Submitted by Beresford

As Barbadians struggle to survive the permanent hot mess by the DLP, the Moody’s review, the Auditor General’s Report, yet another tax, the iniquitous so-called Municipal Tax, unanswered questions about the Cahill deal, along with diverse other unanswered charges from the business community and citizens opened new sores on the disease riddled Government.

First in the week that was, the characterisation by the DLP of Mia Mottley as power hungry and the BLP as preachers of doom was stripped bare and revealed as the nonsense it is by the latest Moody’s report, confirming the truthfulness of everything that the BLP and the several objective commentators are pointing out. Moody’s managed to do what no one has so far managed – galvanize a country numbed by six years of economic, social and personal bleeding with new fears.

If Barbadians were not scared to death by the taxes, brutal sending home of people, Gestapo-like treatment of civil servants in the rush to establish the Revenue Collection Agency, they certainly took note of the full frontal condemnation of every aspect of the DLP’s resuscitation programme as taking effect as much as a tortoise in a 100 metre race with Usain Bolt.

Moody’s was frightfully clear – the DLP Government is not working. None of its proposals are having any effect. Despite massive taxes, with more apparently coming, job cuts, chops to every institution and programme, a dead capital works sector, Barbados is worse than a tortoise, not even in the race.

Among Moody’s confirmation of the evidence: the DLP has no money to execute any of the projects it keeps flying including Four Seasons and other hotel projects. It pooh-poohed the spending of $250 million on a sugar factory in the absence of unclear funding and on something that accounts for one per cent of GDP. The emphasis on renewable energy is doubtful to impactful.

If the present is a calamity, according to Moody’s the future looks catastrophic – Barbadians will face an epidemic of economic and social outbreaks. The “very low” financial bar is projected to get even worst; debt to GDP is expected to reach 105% and…..things are unlikely to improve for years.

Of equal importance will be the further blows to confidence among the investment community who are guided by international institutions like Moody’s.

Let the DLP now disagree with the BLP stance that Government is not even now giving the true picture and impute politicking to the Moody’s report, a fact-based assessment produced on information supplied by the Government itself.

In another week of effluent and flatulence from the DLP Government, not a word on the Moody’s report. None either on the Auditor General’s, another addition to the DLP horror story. This also confirms the BLP’s repeated exposes that the Government is not transparent and is transgressing a range of legal requirements.

How does the Government spend $60 000 on accommodation and $30 000 on food under a construction contract? Why would Government pay a contractor at MTW $10 000 a month despite failing to satisfy the contract? And pay $1.3 million to a US company to manage a building without a contract? Can no Barbadian do this job?  There are the sums paid out under Solid Waste without permission – the election spending. And of course, among the unreported sums, the $130 million owed to UWI is not reported in Government finances.

The chicanery and confusion of Government continued with the introduction of the so-called Municipal Solid Waste Tax. The iniquity in this is based on the charge based on site value. How can anyone determine how much garbage is generated based on such? So the little old couple on a pension who still live in their home on an improved site value of $1 million, that they accumulated through sheer hard work and have been paying taxes on for 60  plus years and generate maybe, a supermarket worth of garbage, must now pay $3 000? But a family of six on a site value of $150 000 but filling two garbage bins weekly pay $700? Absolute rubbish! This naked grab for taxes any and everywhere is indefensible.

The DLP must also answer the many troubling questions posed by Mia Mottley about the Cahill deal. What is the agreement signed? Was it signed without Cabinet approval? Was part of the agreement that 27 acres of land be provided within six weeks? Is the Government committed to purchasing energy from Cahill to sell to Barbados Light & Power? Why is Government entering a deal with Cahill for $300 million for a 35 megawatt plant when Light & Power is building a 40 megawatt for $80 million? Where is the Environmental Impact Report on the introduction of this new system that is used in the few instances in operation for hazardous waste? Is Barbados going to import garbage to satisfy the monster requirements of the Cahill plant?

Like so much else, the deal does not make any sense.

As Government continues to move the goal posts, show some new drawing of a project that cannot come to fruition in an effort to deflect reality, its failure to pay attention to the basics also continue.

Not satisfied with the failure to deal with the international business sector in relation to new Canadian laws causing the loss of more than a billion dollars, the rum sector is under threat because of the DLP’s failure to update a 1910 law.

Dialysis patients have their lives put in jeopardy by the absence of three critical drugs at the QEH. Temporary prison officers have not been paid since November last year. Civil Servants are still having issues involving the setting up of the Barbados Revenue Authority, (BRA), being moved without their permission. Bridgetown continues to crumble. Residents in Sayes Court remain at risk to a dusty road. A town hall meeting is called to discuss the Bushy Park race track development a year after the fact.

Moody’s has spoken, The Auditor General has spoken. The Chamber of Commerce in a special report has once more condemned the Government’s lack of forthrightness on the economy. The Private Sector organisations have spoken once more.

There is no doubt – the DLP has Barbados in shambles. Knowing that Barbados cannot tax itself out of its mess, the DLP still seems bent on adding even more. Darcy Boyce is now calling for another tax, for housing, o top of the one called for by the mercurial Jones.

Boxed in on all sides, where does the DLP go from here? More critical, where does Barbados go from here? What do Barbadians do from here?

HAPPENING THIS SUNDAY

The St Thomas Branch of the Barbados Labour Party will be holding a branch meeting this Sunday April 13, 2014 at Sharon Primary School, Sharon, St. Thomas. The meeting starts at 5.00 p.m.

The League of Young Socialists of the Barbados Labour Party will meet this Sunday April 13, 2014 at BLP Headquarters at 4.30 p.m. The Guest Speaker will be Dr. Clyde Mascoll, Economic Advisor to the Parliamentary Party.