Submitted by Grenville Phillips II, leader of Solutions Barbados
We arrived at a Government department before 11:00 am and the door was locked. About 9 persons were inside and it was rumoured that the staff were going to lunch after those inside had been processed. The last person to be processed came out at 11:09 am. Then some of the staff came out with cell phones to their ears, and walked through the line of customers waiting outside of the locked door. They did not share any information with us, their customers.
At 11:22 am, someone stuck a sign on the door that stated “We are temporarily closed at this time. Re-opening time: 12:30 pm. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.” A guard noted that they were short staffed, and it was possible that at 12:30 pm, it would be announced that they were closed for the rest of the day.
We who reside in Barbados are not surprised at this true account. We are accustomed to the: long lines, delays, late responses, misplaced files, downed computer systems, critical person is at lunch or is not at work, non-payment by credit card, deadline of 3:00 pm for receiving payments, unwritten regulations known only to the regulator, inconsistent regulations, not-at-this-branch responses, staff shortages, broken equipment, supply shortages, potholes, water shortages, the same excuses, uncaring attitudes, and so on.
Our public services do not appear to be customer-focused. But they think that they are. They think that being polite is being customer focused. It is not. It is simply being polite. Being customer focused is trying to delight the customer. Most customers of government services simply want to access affordable quality services conveniently and quickly. Politely apologising why this cannot be done does not deliver the service to the customer.
Who is responsible for our poorly managed public services? Not the poorly managed employees who are simply performing as directed. Not their managers who are simply implementing a management system that is not working. The ones responsible for setting the management standard are our elected politicians.
Both political administrations accuse the other of poor management when they are not in power. Therefore, both political administrations understand what all customers of Government services understand in this regard. Namely, that our public services are poorly managed. However, is it fair to blame our politicians? I think not.
Both political administrations have tried their best to manage Government services over the past 50 years. Over the past 17 years, I have encouraged both administrations to improve the management of public services. I have referred both political administrations to the customer-focused international quality management standard ISO 9001.
Barbados has been a corresponding member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) since our independence, and a full member since 1999. Yet both political administrations just cannot seem to bring themselves to implement this international customer-focused management system for our benefit.
This is the first election since our independence where Barbadians can finally decide on the quality of Government services they wish. We pay for our Government services. We elect politicians to set management standards and ensure that they work properly for us. It seems that our politicians have defined themselves as the main customers to which public workers should focus on satisfying. We have allowed them over 50 years to get it right, and they simply were not up to the task.
If you are satisfied with the present management of our Government services, then you should vote for either the BLP or DLP, because the result will be the same – for you. However, if you want a customer-focused public service where you are the customer, then your only choice is to vote for the Solutions Barbados candidate in your constituency. If you want better managed public services, and you still vote for the BLP or the DLP, then you finally have someone to blame – yourself.
The electorate has serious concerns about your candidate Scott Weatherhead Grenville…address that..
Where are the new political parties anyway, saw a facebook post from Solutions Barbados last night about some meeting they are having, but one FB commenter made a comment and I quote from memory. .
“I would not trust Scott Weatherhead to walk my dog, as long as he is involved, it is something crooked.”
Who is responsible for our poorly managed public services? Not the poorly managed employees who are simply performing as directed. Not their managers who are simply implementing a management system that is not working. The ones responsible for setting the management standard are our elected politicians.
I disagree. Every employee has the responsibilty to be the best they can be. While the beauracracy may undermine or make it incredibly difficult to do the job, the employees have a responsibility to the customers. If they are not providing the best customer service to those who seek they assistance they along with their masters/mistresses should be in the unemployment line. Lets see how they’d like that. We are all tired of the poor unprofessional, rude customer service from these agencies. They should give help that feels like help. Not just to get a paycheck.
How can you totally blame the employees if the system is archaic?
Employees only act how they are trained to act, most employees get no or not enough training in Barbados because employers do not want to pay decent salaries, wamt to have sex with their employees as a form of control and do not want their employees unionized….so you get what you pay for, untrained, rude, unhappy, disaffected, disenfranchised employees.
In modern societies you are always trained prior to being hired for a job and that training continues throughout your years of employment most times through university upgraded education paid for by your employers, every employee has a right to be unionized and unions address wage increases for their members and there are other agencies to address rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace, with severe consequences to the employers or other perpetrators…..
……the island does not have a modern society.
Just publish the name of the Gov’t Dept. and let the public chime in about their experiences with this and other Gov’t Depts.
David, you can certainly blame both…as Mr Phillips suggested in his coda “If you want better managed public services, and you still vote for the BLP or the DLP, then you finally have someone to blame – yourself.”
Similarly, this supposedly old system is perpetuated by the employees and their unions. Everyone wants their pound of flesh so they adopt the ailing, archaic system where it’s suits them and rails against it where it doesn’t.
@WW&C, what a skewed, unnatural tirade.
According to you then also all the employees, consultants et al at the Miramax studios were all natives of a non-modern society.
Because according to the evidence (hopefully not a la Von Daniken 😊) they were not continuously trained on matters of “rape, assault and sexual harassment in the workplace” and surely according again to reported evidence (nothing extra terrestrial about this one) there were NOT “severe consequences to the employers or other perpetrators’ for the reprehensible actions by Mr Weinstein.
