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Suspension of SSA Privatization Scheme is to be Welcomed

Submitted by DAVID COMISSIONG, Citizen of Barbados Firstly, I would like to inform the Barbadian public that I followed up my initial letter (dated 22nd October 2016) to the SSA Board challenging them to justify paying private business-men a massive rental fee of $411 per hour per truck, with a SECOND letter (dated 26th October…

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Submitted by DAVID COMISSIONG, Citizen of Barbados
Denis Lowe, Minister of the Drainage
Submitted by Ambassador DAVID A. COMISSIONG, President, Clement Payne Movement

Firstly, I would like to inform the Barbadian public that I followed up my initial letter (dated 22nd October 2016) to the SSA Board challenging them to justify paying private business-men a massive rental fee of $411 per hour per truck, with a SECOND letter (dated 26th October 2016) calling upon the Board to provide me with a detailed Written Statement of their reasons for making the decision to privatize the services in the first place.

I am therefore pleased to learn that Dr. Lowe and the SSA Board have decided to suspend what was touted to be a six month  privatization programme at the end of this week.

It is important however that we– the Citizens of Barbados– use the opportunity to drive home some important messages to Dr Lowe, and by extension, to all the Government Ministers and Statutory Board chairmen of Barbados.

We must make them understand that the governance of our country MUST be conducted on the principles of transparency and consultation with the people. Thus, it was totally wrong for Dr Lowe and / or the SSA Board to seek to institute this controversial privatization scheme without first consulting the people of Barbados and the trade union representatives of the SSA workers!

Secondly, we must make all Government Ministers and Statutory Board chairmen understand that we — the citizens of Barbados — are no longer going to countenance any more of these outrageously privileged governmental contracts that inflict inexcusably heavy financial burdens on the taxpayers of our country!

This privatization programme was going to cost the taxpayers of Barbados FOR  EACH  TRUCK, the sum of $16,440 per week or $427,440 over the initially stipulated six month period, or $854,880 over a one year period !

This was financial madness, and we trust that we will hear no more of it after this week.

81 responses to “Suspension of SSA Privatization Scheme is to be Welcomed”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Waitin in vein aka waiting

  2. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @David et al,
    I heard Cherry with my own two ears; on Brass Tacks, indicate that the contract was for a period of six months (from the beginning) and that it was not an attempt to PRIVATIZE the entire SSA.
    Despite what Commissiong is trying to claim, the matter was NEGOTIATED, and an agreement reached between the waste haulers and the SSA. Commissiong did not; through his letters, win any victory, for it was agreed from the beginning that it was a temporary situation. Could Commissiong give a comparison between the costs if SSA managed the same number of trucks for the same time period, taking into the costs that would be incurred by the private haulers? Do they put in their own diesel for the period, pay their own drivers and helpers, pay their own accounting expenses, service their own trucks, and pay their own maintenance, and make a profit? They are allowed ro make a profit aren’t they.

    Is he going to demand the same transparency in every contract that private entities negotiate; even among themselves? Those contracts will also have an effect on each one of us as individuals and other entities. This thing can go to the ridiculous.
    Lest it be forgot,
    David C. left the DLP, Joined the NDP. Then the BLP. Was made by OSA director of the Pan African Congress, and was replaced. I won’t hazard a guess. But he knows that aNY STANCE HE TAKES THAT IS ANTI DLP WILL BE WELCOMED WITH LOUD SHOUTS OF APPROVAL BY THE OBVIOUS ACOLYTES. BUT HIS UTTERANCES MUST BE FACTUAL TO HAVE the required credibility. If you doubt what I wrote here check with Cherry, or VOB.

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Alvin Cummins

    You are a DLP yardfowl

    When Bizzy and the White people always support party in power, you have no argument against that. That is accepted by all and sundry.

    We see that Commissiong and everybody else as having that same right. These parties are undeserving of this misguided loyalty.

    When your DLP gutter party tries to win over people of all stripes to elect your idiots to parliament, there’s nothing wrong with that.

    But you are one of those ‘yardies’ who believes that people who you think are at your station or lower should view your party like a religion.

    And any deviation from the gospel according to the DLP is sacrilege.

    You must know that there are people out there who give not an *uck ’bout this stinking DLP.

    There’s nothing in this party system for people except to become yardfowls like you.

    So anybody should be able to join or support any number of them at the same time or separately.

  4. ac Avatar
    ac

    Let it be known that no matter how hard Comissiong fights to become a back door dictorate the public would forever reject him at the polls. His rising sun would only be seen here on BU relevant as the mottley crew grasps at every straw to win the 2018 election.

