The Draft Estimates 2013-14 and related documents are available for public comment.
Hon. Chris Sinckler will move the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill, 2013 on Monday 25th of March 2013.
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Approved Estimates 2012-2013 (for reference)
The Estimates Debate 2013-2014
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240 responses to “The Estimates Debate 2013-2014”
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Hi David,
On page 6 of the Daily Nation of 21 March 2013 there is a picture of a Zoo animal…..would you happen to know its name ?
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Prodigal Son | March 20, 2013 at 10:33 PM |
“The allocation in the Estimates may not even cover two months.”What about the UWI cutback? When we compare the UWI actual funding needs based on its current cohort of students and on-the-ground fixed costs to the budgeted allocation to that tertiary educational institution we can see the hill of shit we are about to climb.
Should we take the commitment to have the problem of the UWI funding resolved very, very soon in the same vein we have been promised immediate and soon resolutions the following:The Four Seasons now the One Season re-privatization.
The Al Barrack settlement that should have been done before elections.
The iron clad promised return of the principal amounts to those investors in CLICO.
The immediate revitalization of the Sugar Industry with its potential to power over 50,000 homes in Bim and to supply all our molasses needs to meet our rum production output level for export and local consumption to save forex.Let us stop there for the time being before we are promised to be self-sufficient in food production based on the output of the amount of shit talked in Parliament that does not find itself in an over-flowing Sewage plant from a 1970’s shitty production level.
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@ Miller
You late lmao….wey Howard and the other economists that opposed the $90m stimulus but seem to be in agreement with one seven times bigger?
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Enuff,
In bed with the DLP! -
@ Enuff | March 21, 2013 at 7:05 PM |
Sir Frank Alleyne also kicked up against any stimulus package. Bet he will be one of the biggest backers of such economic strategy now that his party in back in power. Expect a similar volte-faced approach when it comes to privatization and trimming of the public sector workforce.
Those economists are all political hacks who would sell the professional souls to their called the devil and rob their dead mother for a pick on some statutory board or agency that distribute largesse from the carved up fatted calf.
If this government can’t even find enough money when the month comes to meet its current expenditure bills how in this international recession world would a country with junk bond ratings be able to attract investment or borrowings from overseas to finance the foreign exchange component of these huge capital works projects?
Not only does this government intend to borrow from overseas to finance its capital works programme but also to help finance its current account fiscal deficit. What madness!
Even if the government intends to use PPP funding arrangements for 50% of its capital works programme the private partners will have to go to markets both local and overseas to finance the projects. This will require large government guarantees which will be reflected in the already excessively high national debt leading to further write downs by the credit rating agencies.Would you agree that a new hospital could be just as ‘stimulating’? Did you hear any mention of that?
Man, take every project proposal other than debushing to employ DLP supporters with a grain of salt and bird pepper. -
Hi Miller,
It is time you take a break on your old rant that this DLP government borrowing money to pay civil servants.
If it is true , aren’t the workers being paid ?
Here is an easier question for you to answer , given the $$$ millions that you and OSA squandered on GEMS and GREENLAND…..wouldn’t there have more money to do more for the said workers (you now bitch about ) ?
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@ Fractured BLP | March 21, 2013 at 8:25 PM |
You should ask the MoF about borrowing money to pay public sector.
He is the one who said it. Or is this another lie told by your sweetheart MoF?Leave Greenland alone. That’s what you call planning with a view to the Ocean. It could come in handy as a public cemetery to accommodate the amount of dead bodies when the NCD’s really kick in and no medicine is available.
Since we are into “green” living why not “green” dying. The DLP can call the Greenland dump for dead bodies the OSA Memorial Garden of Remembrance. You can also make him the first political client. Maybe then he would be at final rest and stop haunting you and ac.
BTW, a man by the name of PW told me he loves you and wants to be your friend like Parris was to David T. You interested?
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BTW, a man by the name of PW told me he loves you and wants to be your friend like Parris was to David T. You interested?
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Hi Miller,
Since that is the way you like to be courted…..why you allow the person to get away ? -
@Miller
“economists are all political hacks who would sell the professional souls to their called the devil and rob their dead mother for a pick”
Sounds exactly like a man named Mascoll who called Arthur a monumental failure as an economist and then took a “pick” in his cabinet.
