the mechanism for supplying students with reading material…

…continue reading this article at Barbados Today

Should Barbados allow the Monsanto seed monopoly? Can we stop it even if we want to?

“Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds.”

… from the Global Research article The Seeds Of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming

“Monsanto works with farmers from around the world to make agriculture more productive and sustainable. Our technologies enable farmers to get more from every acre of farmland.

Specifically, we are working to double yields in our core crops by 2030. These yield gains will come from a combination of advanced plant breeding, biotechnology, and improved farm-management practices.”

… from the Monsanto website Our Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture

“In the nearly 20 years of applied use of G.E. in agriculture there have been two notable ‘successes,’ along with a few less notable ones. These are crops resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (Monsanto develops both the seeds and the herbicide to which they’re resistant) and crops that contain their own insecticide. The first have already failed, as so-called superweeds have developed resistance to Roundup, and the second are showing signs of failing, as insects are able to develop resistance to the inserted Bt toxin — originally a bacterial toxin — faster than new crop variations can be generated.”

… from the NYT as quoted in Prison Planet’s Even the NY Times is now rejecting Monsanto GMO science

BFP thanks Green Monkey for suggesting this article

Raul Garcia vs. Bajan national Earl Victor

Fabricated murder charge dropped, but Earl Victor still held for five years

by Nora

It was the Barbados Free Press (BFP) who blew the lid on the Director of Public Prosecution Charles Leacock corruption racket. It was the BFP who exposed the Earl Victor story last year, and I thank you for your objective reporting. (BFP editor’s note: We covered Victor’s earlier arrest crossing the US Canadian border too!)

If Raul Garcia must be made whole, what about Bajan national Earl Victor who Charles Leacock has been holding in custody for almost five years without a trial and without due process of law?

“The fabricated murder charge has been dropped against Earl Victor, but Leacock and Magistrate Randall Worrell would not release the man on bail unless his poor mother comes up with $75,000 cash and land and property.”

One would think after serving 5 years at Dodds Prison without trial, with the only current charge of procession of stolen property against Mr. Victor would be home with his family. The penalty for handling stolen property in Barbados should not be an indefinite sentence. Mr. Victor’s mother is poor and and can’t afford this kind of money Leacock and Magistrate Worrell are demanding for Earl’s release from custody.

Nora

Barbadians should shake and fold!

The popular adoption of small ideas can lead to big changes. Here’s one from the TED Talks.

How government makes small, self-sufficient businesses support corporate leeches

Adrian Loveridge, small hotel owner – now selling!

Perhaps more than many, I can totally empathise with those individuals who have recently seen their business either fail or brought dangerously close to insolvency. In 47 years, it has happened to me twice and in both cases they were largely external forces which caused near personal financial catastrophe.

Of course, it is easy to attribute the blame to others, but in my case I can unequivocally state that both near failures, which occurred years apart, were largely caused by strike action in the United Kingdom involving the National Union of Seaman.

I personally witnessed bus loads of what can only be described as pickaxe wielding thugs, destroying property and intimidating ordinary people simply wanting to go about everyday work and operating their businesses. More than a decade later it was the same union blockading the English channel ports, which prevented literally thousands of our booked holidaymakers taking their hard earned trips.

Unless you have been a small entrepreneur and fully understand the work, sacrifice and dedication it takes to grow and nurture a business from nothing, it might be difficult to comprehend the feeling of sheer devastation you experience when all those efforts unfold and collapse in front of you.

Starting a business in Barbados

When we moved to Barbados some twenty five years ago and put our life savings into purchasing a derelict hotel, we were starting all over again.  Not surprising, the local banks we approached were not overly helpful, regularly quoting those seemingly worldly phrases like that we were ‘undercapitalised’ or ‘over trading’.  Little did we know then that these ‘pearls of wisdom’ would come back and haunt the many supposedly ‘responsible’ financial institutions, globally just years later.

Story changes… Nation News self-censoring? Government running the Nation News?

by Not Taken

In BFP’s post “Canadian tourists robbed at gunpoint in room. Sex assault upon wife as husband held at gunpoint.” it was said “The Nation News has withdrawn the original story from its website – probably to try to limit the public relations damage for the Barbados Tourism Authority……..”

On Saturday April 20 I read an article  “New tourism boost“  at http://www.nationnews.com.

On Sunday April 21 I read an article  “$11m plan to boost tourism“  at http://www.nationnews.com.

Both articles covered the Minister of Tourism’s unveiling of the “Barbados Island Inclusive” programme to members of the media.