In sum, give Bdos a break with these full mouth, nativism screeds. We have our problems undoubtedly but good heaveans, let’s get real.
To extrapolate what one police union lawyer said recently in US about his police officers when giving evidence in court: we don’t lie anymore or less than other people do.
And unlike those cops all Bajans are not sworn to uphold the law or be truthful!
What’s up with your Bajan Bashment Bandwagon. There must be some town in Ontario or New York that you fancy for these broadsides!
@Dee Word
As we have often done- exhaustively in this forum, without leadership and good management maximum efficiency will be an elusive objective. Workers will become disengaged in any work system because of a lack of leadership and good management. Have you ever visited a government department and observe the manuscript books/ledgers where transactions have to be recorded by hand as one example?
A different type of mal-sympton is the fact the 15th NIS Actuarial Review has to be laid before parliament before being released to the public but it has to fulfill some archaic process first. This is notwithstanding the NIS debate is raging in the country given the importance of the fund and the need for the gatekeepers of pertinent info to inform the debate.
Barbados’ problems go beyond the economy – EU official
Pedant….you are being disingenuous or just plain ignorant of factd. ..you are trying to compare hollyweird…which always has been a world all its own, drugging children so they can perform, raping and destroying lives….with workplace incidences, corporate etc of work for sex, sexual harassment, lack of adequate training and lack of union representation,etc….which has agencies to complain to and court actions to follow up in US …..that is clearly apples and oranges
Name me one agency in hollyweird that handles sexual complaints, assaults and rapes on aspiring or already established actors abd actresses. .
Terry Crews……a 240 lb, very talented, very well known actor was grabbed by his penis in front his wife by a white male director and had to walk away or smash his face and get arrested or have his career ended…..google it yaself.
Angelina Jolie….whose father and mother are actors, mother deceased., powerful ones., was also a victim of unwanted sexual advances…..and there are thousands of others.
Some advice Pendant….always research a topic before jumping out to score cheap points…and faire un cul de toi.
I dont know why the house negros of parliament keep trying to fool bajans and the world that the economy and some kinda fantasy recession is the problem on the island, people everywhere know that the problems on the island go way beyond yhe economy and are the results of …
The house negros and their bribery corruption rackets…
The house negros and their rackets with minority criminals in and out of the business communities. …
The house negros and their rackets with international criminals…
The house negros and their tiefing.
Get rid of the house negros.
Pedant…it would have been better if hollyweird had been regulated for the last 7 or 8 decades, because now they have finally exposed a world class rapist like Weinstein, they have to regulate it now…for sure.
Too many top actors and actresses have put their foot down and refuse to remain silent in acceptance anymore.
Just dont forget. …the issue is Barbados, if things are so good for workers there, why are you still in Canada, retired or not.
When intelligent governments start leading by example and get rid of their antiquated laws from centuries before that they themselves did not create, but were designed to victimize them and that stagnates growth in the modern day economies…….
When intelligent governments put their people first and not just themselves……..and regulate agencies, companies and employers who seek to violate human rights for their own self enrichment….there will be positive change.
This is what the Barbados government will face in the future,
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/101382/pm-mitchell-hopeful-strike-action
“ST GEORGE’S – Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell Tuesday said he hoped “common sense will prevail” and that public workers, who started industrial action to force his administration to heed the demands of two trade unions to conclude negotiations for the 2013-16 period.
“I am very hopeful that common sense will prevail and we will see an end to this impasse,” Prime Minister Mitchell said as he responded to the strike action by public workers.
Last weekend, the Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) and the Public Workers Union (PWU) both announced plans for the industrial action over the failure to pay compensation to workers during the period when the island was implementing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) sanctioned package.
The workers walked off their jobs on Monday. “
@GP
your experiences are real, others experience them, and it has been getting worse with time. While I agree the impetus for change must come from the top, and be filtered down, I remain unconvinced any ISO standard is the cure.
This culture did not begin yesterday, or 5 years ago, it has been around for a long time.
ISO does not address a mental attitude of short staffing, inadequate tools, or sheer laziness (only because it is ok to be non-productive).
Correct David it does take leadership. However, in today’s environment it’s fair to say that must be a collective process as the Caswell Franklyns and other union leaders are also duty bound to improve conditions for their members so that the public can benefit.
They must see that as an integral part of their mission also…. so if the govt leaders need to be dragged into a more customer friendly environment by them then let it be so.
@WWC … May you live long and prosper as the character Dr Spock was wont to say, and may you continue to amuse and incite here on BU with your shrill tirades and now infamous biased logic.
It is hilarious to read your …. post. Who is being disingenuous and ignorant really, if not yourself.
Accrpt your own advice and in addition to “research ” please also resd, understsnd and debate a topic with wisdom and lots of commonsense.
All of us here have access to the SAME current news you do, Ok!
Thus it is disingenuous for you to pontificte as you did re Hollywood.
First of all, Miramax/Hollywood was one of two examples I used to highlight malfeasance in your modern world.