  5. ac Avatar
    ac

    Let it be known no matter how hard Commissiong maneveurs himself by way of backdoor to become barbados first dictator his efforts would be resoundly rejected by both Bees and Ds at the electorate ballot.
    One can bet that those who are heaping high praises on Commissiong would never reward his efforts in the voting booth

  6. David Avatar
    David

    “Alvin

    Can’t change who he is, a fowl of the yard variety.

    Alvin claims a 6 month contract was negotiated yet the minister confirmed the transaction will run for another 2 weeks.

  7. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    AC is a yardfowl …. in fact three..
    Alvin is an idiot.

  8. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @AC

    Is that the only way you can define issues, people, yourself?

    By a ballot box, a single expression of ‘democracy’ every five years.

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    Comissiong comes on BU and spins a story to suggest that his letters were reason why govt paused the outsourcing of garbage what he fails to state is that govt did not reply to his letters. What he also fails to state that the outsourcing of garbage was a sucess
    Commissiong needs to come to the realization that the health of a nation is tantamount to good goverance and what is transparent is the results gathered by the necessary actions taken by govt be those financial or enviromental and that the end results should not be comprised by a few savings but by a valuable commitment to saving lives
    His boisterous approach to run his mouth in those matters where he was not involved at a higher level bodes well to serve as a distraction to demean govt efforts at their highest level when govt is justifiably working on behalf of the people formulating those efforts intended to keep barbados clean

  10. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ waiting in vein November 1, 2016 at 6:08 PM
    “Permission for Hyatt should have been granted long ago by the PM. Jobs and foreign exchange are lost every minute we delay major projects. Cowering at Commsiong’s empty threats is counter productive.”

    But “waiting”, we don’t recall the same Comissiong objecting to the ‘modernized’ sugarcane factory at Andrews. Neither can we recall any objection to the Pure Beach spa or Sugar Point Cruise Ship terminal or even the Pierhead marina project?

    Is the Commie boy holding up the sale of the BNTCL or the Four Seasons graveyard of rusting steel?

    Is Comissiong objecting to the sale or rental of the Grotto penthouses?
    Why not flog them off to the unsuspecting hundreds of Bajans in the Diaspora looking for an investment or as their future retirement home?
    They shall soon be gathering in their throngs and can be taken on tour of the many matchbox housing projects where many houses up for sale.

  11. ac Avatar
    ac

    Miller the Commie Commisiong knows what targets best would sway the blp operatives appetite for rhetoric and govt badgerring. Really would be dumb of him to be hitting at every ball when he can skillfully score a century by striking at a few

  12. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    One cannot believe a word that comes out of the mouth of this incompetent government.

    I agree with DLP TV post earlier, we know that mathematics is not a strong point of the minister of financeso I think he must have calculated incorrectly, hence instead of six months, the money ran out after 6 weeks. What a thing!

  13. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Privatization is the new trend and it is not to be feared, if it benefit the taxpayers. If the government finds that it can do a job cheaper in the private sector rather than the governmental sector, why not do it?

  14. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    @David,
    I did not CLAIM anything. Cherry himself got on Brass tacks two weeks ago and said it for everyone to hear. Those with have ears to hear let him hear. If the Minister came afterword and said something different, then the persons who SIGNED the contract have a case; let THEM put their case. Dip yard fowl and BLP yard ducks are both birds. the ;plumage may be different and they may was slightly differently, but they are both birds. Why is it that when people have a different position and see things from a different perspective you resort to epithets and vitriol?

  15. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    AC

    Don’t bother with the bulling Millertheanuuaki because the man is a sexual deviant who has a twisted predilection for pedophilia involving young boys.

  16. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Heather

    “Well done Mr. Commissiong for you’re the true son of the soil”

    It has been said: “That we must be willing to suffer the discomfort of change to achieve a better future” So the question then becomes: is the effrontery towards privatization has it birth in the fact that it disrupts the conventionality, or is there any evidence at all to support the narrative that the privatization of government owned and operated businesses does a disservice to the taxpayers of Barbados? As I’ve said earlier here the state and federal government are outsourcing and privatizing it departments and businesses now, and as a matter of fact, for quite a few years the U.S. Postal Service has been outsourcing a lot of its work to private entities who bid on annual contracts to deliver the mail. And this strategy has worked in the federal government favour because a lot of Africans who bid on these contracts to deliver the mail usually bid low, which puts the white guys who generally bid high out of work, and this puts more money back in the government’s pocket. Because it saves the federal government from having to paid a mail delivery man/woman, a high hourly wage, health benefits and a retirement pension.