When I first read the article on Saturday, the Minister was quoted as saying something to the effect that “there really is nothing to be gained by counting the numbers of visitors disembarking from airplanes and cruise ship gangplanks in Barbados; but rather the important thing is how much money they spend when they are here.”

When I read the Sunday article, I was surprised that the comments about the numbers of visitors was excluded.  Of course it is not surprising that he does not want to talk about 9% declines.

So I revisited the Saturday article; and to my greater surprise those comments were no longer in the Saturday article.

Is it possible that the Minister or someone else in Government was able to have the article re-written to exclude those very strange comments that the numbers of visitors do not matter?  Is it possible that  knowing the MOF was to have his rather gloomy economic update/press conference yesterday, the PM decided that it would be inappropriate for MOT to be upbeat one week, when the MOF would be saying he is “disappointed” with the the state of the economy the next week.

Given that neither you nor our friend Adrian has been all over those comments, I am guessing they were deleted before either of you saw them.

Both articles, the Saturday April 20 one being apparently re-written from the one I originally saw are copied below.  Each had a different photo.  In the Saturday photo The Minister and his colleagues all appear to be searching for an answer somewhere in their papers.

The Sunday article also excludes the following, which was in the Saturday issue.

“For example selected vendors at Oistins will be able to participate,” he said.

Sealy said 15 eating places have signed on for the programme adding the list as ‘not exhaustive’.

It is all very confusing

Not Taken

New tourism boost

SAT, APRIL 20, 2013 – 5:51 PM
Barbados will invest  $11 million on a new tourism product, ‘Barbados Island Inclusive’.

Lawyer Mark Goodridge named Queen’s Counsel – How many previously “Most Wanted by Police” are awarded QC?

QC mugshot?

Lawyer Mark Goodridge named Queen’s Counsel

“The honour which you have garnered has come at the price of your continued respect of the court system in which you work and of which you have been officers since the date of your admission to practise law,” Sir Marston told them.

“Those junior to you in years called, and in years born, will look to you for guidance and leadership. They must continue to receive it and to see it demonstrated, not only in your words, but in your actions, particularly in your respect for Her Majesty’s judges and her courts,” he said.

And with the words: “May I invite you to take your seat at the Inner Bar?”Sir Marston welcomed Deputy Solicitor General Donna Brathwaite, Speaker of Parliament Michael Carrington, Brian Clarke, Stephen Farmer, Hal Gollop, Mark Goodridge, Deputy Clerk of Parliament Nigel Jones, Milton Pierce and Stephen Walcott as new QCs.

Full story at The Nation Show Respect to Judges

I can’t remember what the end story was about Mark Goodridge…

There was some controversy about him back in 2006. Mark Goodridge and his son were charged with a racial attack on a young black man on his property, but then it all faded away without any public announcement that I saw. What was the ultimate disposition of all the happenings? Does anyone remember… because I can’t find it on the internet.

Barbados Free Press story published October 16, 2006 – Barbados Lawyer Wanted For Beating Of Teen – Thoughts Of Racial Tension, White Privilege & Black Attitudes

Raul Garcia free after being jailed illegally for three years

After serving a 20 year jail sentence for drug trafficking, and then being held illegally for almost three years by a Barbados Government that refused to obey a Supreme Court ruling, Raul Garcia walked free yesterday.

Barbados Free Press published over 20 articles about Garcia in the past year alone. The U.S. State Department issued a Human Rights Report criticising Barbados for continuing to illegally hold Garcia. The Barbados Bar Association took up his cause.

And still the government continued to hold Garcia against the order of the Supreme Court.

We celebrate today with Raul Garcia, and you know that the Bajan news media will focus on the joy of his release until public interest fades. There will be a few stories later on to say how Garcia is making out… but Bajans should continue to think about how our government ignored the Rule of Law. That is the big story here because it happens so frequently on this little rock that those in power develop an attitude that they are above the law. That’s the real story of Raul Garcia.

Garcia a free man
by Emmanuel Joseph

High Court judge approves Garcia’s release to rural family

Tonight, for the first time in almost a quarter of a century, Raul Garcia will sleep in a bed that is not owned by the state.

His 20 years of jail time for drug trafficking and more than three years of immigration detention, pending his deportation, came to an end just after 3 p.m. today, when the Cuban national, with hands raised, walked out of the Supreme Court, unescorted for the first time in seven months of hearings.

Garcia emerged from the Number 9 High Court Chambers with a broad smile, never before seen since proceedings began in front of Justice Margaret Reifer, hugging members of the Prison Ministries who had been supporting him in his quest to be freed from detention.