I agree, Clyde Mascoll has no credibility at all. His economics changes to suit his politics. -
Fractured BLP …..OUCH !!!!!…..Miller got yuh by yuh scrawny Balls. Doan bend down ah say doan bend down!
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Some things I am pondering:
Prof Howard calls the $600 million stimulus package “economic madness”. He is consistent.
According to a Caribbean Development Bank/ UWI study, 38% of Bajan youths do not want to work!
PM Stuart in his contribution to the Estimates debate, disparages the Opposition’s “doom and gloom” talk. He reminds the House that Barbados among developing nations, has the highest position on UN Human development index. A little research indicates that Barbados is 38 on the index. Notably Greece and Cyprus are 29 and 31 respectively! Should someone whisper to the PM that economic susceptibility may not correlate with HDI?
Is the Medium Term Fiscal “whatever the Gov’t calls it” working?
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The Estimates Debate 2013 ended on an interesting note. First a divide was called for on the head which falls under Estwick’s ministry. Secondly the Speaker advised members that the People’s Republic of China has donated laptops to all the MPs. BU would caution the MPs to think long and hard about accepting gifts in the form of a computer from China read the hackers of this world.
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@Ping Pong | March 22, 2013 at 6:38 AM |
“He reminds the House that Barbados among developing nations, has the highest position on UN Human development index”He should also be conveniently reminded that this position is nothing to boast about unless he feels going backwards is progress.
In 1992 the same Barbados was at No. 20, 18 places above its present ranking. The last two administrations have been instrumentally responsible for this serious slippage.But what can we expect from a person whose rating of excellence is measured on the scale of mediocrity.
Given the billions spent on education and other human development projects we should be getting a much better return on the investment in our people and should be up there on par with Singapore at No.18 (or even above) which was way below the No. 20 mark in 1992. Israel at no.16 was at no. 19 in 1992 just one notch above Barbados.Oh how the Mighty Bim has fallen despite all of this free education and free everything with 38% of its young people happy to be a bunch of freeloaders!
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I need to make a correction. The 38% mentioned in my post on March 22 refers to those youths who are unemployed and not to all Barbadian youths. Notably the CDB/UWI survey also found that 15% of households were living below the poverty line. The Prime Minister’s speech in the Estimates debate seem to suggest that he is unaware of this statistic yet he is the one receiving the report of the said survey. Even more notably the survey found that since 1996, household and individual poverty in Barbados had DOUBLED in the last 17 years. While Mr Stuart can thus blame the BLP policies for failing to address poverty in Barbados, he should (with alarm) juxtapose the fact that this increase in level of poverty occurred during a period when Barbados was supposed to be doing well economically. Thus what can be expected in the future as Barbados now experiences an economic maelstrom?
Not to join the Opposition’s doom-and-gloom characterisation but when the deficit is $billion and increasing, revenue is decreasing, the poverty rate is increasing and the economic environment (both locally and worldwide) continues to be unfavourable, what should be one’s outlook?
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@ Ping Pong | March 23, 2013 at 6:58 AM |
Thanks for the clarification but the 38% could only have referred to those unemployed. Certainly not to those employed or in full-time education.
But when people have been unemployed for so long this state of affairs appears endemic across the younger sector of the population especially in economically depressed areas it is expected that such despondent malaise and negativity would prevail.
That is why drug use is so dominantly pervasive among the young.
A compulsory National Youth Service can be some sort of palliative but the long-term prospects for increasing employment and entrepreneurial opportunities don’t look very uplifting given our current educational and training system designed for an earlier era and operated without regard to a changing world in which Bim would continue to fail to match up to given the current inertia characterizing our policy designers and decision-makers.
Here is one initiative that can be implemented to prepare the youth for a brave new ICT driven world:
School text books should be on E-readers thereby getting rid of all the heavy paper-based school books. This would save some forex, encourage the students to be more IT savvy, and support the government’s policy of ‘greening’ the economy and protecting the environment from dumping and felling trees to produce paper and chemicals to make ink for printing. -
Millertheanunnaki
what about UWI delivering more (if not most) of its degree programs via the internet instead of building more “brick and mortar” classrooms? Other than lab based courses, most courses can be pursued at home. See MIT’s Opencourseware
However to facilitate independent/distance learning, the secondary schools would have to graduating students with an acceptable level of numeracy and language skills which is not now the case.
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@ Ping Pong | March 23, 2013 at 7:57 AM |
D’accord!