  17. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right - INRI Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right – INRI

    Steupseeee……

  18. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    So Trump’s political slogan making America Great Again isn’t without some merit, though I do not support his sexist, racist, xenophobic and islamophobic views. And whether Trump has been part and parcel of the mindset of selling America down the river to foreign interest, in theory his message is resonating with the average American, who sits around and watch the Washington establishment and Corporate America destroy economic infrastructure of America, while enlarging their pockets. Whether it is (NAFTA) the North American FreeTrade Agreement, or Outsourcing of telemarketing jobs to India and China, or Corporate America bring the Indians with the high-tech skills to America on six months to a yearly contract, and paid them minimum wages, and no healthcare benefits, and housing them in some of the worse crime infested neighborhoods in inner-cities of America. All because Corporate America does not want to pay the average American worker a livable wage, so the greedy capitalists opt for the cheap Indian and Chinese labour at the expense of the average working American. so it is not rocket science to see where the anger and discontent of the average American comes from, and why their would support a man with the attention span liken to dat of de old Piece.

  19. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Piece

    And I know you would agree with me regarding the fact you have separate the man Donald Trump from his bigotry, his misogyny, his xenophobia, his islamophobia, as well as his intellectual dyspepsia, to asceascertain true validity of his argument.

  20. Anonymouse - TheGazer Avatar
    Anonymouse – TheGazer

    Just my luck.
    Walther PKK retreated back to his cave and left the three stooges outside (AC, ac and Dompe…y)

  21. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Anonymous

    Yah got a lot of big jokes in yah mout, perhaps there is a job waiting somewhere for you hollyhood?

  22. ac Avatar
    ac

    Wait Artax really got mad in trute i though he had balls the size of Mount Everest that nobody dared to step on Wuh i didn.t know he was such a softie ,them type men are called mama boy

  23. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    A nonymouse

    Question: what are you noted for in the world of academics? If not anything which I do suspect, then why should I not regard you as a man with a mere formal education, who spews, peddles and pumps nothing more than exoteric rather than esoteric knowledge here on BU?

  24. Anonymouse - TheGazer Avatar
    Anonymouse – TheGazer

    have a few articles (journals) to my name… You?

  25. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Artax

    Who sang the song:”Woman don’t like, woman don’t like,woman don’t like,soft man?” Was it the calypsonian Penguin who sang the song Artax?

  26. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Anonymous

    Sir Arthur Lewis, Dr. Eric Williams, George Lamming, and a host of other internationally aacclaimed West Indian academics, can be found in many of the major libraries in America, and you’re noted for a few articles and journals. Ok!

  27. Anonymouse - TheGazer Avatar
    Anonymouse – TheGazer

    in scientific journals..,
    I asked about you….
    I hope you are not claiming to be one of the three (or all three).
    Some, if not all of you, are dead
    Will behave for the rest of night, but I gotta poke ya every now and then or you would feel no one notices you.

  28. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Anonymous

    No I am not claiming to be any of those three, but it is important that you understand that a formal education does not separated you from the herd, until that education is used in such as way to improve our way of life whether it be scientific or technological. How does writing in a scientific journal improve our standard of living or impacting our chances of finding a cure for cancer etc? In other words, how does your education separate you from countless millions who are educated, so that your name is echoed in the halls of academia, both domestic and foreign?

  29. Dompey Avatar
    Dompey

    Anonymous

    Attending Yale and Harvard does not make you a smart man or woman because had it, President George W. Bush would have been a genius because he attended the both of them and still he has great difficulty speaking. An Anonymous, here is the irony of out educational system in Barbados: Christopher Sinckler the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, took Common Entry and passed for the Garrison, and many of his classmates took the same Common Entry and passed for schools of national reputation such Harrison College, Combermere, and Lodge etc. And after the Ministry completed his Secondary and Tertiary education, he founded himself lecturing the same classmates at UWI, who passed for Harrison College, Combermere and Lodge, schools of national reputation. He did that happened my friend?

  30. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    “Colonel Buggy October 31, 2016 at 9:56 PM #

    The late Great Errol Barrow saw something in David Comissiong, that if he were alive today, would be had pressed to find in any of the jokers who now represent the political party which he founded.”

    Wasn’t it Mr Barrow who dismissed Mr Commissiong from the Senate? Just asking.

  31. charles skeete Avatar
    charles skeete

    “Suspension of SSA Privatization Scheme is to be Welcomed”

    are we not gloating too quickly? Has the Government issued a clear statement as to whether the sanitation privatisation shenanigan has been only suspended or abandoned completely?

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