That you can segregate the wrongs of Hollywood from the larger corporate malfeasance of sexual harassment seen in the Grethchen Carslon/Roger Ailes case or cases highlighted in Silicon Valley or in government depts, or in top level athletics or the myriad of other cases in the news over the years is sheer nonsense…. or in your words ‘ignorance’.
Of course they all have special culture and nuances but laws are laws, period..
The police example also spoke loudly to the broader issue of gross malfeasance in your modern world….as it showed clearly that none of the issues you raised can ever be restricted to Bajans or Barbados.
As I said early, please get real. And if not at least try to be balanced.
Well Well: You should be careful about listening to half-truths in this political season. See mine linked below.
https://solutionsbarbados.com/2017/09/10/call-the-police-for-me/
Jean: If an employee knows that his supervisor is incompetent in that role, but they were sent by a minister; and they know that promotions are reserved for those with close relations with the political party in power; and they have experienced the indignity of having highly incompetent persons advancing rapidly through the organisation for that very reason, then that will likely lead to frustration and apathy. Who do you blame for the resulting poor service?
Sargeant: Licensing authority.
Northern: The ISO standards are international. ISO 9001 is proven to work in government departments with diverse cultural histories. Since other nations have benefitted, why not allow Barbados to benefit as well?
Best regards,
Grenville
@ Sargeant October 18, 2017 at 8:58 AM
“Just publish the name of the Gov’t Dept. and let the public chime in about their experiences with this and other Gov’t Depts.”
Good call there NCO!! Let him put his “RH” pen where his running mouth is.
SB has identified the problem. Now identify the department(s) who will be responsible for implementing his ISO 9001 solution.
It’s called simply “Management 101” starting at the very top of the Executive Tree and filtering by dint of example to the bottom to infuse the coalface of customer service.
Since the people who are charged to make a difference in Barbados only respond to a public display of naming and shaming let Grenville aka “SB” identify the offending department(s) the same way he would wish to reveal the identities of those who would wish to watch porn over the Internet.
There is a way of doing business at the Licensing Authority that harks back to the days of the Flintstones era. Across the public service there are many examples of inefficiencies but the Licensing Authority is a special basket case. Daily Erskine Cumberbatch is on the talk shows lamenting the fact that there are only 2 or 3 driving instructors and the result is that there is a long wait time to acquire a testing date, about one year.
@ nextparty246 October 18, 2017 at 5:30 PM
” Sargeant: Licensing authority”
Bravo!
“Well Well: You should be careful about listening to half-truths in this political season.”
Grenville…just like that dictatorial plan you had about porn blew up in ya face and that is now what everyone remembers you for. ….that Scott Weatherhead lie will return to bite you.
Barbados is very, very small and people in certain circles know more than you think.
Dont say you were not warned.
“That you can segregate the wrongs of Hollywood from the larger corporate malfeasance of sexual harassment seen in the Grethchen Carslon/Roger Ailes case or cases highlighted in Silicon Valley or in government depts, or in top level athletics or the myriad of other cases in the news over the years is sheer nonsense.”
Pedant…you still dont get it….you are talking outside the perview of what I was giving as examples.. …your average, every day worker in Barbados who has NO recourse re agencies to protect them, your greedy employer who will not pay for employee training and has ulterior motives, lack of proper union representation….and issues too numerous to mention…
Here is your comparison…….Weinstein…..powerful .serial offender, used to make or break new actors or actresses, hollyweird, powerful town where careers are easily destroyed….not even the civil liberties union would have gotten involved then, too much money, too much powet……but they will now, too much exposure..
Roger Ailes’ Net Worth as of 2017: $100 Million….
“from which he resigned in July 2016 following allegations that he sexually harassed female colleagues.”
Another powerful serial offender who ran wild for years, making and breaking careers….everything you showed like silicon valley, more power and money, …top level athletes…more power and money…all at one time or another were taken down eventually…, the females or males they raped got justice.
none of that has anything to do with your every day worker who has recourse to complain and bring such behaviours to the attention of authorities in US….
….or the ones in Barbados who have no recourse whatsoever….
So what’s your point exactly.
People, relax. Simply face the fact that Barbados is an island in the Deep South, where people hardly work and civil servants are used to lime.
There is a reason why certain silver MP-cars start at 9 AM in the morning and return at 2.30 PM. There is a reason for the 21 downgrades. There is a reason that Marston Gibson said judges have also “live and family”. There is a reason that Marston Gibson spent more time in his CV writing about his many hobbies than about his professional career.
@nextparty246 October 18, 2017 at 5:30 PM “long lines, delays, late responses, misplaced files, downed computer systems, critical person is at lunch or is not at work, non-payment by credit card, deadline of 3:00 pm for receiving payments, unwritten regulations known only to the regulator, inconsistent regulations, not-at-this-branch responses, staff shortages, broken equipment, supply shortages, potholes, water shortages, the same excuses, uncaring attitudes, and so on….Licensing authority.”
You forgot to mention the foolish no “armholes” and no short pants rules which government offices enforce, especially against women, like they are the muttawa or the Taliban or maybe ISIS.
I renewed my driver’s license at the Pine office of the Licensing Authority on August 3, 2017. While I was there a very well dressed older lady came in to renew her licence also. She was made to leave the building and stand in the corridor outside because as the staff person, a woman told her no “armholes” are permitted in the Licensing Authority building.
