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Barbados Government Fails Governance Stress Test

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BU family member sent the following request to the Barbados Government Information Service.

Is there a goal to publish all Barbados government tenders on BGIS, if so when? Current site functionality to this objective is lacking and does not offer the visitor any real information.

Sent by Austin

One day later he received the following response.

Good afternoon.
The relevant department responsible for Government tenders has been invited to submit them to the BGIS for posting online, so we hope to have some more available shortly.
Regards
Kathyann Husbands (Mrs.)

Web Content Manager (Ag.)
Barbados Government Information Service
Bay Street
St. Michael

BU family Austin responds three days later.

Mrs. Husbands

Thanks for the response. I understand that in your role it may not be your responsibility to insist that ministries submit tenders for posting on BGIS, however in building a more transparent Barbados this service is critical. The words “invited” and “hope” in your response did trouble me as it should be “mandatory” and “policy” to openly post tenders for the Bajan public to see, after all it is the peoples tax money which make these tenders possible. I urge you to share this request for a firmer hand with ministries to your superiors.

Sincerely

Austin in behalf of the Bajan public

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13 responses to “Barbados Government Fails Governance Stress Test”

  1. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    In the absence of a Freedom of Information Act, this is a mere request… except that it is also a requirement in some cases. Maybe we should also be informing those who made it a requirement?

    Challenge the transparency/legitimacy of a contract.

  2. Austin Avatar
    Austin

    @ROK

    School me on this…Are you suggesting that there is currently absolutely “no” freedom of information act or anything like it in Barbados?
    A FOI act and supporting laws and policies are essential components to a true democracy, with all the brain power was have at UWI and in the halls of parliment what explains it’s absense.

  3. ROK Avatar
    ROK

    @Austin

    “Suggesting”? No I am not suggesting, I am telling you there is none. What explains the absence?

    Well, you see, people like you, entrepreneurs trying to get big business, don’t put in the Government at election time, even if you vote, the sway is with the masses and the masses busy trying to scrape a cheese cutter and a pine Ju-c. They just not interested in caviar because they don’t ever get none.

    So, even though the FOI Act is critical even to their own development, it is not anything critical to their everyday life; they don’t get paid out of it. It is out of their realm and therefore since they are numb about it, the politicians can sit on it as they like and only use it as an election plank to get votes from people like you that would supplement the mass vote.

    Dangling the carrot.

  4. ac Avatar
    ac

    @Rok
    Hope you enjoyed the B Day . Lots of fun I guess.

    Carry on with your comment I am reading.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    We have to keep pushing for transparency in Government. Come next election and there is no movement on this matter the Government will have to defend its position.

  6. Austin Avatar
    Austin

    @David & All

    I have been doing a bit of research on the Barbados Freedom of Information (FOI) Act posture which is categorized as “Pending”, as of yet I don’t have a firm picture of where are are today (April 2010) in the process. I have provided a link below to the bill for your review as posted on the Barbados Government website.

    The email address of freedomofinfobill@barbados.gov.bb. has been provided in the bill for public comment.

    Barbados FOI Bill Link:

    http://www.gov.bb/portal/page/portal/GISMEDIA%20CENTREPUBLICATIONS%20MANAGEMENT/Government%20Publications%20Uploader/Freedom%20Of%20Information%20Bill%202008%20with%20Introduction.pdf

  7. Austin Avatar
    Austin

    Very interesting assessment of economic freedom in Barbados from Heritage.org, and seems a bit out of touch with the reality of the situation.

    ” Barbados’s economic freedom score is 68.3, making its economy the 40th freest in the 2010 Index. Its score is 3.2 points lower than last year because of significant declines in its property rights and government spending scores. Barbados has slipped from 2nd to 5th out of 29 countries in the South and Central America/Caribbean region, but its overall score remains well above global and regional averages…..”