After spending “a few minutes” immediately outside the doors of the courtroom with his team of lawyers, the family with whom he will live and Prison Ministry officials, an emotional and visibly overwhelmed Garcia, spoke briefly with reporters on the steps of the judicial complex.

Struggling to fight back the tears, the Cuba-born man’s voice was heard in public for the first time since his “incarceration” for the past 23 years…

Thanks to Barbados Today for the photo. You can read Barbados Today’s full story here.

Harlequin Investor Group Update

Harlequin Update – 25th April 2013

The Harlequin Investor Group (HIG) have met following the Harlequin presentations over the last few days.

The presentations brought forward two key issues.

1.      The re-financing of the Harlequin companies and the “Rescue Plan” and ;

2.      The quality of the initial advice surrounding the investments in Harlequin.

Re-Financing

The key to any financing is that those providing the monies are confident in both the company and the investors. We have little evidence as to the progress being made with regard to the finance. 

Canadian tourists robbed at gunpoint in room. Sex assault upon wife as husband held at gunpoint.

Commissioner ‘Do-nothing’ Dottin

Downstairs American couple also robbed at gunpoint

“Then he grabbed me inappropriately,” she said. “It felt like forever, but it was probably like a minute.”

“I’m laying there in my night dress thinking, ‘What the hell is going on?’”

The Nation News has withdrawn the original story from its website – probably to try to limit the public relations damage for the Barbados Tourism Authority – but that doesn’t stop the foreign press from reporting another violent gunpoint robbery of tourists in Barbados.

The Star newspaper in Toronto Canada is reporting that a Canadian couple was robbed at gunpoint in the Sea-U Guest House on Tuesday night. The wife was ‘touched inappropriately’ as the husband stood impudently by and made the wise decision to let his wife be sex assaulted instead of being shot.

From the news story the robbers would have kidnapped the couple had they had a rented vehicle. Another vacationing couple at the guest house was also robbed. They were from Virginia USA so the robbers took care of tourism from both the USA and Canada.

Our Commissioner of Police, “Do-nothing Dottin” had this to say about the tourist robberies… (nothing at all)

Meanwhile in other news two men shot at Barbados Water Authority employees last night, and a home was burned to the ground after someone tossed a Molotov cocktail.

Wonderful. Just wonderful. Just f’ing wonderful.

The local press can ignore violent tourist robberies all they want, but there is this little thing called The Internet where 90% of people research their vacations before deciding on the destination. When the politicians finally decide to care about the quality of life on this rock for all of us including the tourists, they can take a few logical steps…

1. Fire Do-nothing Dottin
2. Raise police salaries enough to attract the kind of police candidates that Barbados deserves
3. Hire 100 new officers immediately to bring the RBPF up to strength.

Until all that happens and we see some improvements, be prepared to read more stories in the foreign press like this, while watching the tourism revenues tank…

York U profs robbed at gunpoint in Barbados

… from The Star, Toronto Canada Published on Thursday, April 25, 2013

Intruders in plaid shorts and bandanas entered their guesthouse and demanded money, access to the safe and a car, before doing the same in another unit. 

Time for citizen oversight and control of lawyers

Formerly crooked lawyer David Bryan turns from camera at court

Thieving lawyers shouldn’t be in charge of themselves

by Passin thru

Lawyers are one of the few groups in our society who get to set their own rules and are allowed to discipline their own wayward children without being accountable to anyone except themselves.

Now the lawyers are having a fight over paying dues to the Barbados Bar Association. You might remember this is the same Barbados Bar Association that usually lets thieving lawyers repay stolen money to not go to jail. Regular thieves don’t usually get such a deal in the courts!

And when citizens dare mention how many crooked lawyers there are, the Barbados Bar Association blames the victims – the public – for choosing crooked lawyers “at random”!

“If the lawyers don’t respect their own Bar Association enough to pay fees, then it’s time for the citizens to step in.”

I’d call upon Parliament to set up a citizens’ committee to provide oversight and discipline to lawyers, but too many of the MPs are lawyers themselves so the likelihood of change is about the square root of zero.

What an incestuous bunch they are and it’s all out of control at the moment.

Over the High Court

A High Court judge will have to determine whether lawyers are obligated to pay annual fees to the Barbados Bar Association to practise.

The association’s council has decided to take the matter to court because many attorneys at law refuse to pay the fees, but are still working.