I am sure that the no “armholes” rule is unlawful but government offices strictly enforce it.
I went to the NIS office on January 2, 2015 in order to apply for my old age pension. By January 2017 I had been paying to the NIS for 42 years and 8 months and had taken 4 weeks sick leave in total and had never claimed unemployment benefits.
I was wearing knee length shorts, and was told my a 20 something security guard “you can’t come in here so”
Of course I told him that my contributions helped to pay for everything at NIS, the staff salaries, the building, the toilet paper and that i had been paying into the system since long before he was born, and “can I see your supervisor”
I had taken 2 ZR vans to reach the NIS building. There is no way I was going away to come back another day.
But a friend of mine. A middle aged Ex Defence force woman, with an Alzheimer’s dad at home, went to put in her dad’s claim for disability benefits and the staff at NIS refused to serve her because of her dress, and sent her home to change. She had to take 2 buses home, and a total of 4 buses next day in order to put in the claim to which her disabled father is entitled, he having paid into the system for more than 40 years also.
No consideration for the fact that she had served in the military. No consideration that she had a sick parent at home who needed constant attention. No consideration for the fact that her father could not be left unattended and that she had to find and pay a short term care giver on two separate days.
This is how we Bajans interpret good governance. if you are wearing long sleeves and long pants in the 30 degree heat and 90% humidity on un-airconditioned buses you are all right.
But don’t date to wear a sleeveless dress.
Or knee length shorts.
In any government office.
And please be aware that in Barbados you cannot adopt a child if you are wearing “armholes” That’s what the lawyer said to my friend who was adopting a child through the family court.
Please be aware that the family court is a big mahogany table with ten chairs around it, much like anybody’s old fashioned dining room.
In Barbados most magistrates, family lawyers, social workers, probation officers and adoptive parents are women. So in an all female environment where the adoption was taking place the adoptive mother was warned to wear a sleeved dress, no “armholes” or she could not enter the all female family court.
The truth is we Bajans are a bunch of RH’s
@SS
I can usually catch most Bajan terms….but no “armholes”…..wha dat….a sleeveless top/dress, or a tube top?
And it was only in the last year or so that BRA “permits” the citizens to pay taxes in “armholes”.
Because at one time Inland Revenue/BRA also had the no “armholes”, no short pants rule.
Wunna dress wunna selves properly hear or we will punish wunna by not taking na tax money from wunna
Oh RH!!!
@NorthernObserver October 18, 2017 at 11:48 PM “I can usually catch most Bajan terms….but no “armholes”….wha dat….a sleeveless top/dress”
Armholes=a sleeveless dress or blouse, worn principally by women, although casually dressed young men sometimes wear sleeveless tops too.
Lord forbid not a tube top!!!
If a woman attempted to wear a tube top into a Barbados government office the Taliban would probably attempt to jail her for life.
And if you want to get a copy of your birth certificate or marriage certificate, or to register the birth of your child, or to get o copy of your parent’s death certificates in order to administer their estate the no “armholes” rule also applies,
No sleeveless garments, or shorts of any kind, even knee length shorts are permitted on the ground floor of the Supreme Court building where these minor administrative matters take place. And men MUST tuck in their shirts, even if it is a shirt jac, designed to be worn not tucked in. There is an exception made for Muslim men who wear the long white robe. I believe it is called a thobe. Of course this means that Barbados government officials, right in the Supreme Court building are discriminating against the majority non-Muslim men. Somebody really needs to take them to court.
And security guards are posted at the doors to forbid entrance to citizens wearing sleeveless garments, or shorts even when the heat is +33 degrees celsius, and the humidity is above 90%
And the citizen who does not own a car has walked long distances in the heat and humidity.
What are the early signs of a failed state?
And if you want to apply for a Barbados passport be aware that the no “armholes” rule also applies. Lord forbid that some overworked immigration officer in a distant land would be distracted to incompetence by the sight of a Bajan’s naked upper arms.
“ISO 9001 is proven to work in government departments with diverse cultural histories.”
Prior to your promotion of ISO 9001 in public entities, my experience was only within private organizations. As I have researched the public organizations, what I find, (and it is difficult to sift through and separate all those with a vested stake in promoting, implementing and ongoing management) is much work at an internal level, where studies are targeted at ‘internal satisfaction’ or perceived improvements. I could find very little where the users were studied, in an unbiased manner. And when they were, the results seemed rather ‘unscientific’, largely because many TQM benchmarks had no prior measurement before ISO.
Possibly the mere introduction of ISO, will force measurement of, and consideration of key performance factors, and this alone will produce tangible benefits. I don’t know enough of the inner working of the Barbadian Public Service to appreciate exactly how they operate.
I am still nervous about ISO 9001 being the panacea, but will ‘wait and see’.
Simple…these administrative building are focusing on being petty and controlling what people wear as opposed to being competent and efficient to the taxpayers who pay their salaries, the same public…
….. no wonder nothing gets done and the public always has to complain about the workers and their rude, disrespectful, discriminatory, inefficient behaviors.
