BU has been investigating a couple of matters which led us to a particular place we do not like. We have decided to release what we have discovered and leave the BU family to slice and dice the information as they see fit. What has been evident from the inception of Barbados Underground is that there are an important few in Barbados whose sole existence is to guard the status quo at any cost. Until ordinary Barbadians buy into a philosophy which says we have to contribute to the job of protecting our fragile democracy through participation, the establishment will continue to flourish.

At a time when the country is going through an economic recession, officials at the National Library Service appear to be squandering taxpayers money to the benefit of a few. Do you remember a little while ago there was the furore over the vast  sums of money  spent on a public bath and the cutting of an Ackee tree?

A BU source has exposed a little of what may be described as the tip of the iceberg occurring at the National Library Service:

• The son of an officer of the library was awarded a contract to cut the lawn at the St. Philip branch, and paid $2,200. In addition, the individual used the library’s equipment and to add insult to injury left over twenty garbage bags full of grass on the site. After being paid $2,200 to cut a relatively small area of grass, the job was estimated by others at approximately $500. The library then had to make arrangements to remove the grass. The eyebrow raiser is that the library employs a general worker to do   exactly what this official’s son was paid to do.
• The same official paid her other son $6,000 to paint the Eagle Hall library on the inside only. Last time BU checked the Eagle Hall library was a tiny place.
• Then there is the payment to the daughter of $6,000 to cater an event at the library. If one could smile at the abuse of tax dollars it would be that the food was delivered after the Minister and specially invited guests had long gone.

Our source admits that there is a lot more abuse of public funds taking place and if the minister responsible is interested it being a good guardian of the public purse he should order a forensic audit post haste!

The second issue touches the local media and the threat to freedom of expression and news manipulation given the concentration in the hands of non Barbadian ownership. Is it healthy for Barbados that a single group should greatly influence how news is being disseminated in Barbados? Bear in mind One Caribbean Media has adopted the Rupert Murdock approach to media acquisition in the region. To ensure a balance we need a few active whistleblowers to keep media operations ‘real’.

• How was The Nation valued at such a high number that OCM could write of $244 million in goodwill? Given that newspapers are closing globally this high valuation seems very strange.
• Was this in fact a strategy by the board to artificially enhance its true worth and so woo investors in its initial IPO into paying far more per share;  over $6 than the company was worth?
• Did such a questionable decision emanate from Trinidad, home of the CLICO debacle which continues to rage, and who was the audit firm to approved the goodwill valuation in the first place?
• Was Chairman Sir Fred Gollop party to what appears to outside observers to be an overstatement? What about Harold Hoyte?

If our standard of education is at the level to which we always boast, there should be a reasonable expectation that queries such as those above be investigated and clarified for a trusting public. The tiny paragraph which appeared in the Nation newspaper will not do. Can Barbadians reasonably be expected to rely on the Barbados Advocate and the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation to provide balance in the Realm of the local Fourth Estate?

May God help us!