Does Harlequin’s The Merricks have “full planning permission” or not? We have some doubts…

Dave Ames says Merricks has “full planning permission” …

“Last month, Harlequin’s The Merricks Resort project in Barbados was finally granted full planning permission after years of protracted studies and work. It was initially anticipated that this process would be much quicker, but Harlequin has always kept purchasers updated with progress.”

Financial Times Adviser, Beleaguered Harlequin owed £30m by property buyers April 24, 2013

“Harlequin is delighted to announce that last week it received full planning permission for The Merricks Resort project in Barbados. There are normal conditions attached to the permission and our team is now working to ensure we have full compliance to allow us to commence works.”

Financial Times Adviser, Harlequin halts construction amid £9m legal battle April 9, 2013

BFP’s old friend St. George’s Dragon checked personally at the Planning Office and is not so sure…

Mr Ames announced at the investor meetings that Harlequin had received full planning for Merricks. I admit that I was skeptical about this so I thought I would drop into the Barbados Town & Country Planning Office this afternoon to check. It is possible for members of the public to check applications. The information you can see is limited, though.

Tourist statistics for March… say hello to the Germans!

This just in…

In the interest of fairness and accuracy, retired diplomat Peter Simmons stated on Down to Brass Tacks yesterday that visitor arrivals were down 9 per cent for the first three months of 2013.

While long stay visitor arrivals were down 9 per cent in both January and February, they were only down 1.6 per cent in March.

In fact, cruise ship passenger arrivals were up by 9.2 per cent in March 2013. This is when compared with the same periods in 2012.

What was that old saying about statistics and people who use them?

Okay, so we know life is tough ’bout hey, but what does this mean…

March 2013 cruise ship passengers up 9.2% over March 2012

BUT….

March 2013 overall tourist visits down 1.6% compared to March 2012

TRANSLATION…

We had a couple of bigger boats in compared with last year, but the overall visitors are down.

The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!

We had an extra 367 German visitors in March 2013 over March 2012. How much did those extra visitors cost us in increased BTA spending in Germany? I know you can’t look at it like that because you have to consider the cumulative impact of advertising, but while the Barbados Tourism Authority people will be happy to talk about the increase in Germans, what do they say about the loss of 385 Canadians and 1,431 Americans during the same period?

This is too heavy for me on a Thursday morning. I need a Banks…

=========================================
.                             March        March        Net YoY           YoY%
.                               2013           2012            Change
=========================================
TOTAL                53,304         54,164           -860          -1.6%
U.K                       18,550         17,601            949           5.4%
U.S.A                12,222         13,653         -1,431         -10.5%
Canada              9,086          9,471           -385          -4.1%
Germany            1,343            976            367          37.6%
Other Europe          2,825          2,459            366          14.9%
Trinidad & Tobago  2,937          2,982            -45          -1.5%
Other Caricom         4,237          4,653           -416          -8.9%
Other Countries       2,104          2,369           -265         -11.2%
===========================================
SOURCE: Barbados Statistical Service

Further Reading

Bloomberg Cruise Stats: Barbados Cruise, March 2013

Bloomberg Tourism Stats: Barbados Overall March 2013

Junior Campbell: Barbados Human Trafficking arrests are too late for many

“I also have difficulty with the assumption that men are the only people those women have to fear.

Information at my disposal suggests that there are more than a few violence-prone, bullying ‘madams’ operating in Barbados.”

by Junior Campbell, All Voices

The first arrests for human trafficking by Barbadian authorities may have done little to reassure the US State Department about the country’s commitment to addressing this stain to its human rights record.

This seems to be the gist of a story appearing in the Nation newspaper today. Under the headline “Ring busted,” the local paper reports, “Police have smashed what they believe is a human trafficking ring here, and for the first time have charged individuals with this crime.
“As a result, a man and a woman will appear in court today jointly charged with human trafficking,” it continues.

And Inspector David Welch, the Royal Barbados Police Force’s (RBPF) public relations officer, is said to have confirmed that “the two were charged following a police raid of a bar in Nelson Street, The City, last Thursday.”

The paper also credits unnamed “reliable sources” for informing it that the man, a 22-year-old and the bar’s 36-year-old proprietress were arrested after police found five Guyanese women, dressed only in bathing suits, working in the bar.

“The five were between 17 and 21 years old” the report continues. It also says that investigations revealed that the women were not in possession of their passports and documentations and that there was evidence that they were part of a regional trafficking operation.

Passports are usually held by sex traffickers and other traders in human degradation and misery to prevent those they exploit from fleeing escaping their clutches.