If they would focus more on running an efficient government and government offices, on an in touch with the people government, on the economy, being respectful and couteous to the public who pay their salaries, being efficient and competent…..instead of who is wearing sleeveless shirts, sleeveless dresses and 3/4 pants….trying to dictate to the people who pay their salaries, they would not now be known as Downgrades Alley.
They are small time, petty and focus on the unimportant.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/101412/bes-president-predicts-downgrade-barbados
“Barbados should brace itself for another downgrade by the international rating agencies before year-end.
That prediction is coming from president of the Barbados Economic Society, Jeremy Stephen, who was a panellist at a discussion for International Business Week at the Grande Salle, Central Bank, on Tuesday night on the topic Thriving In Crisis.
“I said it earlier this year that two would come, and another one would definitely come, just given the environment that we are in,” he forecast.
Stephen has been saying for some time that there was a “reluctance” by the Government to change, when the economic crisis started in 2008, and then it moved too late with its responses.”
Simple Simon October 18, 2017 at 11:19 PM #
“I renewed my driver’s license at the Pine office of the Licensing Authority on August 3, 2017.”
@ Simple Simon
You sure you did renewing you driver’s license or one fuh sumbody else?
You duz say all de time dat you don’t own a vehicle and you aint want none…….. you duz prefer to catch de bus, a ZR…….. or duz walk……..
Look, you en remember telling we this:
“Simple Simon September 20, 2017 at 12:15 AM #: @Prodigal Son September 19, 2017 at 10:10 PM “Yes, one needs a car.” No. One DOES NOT NEED A CAR. I haven’t HAD one in DECADES and I am healthy and happy. One day I asked myself “why do you need a ton of metal, glass and plastic to tote this 120 pound body around?” I couldn’t find a good answer and HAVEN’T BOUGHT A CAR SINCE.”
“Simple Simon October 18, 2017 at 11:29 PM #: I had taken (TWO) 2 ZR vans to reach the NIS building. There is no way I was going away to come back another day.”
So, wuh you gone at de people place fuh, saying you renewing wuh driver’s license?
Wuh, dah means dat you duz be telling we lies………
Hahahahaha………. wuh loss
@ Northern Observer
I don’t have a problem with Grenville Phillips II’s suggestion of implementing an ISO 9001 management system.
However, there are certain “organizational cultures” existing within the public sector that has created barriers, which Phillips II may experience some difficulties trying to penetrate.
Firstly, from my experience, public sector employees follow a “traditional routine,” which prevents them from readily accepting change. If a new, vibrant, ambitious youngster enters the civil service with new ideas, he/she eventually succumbs to accepting the tradition of the particular government organization………. characteristics which are usually inherited from the older employees.
Eventually, they will arrive at work late, take a 2 hour lunch break (especially on pay day) and leave before 4:30pm. Work assignments that could be completed in 8 hours are spread over the duration of a week.
You have to expect resistance to ISO 9001, especially from the “seasoned employees,” who would likely retaliate by not attending training sessions consistently or protest by taking extending sick leave.
The BRA is an excellent example of “resistance to change.”
Secondly, government has an abysmal record for implementing new policies and new systems, which are also very EXPENSIVE. And there are always accompanying difficulties, whether real or “manufactured.” Inland Revenue/BRA paid a consultant about $10,000 for over a year to implement a new tax system and there has not been any improvements. Similar situations occurred at the NIS on more than one occasion, which resulted in late payments of NIS benefits.
Including consultants, training and implementation expenses, what will ISO 9001 cost the tax payers to be implemented?
The Public Sector Reform initiative is an excellent example of “resistance to change.” After all these years and Director of Public Sector Reform, the status quo remains the same.
Thirdly, each new administration always change the existing systems to suit their agenda. This often results in the renaming of ministries, job displacements, employing the party faithful in management positions, repealing policies of the previous administration.
Grenville Phillips II mentioned that, over the past 17 years, he “encouraged both administrations to improve the management of public services” and “referred both political administrations to the customer-focused international quality management standard ISO 9001.”
For 17 years, and for reasons known only to the hierarchy of both parties, the BLP & DLP have not found it necessary to implement ISO 9001. Supposed Solutions Barbados win the 2018 general elections and subsequently implements the management system. What guarantee do tax payers have that a new administration would not “repeal and replace” the ISO 9001 with a different management system under circumstances where “a fella hand could get greased?”
@Artax October 19, 2017 at 6:15 AM “You sure you did renewing you driver’s license or one fuh sumbody else? You duz say all de time dat you don’t own a vehicle and you aint want none…you duz prefer to catch de bus, a ZR…or duz walk…”
All true.
No conflict.
Now that I am “old and useless” even though i don’t have a car and I don’t want one I make myself useful for those family members who do have to go to work. So if they want a errand run in the middle of the work day, a child taken to school, the doctor, the dentist, to an extra-curricular activity…
Here’s the Simple with loads of free time, always willing, and always with a current driver’s license.
Call it my contribution to national productivity if you will.
My people don’t have to sneak out of the office at 2:30 p.m to pick up the kid…idle Simple does it, and does after work pickups too. Just call and I am there to pick you up with your car.