The massive fixed costs attached to the mad expansion of physical plant over the last 10 or so years are like a millstone around the necks of regional financiers that prop up the institution called the Cave Hill Campus especially the Barbados government.Sir Hillary empire building ego was allowed to go too far in left field but in the land of the blind the one-eye man is king. The man is not a visionary but a revisionist whose focus is on the past and who was able to trick blind elders like OSA into committing large sums of taxpayers’ money to his empire building spending sprees.
All of this useless physical expansion was taking place at a time when more enlightened places were doing the precise opposite. The focus by providers of tertiary level education and training services was on physical contraction to save costs while at the same time using ICT to improve the quality of delivery and the facilitate the general teaching & learning environment.
You can expect students will be asked to cough up much more in the coming months towards financing their own education at the UWI. The existing burden is too much to bear by the already overloaded taxpayers. Can you imagine another $1 billion for this year alone?
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@ Ping Pong
“…..but when the deficit is $billion and increasing, revenue is decreasing, the poverty rate is increasing and the economic environment (both locally and worldwide) continues to be unfavourable, what should be one’s outlook”
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Don’t go and spoil your excellent reputation now Ping.
You are beginning to sound like the bushman..
..except of course, that your logic is much more scientific, academic and is so well argued…. 🙂Bushie would just have said that our asses are headed for the grasses….
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@ Miller
“The massive fixed costs attached to the mad expansion of physical plant over the last 10 or so years are like a millstone around the necks of regional financiers that prop up the institution called the Cave Hill Campus especially the Barbados government”
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EXACTLY!
Where there is no vision, the people always perish in the end.At a time of growing decentralization of education worldwide, Sir H has been building a physical empire, and setting meaningless goals about producing large numbers of “graduates”.
The goals of a national university should be focused on generating levels of national success in terms of leadership, social development, technological advancement and economic enfranchisement.
….not just producing large numbers of moronic imbeciles of the order of ac …..Bushie loved Sir H as a historian and social activist.
As an administrator, he is a square peg in the wrong hole…. -
Bush Tea
All BU regulars know that you are the original “doom and gloom” prophet as far as the current arrangement of human society goes.
However like MME in trying to prove you wrong, I hope someone (in and with authority) will do what is required to save our butts.
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@ Ping Pong | March 23, 2013 at 6:58 AM |
“Not to join the Opposition’s doom-and-gloom characterisation but when the deficit is $billion and increasing, revenue is decreasing, the poverty rate is increasing and the economic environment (both locally and worldwide) continues to be unfavourable, what should be one’s outlook?”Ping Pong, there is no need to be apologetic. You are not preaching any doom and gloom like the world coming to an end or a tsunami will wash away Bim on 13 of Black October 2013.
You are using your intellectual intuition (commonsense) and academic training to evaluate a set of data and conditions and come to an informed position that does not look very rosy for the economy of this country.
No one wants to see Bim in very serious economic straits but like individuals the consistent making of faulty decisions can lead to future difficulties that can lead to ruin.
Drug taking and living above an individual’s financial means can result in a person ending up on skid row. Same thing applies to countries whose leaders refuse to manage their countries’ finances (and civil institutions like the justice system) properly and still continue to make damaging policy decisions.The Bush man is very good fellow to listen to, Ping Pong. He has outstanding intellectual pedigree worthy of cultivating in your youthful fertile field of ideas. But don’t let him influence you above rational discussion; and take that BBE scenario with a large dose of skepticism to insulate your metaphysically virginal mind from the Bush man’s cultism. LOL!!!
Keep it up, young fellow. The miller is most impressed with your intellectual depth. Really thinking outside the box, you are?
Give us more food for thought, please! -
My daughter spent 4 years at U of T and for some classes she was given the option of doing them in a lecture hall or at home on line.
The UWI could do this instead of adding more concrete.They don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”. I am sure they can copy what U of T has done.
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@ Miller
What young fellow what?!?
…you really think that Ping Pong is a young fellow?
…by Bushie’s and piece o de rock standards maybe… (Under 80 🙂 ) … But ping is far to wise to be categorizable as “young”.@ Ping
Bushie takes offense at the classification of ” prophet of gloom and doom”. 🙂
…you consult a doctor who advises that your current lifestyle of poor diet and nil exercise will result in High blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, amputations and an early death….
