The Tourism Minister was also asked to give an update on the Border
Management Unit, which falls under his portfolio.
Viewers will remember that shortly after he took over responsibility
for Tourism and Diaspora Relations, he came out swinging at the former
Barrow Government over the state of that Statutory Body's finances.
During one of his first remarks as Minister in the House of
Representatives, Mahler asserted that the former administration left
the Border Management Unit with very little finance in their bank
accounts and a massive debt that the new administration has to pay off.
He told us today that the government has been attempting to service the
debt with the very little revenue trickling in, due to the land borders
being mostly closed:
Reporter
"I was told that the revenues that come through there are not audited,
I'm not sure if it's not audited or come to the ministry, is that so?"
Hon. Anthony Mahler - Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations
"It's a statutory board, so it has it's own board just like all
statutory board and all revenue it generates is managed by the board
and the management team."
Reporter
"But the suggestion is that it's significant revenue and we don't know
what's happening with that."
Hon. Anthony Mahler
"Well if you look at any other statutory board it's the same thing but
we do audit its financials, I can tell you since we have taken over the
helm at border management, the revenues have grown significantly
because we have stopped a lot of the leakage that were accruing at that
agency."
Daniel Ortiz
"I remember you speaking out this in the house, you had suggested that
the previous government left a debt and a very small savings resources,
what is the situation since then in terms of recovery for that unit?"
Hon. Anthony Mahler
"It has been a slow process because the borders have been pretty much
closed, the flow of tourism through the borders have been slow, through
the west and north primarily, we have stabilized things, we have
stopped the bleeding and I believe as things pick up we will do much
better and we will be able to facilitate the loans more efficiently
that we have been left with."
When land borders reopen on January 1, the Border Management's revenue
stream is expected to increase significantly.
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