@Artax October 19, 2017 at 6:15 AM “So, wuh you gone at de people place fuh, saying you renewing wuh driver’s license?”
And tobesides the Honourable Minister of Finance needs the tax money, yes?
So I was at Licensing Authority passing a few tax dollars Chrisies’s way.
@David October 19, 2017 at 12:11 AM “What are the early signs of a failed state?”
A government that wastes its time and energy with minutiae, instead of getting down to all of the serious WORK that needs to be done.
“Unemployed” grandparents make a significant contribution to the social stability, and the economic development of a country.
I wonder how much it would be worth if any economist chose to measure it?
But even those economists and planners who were raised by their grandparents never think to put an economic value of the “free” WORK of grandparents.
Since you are a numbers guy Artax, add the work of grandparents to the GDP and tell me what you come up with?
@Artax
“IF” ISO achieves its desired objectives, it will be worth every penny. Unquestionably, there will be resistance, there always is.
In the private world, they measure most things by profit. Not so in public. Further, because many of the ISO benchmarks/measurements are key to profitability (you cannot make customers wait like the experience cited) many private groups already pay attention to these matters. Yet, as GP accurately stated, this is a top-down thing. The setting of goals, and measurement and adherence is a management function.
Since the whole bunch are unionized, a key will be getting union buy-in.
All of this is moot, if SB doesn’t get elected? I wonder given the D&B aversion over 17 years, as you stated, whether this SB ‘pledge’ may be used against them, should either B or D smell SB encroaching on their space.
@ Simple Simon
Uh khan get vex wid yuh fuh dat response.
To be honest………….. I have never contemplated “adding the work of grandparents to GDP.”
I had to make sacrifices to raise my son, such as having to cancel meetings with clients or prospective clients or neglecting my personal interests or something I wanted purchase………… to buy things for him, pay someone to keep him, collect him from school, take him to the doctor or fulfill some parental obligation, which I am duty bound to perform.
Why?????…………………because he is MY responsibility.
However, I am not prepared to “transfer” those responsibilities to HIS children…………..
In other words, I am not going to encourage any child to bring a child into this world and take over their responsibilities in raising or keeping that child, just because I am a grandparent.
NorthernObserver October 19, 2017 at 1:06 PM #
“Since the whole bunch are unionized, a key will be getting union buy-in.”
@ Northern Observer
Your comments are “well taken.”
However, any new management system may result in retrenchment of employees, which may “a good thing” for the civil service.
And the unions would obviously protest against this development.
@ David
I heard George Pilgrim hinting that the “mandated” AG Brathwaite’s LEC investigation has been completed.
Do you have any information?
Dear All:
We have had a very favourable response to our ISO 9001 management policy from the NUPW and CTUSAB.
The ISO standards are designed to be used in diverse cultures. See an example at the following link.
https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/03/01/iso-system-key-to-better-service/
The ISO 9001 system will cost the taxpayers all of $0.00 to implement.
If we get elected Barbados wins.
Best regards,
Grenville
ISO9001 free? I know bout iso9001 than Grenville. But wasn’t this man writing bout raising the dead last week? #passmewiththebs
@Artax October 19, 2017 at 4:15 PM “To be honest…I have never contemplated “adding the work of grandparents to GDP.”
I’ve discussed this with a few economist friends and the answer is always the same as yours. But I ask again why not? Isn’t all work, work? Isn’t all work valuable? If I washed and ironed 5 shirts for your son I would be considered his laundress and my work for him gets counted in the GDP, but if I do it for my own son it doesn’t get counted. Why? It is an identical task. So why is one counted as work and the other not counted at all? If I mopped 100 square feet of floor at Sandy Lane that would be work, but if I did the same at my daughter’s home it is not work? Why not since it is an identical task?
@Artax October 19, 2017 at 4:15 PM “I had to make sacrifices to raise my son, such as having to cancel meetings with clients or prospective clients or neglecting my personal interests or something I wanted purchase…to buy things for him, pay someone to keep him, collect him from school, take him to the doctor or fulfill some parental obligation, which I am duty bound to perform. Why?…because he is MY responsibility. However, I am not prepared to “transfer” those responsibilities to HIS children…
Whatever makes you happy.
I hold different views. I believe that production is work. Reproduction [and raising the products of reproduction is also work and also of value]
Explain to me why if I raise 10 cows it is considered work, but if I raise 10 children, or contributed to the safe and productive raising of 10 grandchildren it is not counted in GDP?
Surely children and grandchildren are no less important/valuable than cows?
And consider what if you and others had never had to cancel meetings with clients because somebody else who was no longer in the paid work force did the WORK of collecting your son etc. would it not have made you and others like you more productive workers?
Maybe in the 21 century we will learn to value ALL work, maybe we will count ALL work, maybe we will see that reproducing a society, reproducing an effective productive workforce is as valuable as manufacturing widgets or raising livestock.
What a world we live in that raising pigs is valuable GDP counted work, and raising children [or grandchildren] is not.
Until the birth rate plunges.
And silly politicians want to order people to breed and raise children in order to increase economic productivity.
But it don’t wuk so.
