It is generally accepted civil servants in Barbados are technology averse. A litmus test would be to ask the question: how many government departments use teleconferencing facilities? The technology is not very expensive and can repay on the investment in short order by generating cost saving from reduced travel and overseas calls. There is also saving time if we were able to reduce the number of man hours civil servants spend on our highways and byways negotiating traffic to attend meetings.
A search of the Internet will toss-out millions of results of ways companies have adopted to reduce cost brought on by the world recession. One of the popular decisions is to introduce teleconferencing. For example, Bayer Corporation is using high-tech teleconferencing, or telepresence, to help cut the cost of travel; local and overseas. BU understands many private sector companies in Barbados have installed teleconferencing facilities in their board rooms to communicate with employees located in different offices. It seems a no-brainer if private sector companies see the benefit why shouldn’t the public sector? The civil service seems to be living up to the label appended to it by a former Prime Minister as an army of occupation.
The news this week that Ronald Jones is acting Prime Minister has raised the awareness in the eyes of some Barbadians to ask – why are so many government ministers and civil servants travelling at a time when government is printing money to pay civil servants salaries? Yes we know managing government is a complex business in a modern world but the question must be asked, is all the travelling necessary?
Prime Minister Stuart, Foreign Minister McClean, High Commissioner to London Tony Arthur and the obligatory team of civil servants are in attendance at the Commonwealth Conference in Perth Australia this week. BU cannot speak to the benefits the Barbados government expects to derive from attending the Commonwealth conference Down Under, however, as citizens it is our right to be curious about how public officials are spending our tax dollars. A plane ticket to travel to the land of Kangaroos drops at about S25,000. The High Commissioner is traveling from London so his ticket is cheaper at about $9,000. If we assume the PM and the Foreign Minister travelled with a minimum of two civil servants plane tickets alone rack up $100,000. We have not bothered to tabulate per diems, hotel accommodation and miscellaneous expenses. You do the math!
It seems so silly that several leaders from Caricom will be attending and some arrangement could not have been made to ask the Caricom Secretariat or some other regional agency to represent the region, the upside being the sharing of cost while at the same time fostering a kindred spirit.
Should we repeat? We are operating in extraordinary times which call for our leaders not to be afraid to depart from the ordinary; our survival depends on it.
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