Submitted by Sylvan Greenidge … a former BLP Press Secretary
- Photo Credit: John Fenze Blog
With respect to Constituency Councils, the BLP has always supported Community Councils as opposed to Constituency Councils and the reason is quite pellucid. There are already at the community level, a number of community groups both governmental and non-governmental that are functioning well, though with some financial constraints. These groups have formed the bedrock of community life in Barbados for years and all that is required is additional funding and access to technical skills to make them more responsive to the new challenges of community life.
Community life in Barbados is replete with success stories of persons that have emerged from the hard work of our community practitioners and who have gone on to make their country proud both at home and abroad. They achievements were accomplished with far les money than the DLP is spending today with little or no results.
Taxpayers now have to fork out over Bds $12 million annually out of a crippling economy to carry out the work of these Constituency Councils whose core functions are merely a duplication of the established community groups.
Let us take a look at the St. Philip Constituency Council.
Related Link
The Myth Of Building A Society Without The Economy – Part 1
This Council recently launched its programme with a Community Trade Show and I repeat a Community Trade Show not a Constituency Trade Show. Talk about confusion in policy design and execution. The Show was held on the grounds of the Rice’s playing field where a spanking new community Pavilion was recently erected. The former parliamentary representative of the constituency, Mr. Anthony Wood, initiated the construction of that Pavilion. Nowhere in the constituency can you find a project built by the DLP in all the years that the party held the constituency.
Thousands of hard earned taxpayers dollars were spent by this Constituency Council to host a trade show that focused on a significantly small segment of the constituency. Can you image the further cost to taxpayers if you were to replicate this in every community in St. Philip annually? And what if this abuse of public funds was allowed in every constituency across Barbados?
On the evening of the launch, a programme was unveiled to the community. The repairs to dangerous wells and de-bushing were listed as its core projects. The list also noted as upcoming projects, a community convocation with the youth, de-bushing and beautification of the community, repairs to and the installation of streets lights, the erection of bus shelters and the painting of pedestrian crossings.
Of the programmes outlined above, I am yet to see what is so innovative about this constituency council. In what way can these programmes as outlined by this council be considered community empowering?
Of even greater concern to me with respect to theses Constituency Councils is the level of corruption of which they are capable. Who would have thought that a Government that led the charge during the last general election of corruption against the last BLP administration would have setup a political structure that permits the spending and receiving of millions of dollars of government funds and other donations without the strict supervision of the Auditor General. This has got to be, accountability DLP style.
As currently structured, these Councils can now fund the campaigns of each DLP candidate through donations from all and sundry including drug lords and legitimate businesses seeking government contracts in return for their contributions. There are already horror stories about how the funds of these Councils are being spent. Word on the ground has it that a DLP member requested and was afforded the paying-off of a personal debt using the funds of one of the Constituency Councils.
With respect to the DLP’s approach to the summer camps its performance has been scandalous. The number of camps now in operation can be counted on one hand – a sharp contrast from the fifty odd that were in operation during the years under the last BLP Government. Camps then were made up largely of volunteers and were supported by an enthusiastic private sector. In less than two years and over twenty million ($20. mill) dollars spent by this DLP Government, it has managed to destroy that once vibrant volunteer system.
With respect to the provision of free bus fare this DLP Government can now boast from its privilege position that it has managed to save parents a dollar on their children’s school bus fare but has contributed to the loss of jobs and reduced workweek of thousands of parents as a direct result of its economic policies. So we have the classic situation in Barbados today where children come home from their free bus rides to find their parents literary in tears and misery over how to keep food on the table and the roof over their heads.
The standard of living of Barbadians has declined significantly since the DLP came to office and it would be interesting to hear from the Party what are the social indicators to suggest that the party is succeeding in building a society.
Poverty is once again on the rise in Barbados. Crime, according to the latest Police report is on the increase and unemployment is on course to reach the early 1990’s levels. Every social indicator points to a decline in our standard of living and this is an indication that the very foundation upon which the society is being built is in danger.
Faced with these realities, the only question left to be asked is what kind of society is the DLP building? It is fair to conclude from all that I have said, the DLP’s claim of building a society and not an economy is more an admission of their lack of appreciation and absence of skill in the area of economics and governance. That a DLP can spend fifteen years in opposition and to date has failed to produce a single economic model, from which they can craft an economic policy, is scandalous and unheard of from a political party that wants to be taken seriously.
As I conclude let me recall the words of a Dutch architect Winy Maas in his address to the first Holcim Forum. He said, “Because societies and their values are constantly changing, we must be careful not to block tomorrow by what we build today”. A word to the wise is sufficient.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.