@Artax October 19, 2017 at 4:15 PM “In other words, I am not going to encourage any child to bring a child into this world and take over their responsibilities in raising or keeping that child, just because I am a grandparent.”
I am not talking about taking over the responsibilities of young parents, but we are always nattering away about increasing productivity.
So we NEED healthy, strong young people in the paid work force don’t we?
We NEED them to do as close to 40 hours work as possible every week for 48 or 50 weeks a year, don’t we?
How can we as a society accomplish this unless we ALL get on board?
I don’t think that we should hold the belief that being 55 or 60 or 56 or 66 1/2 or 67 or 70 should exempt us from doing our part to ensure that Barbados remains, or becomes a highly productive society.
From the referenced BT article
“An example in a paper titled ISO 9000 and the public sector by Dr. Lawrence Eicher, ISO Secretary-General, should suffice.”
From my earlier post….”(and it is difficult to sift through and separate all those with a vested stake in promoting, implementing and ongoing management)”
In my world the S-G ISO would have a vested stake in positive promotion? So I will question how that report ‘could suffice’, to your normal standard of ‘rigorous review/discussion’.
Hard to find professional, independent reviews.
But GP, $0 to implement? Even if you get a grant from ISO, it takes time (money) to train people? And ISO isn’t a one time fixed cost. It is dynamic.
“Until the birth rate plunges.
And silly politicians want to order people to breed and raise children in order to increase economic productivity.
But it don’t wuk so”.
Exactly….lol
They think women are stupid, we do all the donkey work and they collect the taxes….ha!!!!!…
…….let them import breeders, better yet, let them import already grown people, like they love to import everyone and everything else….
….SOBs have no appreciation for mothers, grandmothers etc…so let them tek dah.
Ah guess Straughn must have misspoke about selling Transport Board….BLP threw him right under the bus, claimed he did not speak for the party…lol
https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/10/19/not-so-fast-8/
“Not so fast!
STRAUGHN’S POSITION ON PRIVITIZATION NOT BLP’S, SAYS WALCOTT
Added by Colville Mounsey on October 19, 2017.
Saved under Local News, Politics
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The Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) has all but thrown rookie candidate Ryan Straughn under the bus for suggesting privatization of the Transport Board.
Mere days after Member of Parliament for The City Jeffrey Bostic made it clear Straughn did not speak for the BLP on the issue, General Secretary Dr Jerome Walcott went further by hinting that the party’s candidate in Christ Church East Central still had a lot to learn.
“Ryan Straughn is an economist, he is a young politician, he is new to politics. He gave a lecture, a lecture which was not edited and controlled by the party. He was allowed to give a lecture on his vision for Barbados, how he saw things going and he sees it in the terms of a technocrat,” Walcott said today at a press briefing at the party’s Roebuck Street headquarters to launch the BLP’s 79th annual conference.”
The BLP is weak on privatization and other issues how to cut back the socialist welfare state.
If the Barbadian elite continues with the many ministries, civil ants, liming judges and needy consultants after next election, many African nations will overtake Barbados very soon.
Goodbye golden days of OSA´s reign, hello Venezuela! Without a purge in the ministries, civil service and at the Supreme Court, Barbados will be lost.
@ Northern Observer
You made some interesting comments.
Yes, it takes time and money to train people, especially transforming our public sector from the 1800’s to 2017. However, implementing ISO 9001 (as with implementing any system) is not as simplistic a process as Grenville Phillips II seems to be suggesting.
The problems in the public sector go far beyond poor service or waiting in queues for inordinate periods of time. Therefore, government cannot “get up one morning” and say it is going to implement ISO 9001 without first going through a systematic development process, which may include phases such as planning, analysis, design, deployment, and maintenance.
Firstly, the sector has to be analyzed into components to identify their objectives.
Take “fleet management” for example. We can ask what objectives government wants to achieve with its fleet management, under circumstances where NUMEROUS government vehicles can be found parked for several months awaiting repairs, at government departments such as Ministry of Health depot in Jemmott’s Lane; QEH Ambulance Service workshop in Collymore Rock; MTW in the Pine; District A and Central Police stations. These vehicles are subsequently auctioned and repaired by the new owners.
Or buses that are “cannibalized” at Transport Board’s Weymouth and Mangrove depots. A bus BM366, for example, may go into the workshop for a piston, but none are available. Soon parts from BM366 are used to satisfy the repairs of other buses until it is eventually “cannibalized.”
I was told of a situation where MTW bought a Leyland DAF UTIC bus engine from the Transport Board for $800, which was fitted into a MTW Leyland truck and the truck started.
The process would obviously take time to implement.
@ Simple Simon October 19, 2017 at 11:39 PM
“Explain to me why if I raise 10 cows it is considered work, but if I raise 10 children, or contributed to the safe and productive raising of 10 grandchildren it is not counted in GDP?”
Come on Simple Simon, things are not always that ‘simply’ black and white.
Unless you are being paid for that ‘informal’ work and declaring the receipt as income how else would it be measured for GDP recording and reporting purposes?
If we were to accept your argument would you too be prepared to argue for similar treatment to be applied to the services offered by the night ‘workers’ on Bush Hill?