…does that make the doctor a prophet of gloom and doom?Bushie is at the prime of health, wealth, percolation and fortune… Lol
Wunna feel that the bushman wants to see the place mash up?
But reality is reality….In any case the bushman has cut back on the lotta talk bout gloom and doom now, ’cause much more articulate bloggers like Dr Love, Piece o de rock, Miller, Check-it, Green Lizard and Ping have been doing a far better job than the bushman ever could….
Even MME, before his untimely departure, was coming around to the realization that science will NOT be able to save our butts….
….only David remains eternally optimistic….. LolBushie is not a ‘prophet of doom’….. Just a realist and someone who is lucky to be able to see the bigger picture.
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The estimates debate is now finished. I did not watch it but I heard a few snippets from the news and from the little that posters here on BU gave us.
This is what stands out to me:
That 1 billion dollar deficit that has to be closed somehow.
The $600 stimulus package for which the reports suggests that the MOF has not yet got everyone on board with him so far, notably the Min of Tourism and the alleged author of his preelection finance strategy, Dr. Howard.
Dr. Frank Alleyne not unpicking his teeth on the above matter.
The disclosure by MP Toppin (I haven’t heard the rebuttal on it) that (120?) million dollars has been surreptiously paid to bond holders for the Four Season’s project. and the MOF’s disclosure that it should be up and running shortly (Seems like I’ve heard that before) and also that the solution to that situation will not cost the NIS or Government anything.
The CLICO situation is now definitely on the back burner as also seems to be the Barrack matter.
The Min of Agriculture’s reported decision to stop the hemorraghing of subsidies to the Planters through propping up the sugar industry’s exports of sugar at a very significant loss. That strategy was bipartisan for over 20 years and was designed to milk valuable foreign exchange from the exportation of sugar. I applaud the decision to stop it but I wonder where that lost foreign exchange will be coming from.
To be commended is the MoA’s disclosure of an intent for barbados’ farmers to provide 100% of the products that we are capable of providing; The yams, sweet potatoes, eddoes, various vegetables, chicken, eggs, etc. I am not certain however if he went on to analyse where the massive foreign exchange outflows for food products are situated and if these are significantly made up of the items above and what such a strategy might do to our neighbours who supply the tannias, etc which we can produce in marginal quality and quantity but have traditionally imported. Also, what does he intend to do about dampening the demand for or substituting the products that make up the majority of the imports (Flour, Onions, etc.) that constitute our massive food import bill and substituting them with the products which we can produce locally.
The Energy related projects that will use renewable resources appear to be a step in the right direction and should help significantly, eventually, in reducing the outflows of moneys now spent on oil. But where are the projects related to energy conservation. perhaps I missed them.
But overall what came through to me was usual spirit of confrontation and political belligerence in which the debate was carried on. Mia Mottley tried to get a spirit of bipartisanship in the debate. But Stuart and his group would have none of it. I even heard on the news this morning that the MOH was blaming the BLP for the problems that the West Coast hotels are now having re. water supply in this very bad drought period. Surely, in the unaccustomed close position he now finds himself in Parliament it might have been wise for the PM to extend a real olive branch of his own and graciously accept the one MAM offered?
All in all quite predictable, but will await the budget to see what the fallout of these estimates will really be.
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@checkit-out
If one listened to how Estwick dismissed Mottley it is only a matter of time before her is forced to retaliate. How long will the public accept a ‘passive’ Mottley given our expectation of how political leaders should behalf?
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Such times of hard ship and uncertainity brings out the best or the worse in in people.the survivors are those who have learnedto adjust to circumstance and knows that govt can,t do it all.Meanwhile the losers sit by the wayside and holler “doom and gloom”to their own detriment..So what If the students/are asked to cover some of their UWI expenses that should be seen as a good cause also when the circumstances are explained vs. the long term consequences people adjust accordingly.
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One can perceived by MAM response to the budget and her return to her campaign script that she has be weaken by past events also she lacks the selfassuring confidence one sees/in a leader.maybe this could be in part brought on Past and current negativism within the BLP also the decision by the RT HON to absent his vote which could have been instrumental in boosting her credibilty.
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@ ac | March 23, 2013 at 10:22 AM |
“So what If the students/are asked to cover some of their UWI expenses that should be seen as a good cause”Oh, Oh! Do we detect here another indication of quiet retreat from that stonewall of resistance and loud mouth denial about funding University education?
