Bahamian businesses have to deal with a rate of shrinkage or internal theft that is on average twice as high as that suffered in the US, the president of the Bahamas Employers Conferderation (BECon) told The Tribune yesterday, adding that if this nation could reduce the crime by 50 per cent, it would help lower consumer prices and remove a deterrent to investment.
Brian Nutt said employee theft in The Bahamas was a serious ongoing problem that had proved difficult to control. He explained that long term, Bahamian consumers had to pay for the costs firms incurred as a result of internal theft, and prices often reflected the level of shrinkage an individual company had to deal with.
Mr. Nutt was talking to The Tribune after Leslie Miller, minister of trade and industry, revealed to the House of Assembly in his contribution to the budget debate taht internal theft cost Super Value an estimated $3 – $$ million per year.
Mr. Miller said that without such a rate of shrinkage, the retailer would be able to reduce consumer prices by 15 – 20 per cent. Super Value could not be contacted yesterday for comment.
Mr. Nutt told The Tribune that every Bahamian should be interested in eradicating employee theft because it had proven to be a deterrent to investors, and also harmed this nation's economic competitiveness. if The Bahamas was able to control crime, and possibly reduce it by some 50 per cent, then a deterrent to future investment would cease to exist.
He added that business owners had to be more aware of what wa happening in their own organisations, and should set up procedures and create guidelines to reduce shrinkage and remove the temptation for workers to commit employee theft.
Source: Yolanda Deleveaux, The Tribune
