Submitted Mark Mackie
Where are our Population and Housing Census Data?
First off the 2010 Population and Housing Census exercise was never drafted in the correct way in regards to planning. The entire exercise was ill conceived and as a result cannot bear any fruit or in this case proper Data. Where committees should have been set up to handle different aspects of the exercise only one person ruled supreme. Believe it or not, some of the same mistakes that were made in the 2000 Housing and Population Census came back to haunt the department for the 2010 exercise.
In addition to this some of the qualified personnel who might have moved on to greener pastures were never invited to be part of this. There was never a training manual and and as such the enumerators did not have anything to go by. For that matter not even the trainers had anything to go by. As such it can be seen as every module was done in an Ad Hoc way. The entire system seem to be ‘play by ear or we will cross that bridge when we get to it’.
The entire exercise was placed in the incompetent hands of Mr David who for the most part could not care less if the exercise was successful or not. He refused to take advice and as such decided he was going to be the chief cook and bottle washer in essence he was and still is a micro manager. He was in charge of choosing who should be part of the exercise and who should not be. He took up the role of ordering supplies down to toilet paper. He was the accountant and as such was responsible for accounts payable and receivables. He decided who would earn what at the end and who should not earn.
The definition of what a micro manger is clearly fits him. My question to him is how are you processing information from enumerators who you were aware was “cooking” the information and still included and paid those persons. Are the Government and People of Barbados aware of how many households that were not interviewed but data are in the system for them? What about the supervisors that up to months after the census was over could still be found with documents at their homes to be handed in but yet the enumerators paid.
Of all the Censuses the department have undertaken over the years this one is and will be for years to come very questionable in regards to reliability and soundness of the data. Never has there been so much data editing and still nothing to show. Is the Prime Minister aware of the fact that the planning stages of these censuses usually begin 5 years prior to the start which is 2 years away and we haven’t even gotten results in any form or fashion for the last one.
The past and current Directors are not without fault either because staff members were protesting the way everything were being done. The feed back was always the same which was ‘he knows what he is doing’ meaning Mr David who at one time had about three titles. These being Senior Statistician, Census Coordinator and Deputy Director. Is it not a small wonder why he can’t get anything done. As for the current Director, his approach to seeing this come to an end is that of a hands off one. He is such a great boss that he even allowed Mr. David to go overseas on several occasions with Canada being the most recent while the Government and People of Barbados are made to wait even longer. It seems as though the horse is out of the stable so it makes no sense trying to contain it now.
After several promises, Monday June 17, was suppose to be the release date but we all knew that would have been a joke and as such treated that date like all others. Incidentally, the Census Coordinator has finally started to try to shift blame for the short coming of the exercise by accusing other persons but himself. What I suggest is that the Government and people of Barbados await the 2020 Population and Housing Census with the hope that the integrity of the data will be there once again. What ever results that come out of this exercise can be thrown out with the bath water.
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