    Read more at http://www.heritage.org/index/Country/Barbados

  8. Davidj Avatar
    Davidj

    Nothing wrong with pushing for transparency; however, does the response given by BGIS equate to a failed stress test? By which or what measurement? The response demonstrates elasticity. Well put Ms. Husbands! BU, you need to establish much more before coming up with your hastily “concocted” headline that caught my interest and response.

  9. David Avatar
    David

    @Davidj

    The BGIS is the mouthpiece of government. The response by Ms. Husbands shows that there is a deficiency in FOI and other policies which facilitate transparency in government. The measure we used is, where there is no FOI the government fails the test.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    Update:

    Mrs. Husbands

    Thanks for the quick response. I am eager to see the BGIS improvements in train materialism. Thanks again standing-by.
    Austin

    On Apr 29, 2010, at 2:01 PM, "Kathyann Husbands BGIS" *****@barbados.gov.bb> wrote:

    Mr. Husbands, thank you for your email. We are working to improve our website and some of the suggestions you made are in train.
    Regards

    Kathyann Husbands (Mrs.)

    Web Content Manager (Ag.)

    Barbados Government Information Service

    Bay Street

    St. Michael

    Phone: (246) 228-4822  Fax: (246) 436-1317

    Email: ****@barbados.gov.bb

    Website: http://www.gisbarbados.gov.bb/

    From: ****@acutevision.com

    Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 12:52 PM

    To: *****@barbados.gov.bb

    Subject: BGIS Website Feedback

    Contact Form sent by:

    Austin:

    BGIS Website Feedback: A Few Observations from the Public

    As a Bajan and Senior Information Technology (IT) consultant for a leading International IT firm, I would like to respectfully make the following summary recommendations related to the current BGIS website. These recommendations are made with the stated BGIS vision statement in mind which is “To Be The Communication Hub Of Government, An Agency Which Drives National Development In Ways That Make The Business Of Government Meaningful To Its Citizens.”

    1. Direct Access to Government Ministries and Services: Having reviewed all the Ministry and Agency websites at Barbados.gov.bb which are not currently under BGIS, it seems clear that centralized management of government websites is currently not in the picture and should be. Understanding this current reality it is recommended that the current BGIS website contain a listing of all government MinistriesAgencies websites, with “key” links under each to available online and general services of interest to the general public.

    2. BGIS Home Page Navigation Functionality: The scripting used to create the mouse over drop-down menu functionality is not fully functional, and needs to be fully tested in other mainstream web browsers platforms, or state which browser the BGIS site is best viewed in. For example in Microsoft IE6 (still very commonly used) the drop-down menu appears to the far left no matter what you select from the homepage main menu bar, this effect makes it impossible to select items from the drop-down menu effectively. I have also noticed that the contractor building the site uses this same function on some of their other sites which works as it should, but not on the BGIS website.

    3. Cabinet’s Page: The Cabinets page should include email and phone numbers for each member to support public feedback and enquiry request.

    4. News Page: The news page should include links to key Barbados news outlets like the Nation and Advocate, and other well known Caribbean newsinformation sources like CARICOM etc.

    5. Speeches Page: The speeches page should list available speeches with a hyperlinked new window open function to read each speech individually, versus posting of the speeches one after the other with no significant separation between each.

    6. Festivals and Celebration Page: A more functional web calendar is needed with a listing and brief description of each upcoming event listed below.

    7. Notices Page: As one of the potentially most visited pages on the BGIS site, the current page is quite dysfunctional as it lacks content, information organization and flow. The media clip also overlaps what page content there is.

    8. Search New Function: The search news function is simply not currently working, and is typically an easy fix.

    In general the BGIS site is headed in the right direction, “Thanks for all your efforts in this great public service”. These summary level recommendations are made respectfully, with the Bajan public’s interest in mind to reach the stated BGIS vision. As a web development best practice, if areas of the site are still under development they should state that in order to maintain ongoing site interest from visitors like me.

    Thanks

    Austin

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