Barbadians got to hear the new government at work in the House of Parliament yesterday. It was refreshing to witness the dissipation of the rhetoric featured last week which many claim was a hangover from the just concluded general election. The parliamentary session was conducted today against the backdrop of the news that the new government has decided to shelf the Greenland Landfill Project. In a nutshell, 50 millions dollars already flushed down the toilet but 45 million dollars estimated to be saved by not completing the project. Word on the street today seems to indicate that it is a fairly popular decision among Barbadians who always thought that it was an environmental disaster to locate a dump in the eco-Scotland district.
It should be no surprise to Barbadians that the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) have been reviewing capital expenditures disbursed by the former Barbados Labour Party (BLP) government. This is something which they signaled during Barbados Election 2008. The ABC Highway Project is equally under the microscope. It has been accepted by many who should know that it is a project which has been poorly designed and executed. Let us not forget the Hardwood debate which triggered the suspicion of Barbadians, and effectively has relegated Clyde Mascoll to the harsh review of our political historians. Maybe Historian Trevor Marshall, former consultant to the Arthur administration, can take-up the challenge.
Last week, Barbadians also read the lucid view expressed by Minister of Health David Estwick regarding the decision by the former Arthur administration to allow the St. Joseph Hospital to descend to a state of disrepair. The current poor state of the St. Joseph property will now cost the taxpayers millions to rehabilitate. If a decision is taken to sell the property in its current state, it will equally cost taxpayers because of the poor condition of the property. Minister Estwick was quoted as saying after touring the St. Joseph property:
I really feel there needs to be a revisiting of some type of punitive measure when taxpayers’ money is misused. I will put it this way because we’re talking about political decisions that were taken that resulted in a deterioration of a property that was worth millions and millions of dollars. To rehabilitate this property will probably take just as much money . . . .To see a facility that was once grand being gutted, fully rotted – all the wooden structures, roofs falling in, vandalised in every way you can think of . . . . One of the reasons this visit occurred is because firstly I wanted to see first-hand what was the present state of disrepair” said Estwick.
Source: Nation
We could mention other known investigations which the new Thompson government plans to undertake to deliver on their campaign promise to expose corruption and wastage of the former government. Let us not forget the plan to have a forensic audit at the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). This week the news broke about the sacking of nine consultants who were attached to former Prime Minister Owen Arthur’s office. We do agree our government will need to hire consultants to manage tasks which require specific expertise which does not now exist within the government. But BU would have joined Barbadians to show disgust at the qualifications which many of the sacked consultants possess and which merited unjustifiably high emoluments. BU and BFP have written extensively about many of the projects which are about to be investigated even when the mainstream media failed to report. If you doubt us just do a search on our blogs.
The 100 day post election period is currently running and BU have adopted a neutral position about writing on political matters for the moment. Don’t be fooled that we are not monitoring the nascent unfolding of our new government with keen interest. It will not be lost on Prime Minister Thompson that he still has a credibility issue surrounding his leadership to mange in the minds of Barbadians. Although Barbadians would have given Thompson and his government a mandate to oversee a new government (first past the post), there is a fragility which still lurks regarding Thompson’s leadership ability.
We are sure that Thompson being the political student that he is and someone who had to wait for a long time to win the “big one”, he is mindful that the Barbados Labour Party is 6% points away from regaining the government based on the current state of things.
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