Is ac surreptitiously backpedaling blindly from being punch drunk into the miller’s corner?
Before Barbadian students can be asked or forced to contribute any additional amounts to the cost of their university education this political administration must come to the people and apologize for telling them lies.
This administration- seized with the full facts surrounding the financial crisis facing the Cave Hill campus- gave the students, their families and the whole nation the ironclad assurance that free tertiary education will continue to remain free as long as this DLP administration holds the reins of government.Free tertiary education is the sacred cow of the DLP body politic and unassailably inscribed in the party’s philosophical DNA.
The PM made it abundantly clear that over his dead body would such attacks on this sacred cow be tolerated. The principle and its application of free at pointed delivery will be defended to the hilt.Now we will watch and see if the Man of Integrity saves his soul in the battle of lies and deceit. We will see if he has to cut off his financially short nose to save his politically scary face.
Words in the mouth of liars can be more deadly than guns left in the hands of monkeys.
A clear case of someone shooting themselves in the foot with their own bullets of words. -
NO miller this is not vackpeddling or fast forwarding on the issue. i am only questioning your “trendof thought” Which is persumptive in assuming that this govt cannot reorganise or re-adjust its policies according to economic situations which means everything the govt says about the economy is iron clad and cannot be changed.it is/a silly strategy which you haved adopted and only plays well to those who does not understand how all economies work
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@ ac | March 23, 2013 at 12:06 PM |
Your condescension is pathetic. No new factors have raised their unknown heads or no additional facts, figures or information have be brought to the fore that were not known and in plain sight or operating in the political arena that did not exist prior and during the last elections.
Just admit that the DLP and its leader just pull wool over the eyes of dupes like you and those that fell for the propaganda of the country’s fiscal health and the DLP’s commitment to maintaining jobs in the public sector and keeping all social services in tact.
One step forward two step backward can be used to describe you current position. Please continue on the path of truth. But remember the cleansing can only come about when confession forms the balm of light in the water of honesty and integrity.
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More licks.
Nationnews reports “A British MP has called on the Foreign Office to warn travellers that Barbados is “not a safe place” until the local police properly investigate the rape of two British women.”
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I am predicting that Barbados have another Election in less than a year unless the DLP is careful not to let a vote like this happen again.
“Friday, March 22, 2013 “In the end, the new DLP Government was able to break a 14-14 tie just before 9 p.m. when Chairman of Committees James Paul voted ‘aye’ for a 15-14 majority.”The BLP opposition will spend all their time plotting to bring down the government at the first opportunity.
Every sjin teet ent a laugh. -
@Hants
The Commissioner hinted in an a press conference while addressing this matter that he may be forced to make public the file on the Crawford (rape) matter.
Now is a good time you think?
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David the Commissioner should resign.
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Question didnt police extradite Crawford from another jurisdiction(island) after he they couldnt find him in Bdos. Not accusing him of anything but curious as to why he was in hiding then fled the island. Mad dogs and Englishmen(women). Methinks there is truth in that old saying.
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The election with the wobble to topple.
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How will the Government spin the news that 30% of Barbados National Terminal Company Limited is to be sold to private interests?
Does anyone else remember the Minister of Finance at the end of the last Budget debate in June 2012 promising to make an announcement “soon” on a resolution to the CLICO issue?
Now the same Minister announces 8 months later (and no resolution to the CLICO matter) that the Four Seasons project is to be taken over by a private sector interest “soon”.
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It seems that the fastest way to get a regular column in the Nation Newspaper is to criticise the DLP government relentlessly in a most one sided way.
If Caswell Franklyn ever launches an attack on Mia Mottley, he will be either chastised by the Nation editors or removed. I dare him.
Caswell – are you a man or a mouse? -
The Nation BLP newspaper has once again done an injustice to proper journalism in its coverage of the estimates-
Predictably, a;; of the BLP columnists in the Nation are cursing the government – Sanka Price, Clyde Mascoll, Pat Hoyos and Harry Russell.
Then we are treated to an entire page from Ryan Straughn’s comments at a BLP sponsored event / branch meeting.
Fair and Balanced – just like Fox News. The higher the Nation newspaper climb, the more you see its blatant political bias.
Now Caswell Franklyn has been rewarded for his attacks on the DLP with a column and he like a good political yard boy is singing for his supper. -
Thanks for sharing such a fastidious thinking, piece
of writing is fastidious, thats why i have read it entirely
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