After all, a lot of ‘working-up’ goes on and for which they are ‘handsomely’ paid in a genuine exchange of ‘hard’ currency for ‘soft’ customer satisfaction.
Should those good-nature souls engaged in altruistic activities under the umbrella of Voluntarism be demanding similar recognition in that economic concept of number crunching and statistical fudging which leads to a cul-de-sac of futility?
Just see your contribution not through the selfish lens of unpaid work but as a form of ‘payback’ to your parents and grandparents whose sterling efforts in raising you and your sibling brats was done out of Christian commitment based on the guiding moral principle of “Noblesse Oblige”.
We must first ascertain if Straughn delivered the lecture as “Ryan Straughn, the BLP’s candidate in Christ Church East Central” or in his PERSONAL CAPACITY as “Ryan Straughn, the economist.”
And judging from Walcott’s response re: “He gave a lecture, a lecture which was NOT EDITED and CONTROLLED by the party. He was allowed to give a lecture on HIS VISION for Barbados, how HE saw things going and he sees it in the terms of a TECHNOCRAT……”
………….. is indicative of the fact that Straughn offered HIS PERSONAL OPINION. The BLP, purely for reasons of political expediency, is within its rights to “distance” itself from any member’s opinion that does not “fit” with the party’s political agenda.
Straughn should be entitled to express his personal opinion. Therefore, to suggest he “mis-spoke” and the “BLP threw him right under the bus” is definitely stretching it a bit.
Recently, Sinckler told the public that the NSRL realized $50M in revenue. However, PM Stuart said he did not care what the minister said and until he gets an official report, he will not comment. Surely Barbados Today could have also interpreted that situation to mean “the DLP threw Sinckler under the bus” as well.
@ Simple Simon
GDP is basically a calculation of the monetary/dollar value of all the finished goods and service a country produces within a specific time period (usually one year).
The underground/informal economy or black market, for example, may consist of vendors that sell similar products that could be found in Popular Discounts, Carlton Supermarket or Thani’s Shoe Shop. However, those vendors deal only in cash transactions and do not file income tax returns.
Hence, although there are methods economist could employ, it is somewhat difficult to measure the value the black market adds to the economy, measuring the “work” grand-parents add to the economy may also present similar challenges.
However, I understand your point and it is a valid one.
“Surely Barbados Today could have also interpreted that situation to mean “the DLP threw Sinckler under the bus” as well.”
Too close to election for that….too much going on.
Has anyone considered the formulation of a digital presidency platform with sectoral leaders, chosen on the basis of professional qualifications, to effect more efficient management of National affairs? This might be achieved as part of a new direct participatory democracy governance model whereby citizens are aware and engaged in ongoing decision making processes. The divisions caused by geographical constituency representation and the five year electoral partisan political campaigning can be replaced by inexpensive modern communications and information technologies that enable unification of Human Resources and much needed cost savings.
Andrew Simpson October 20, 2017 at 9:22 AM #
What crass, anti-democratic silliness. So the prime minister would have a long list of PhDs?
Politicians need to be trained to be government ministers before assuming office that to take bribes is beneath that office so they do not take bribes or pursue corruption….and also taught that the house negro went out with the abolition of slavery.
Ministers should be banned from consorting with criminals in the business community and should not be the ones distributing taxpayer funded contracts to any business person. ..there should be a contractor general for that task…one who has clear boundaries about bribery and corruption and can be imprisoned for participating in either.
Only someone void of any understanding of the importance of EQUALITY in governance would promote an IT-based system as a channel for “participatory governance”. #passmewiththebs
@ Tron October 20, 2017 at 6:48 AM
Both the “B” and “D” political parties are really taking this Privatization matter as one big joke in their political football game of economic stupidity.
Now here is a young ‘professional’ (and a so far untarnished politician) telling the people what must be done instead of being fooled as they experienced only as recently as 2013 and this is how he is treated for his frankness and foresight.
What else can be done with the Transport Board (TB) at this stage other than what the IMF in the coming months will be instructing the same political jackasses to do?
Isn’t what Ryan Straughn is proposing the same thing to what the BLP under OSA (in a vision that was fiscally portended) recommended in 2012 in order to avoid the economic state of affairs that has afflicted Barbados for the past 5 years of abject incompetence?
What is so different to what the current MoF promised to do in his December 2013 Ministerial statement and ad nauseam in every subsequent budgetary presentation?
Isn’t the current administration demonstrating by its own actions in starving the TB of much needed investment in rolling stock and working capital to support its day-to-day operational needs that it is being prepared not for radical surgery to attempt some form of recovery to make it fit for purpose but as a cadaver ready to be taken away by the fiscal undertaker and replaced fully by private sector players within a regulatory framework under the aegis of an effective Transport Authority?
Please stop fooling the people with the propaganda reminiscent of the electioneering gimmickry expressed in the partisan political skit involving the so-called old lady on the bus with a yard-fowl pretending to be the jackass in the driver’s seat.
More Barbadians currently travel on privately owned public transportation than on the TB. To hear James Paul or any DLPite criticise any privatisation of the TB after supporting tuition fees at UWI is vomitous. Who votes for this mediocrity? #jesustakedewheel
@Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. October 20, 2017 at 3:11 AM “…SOBs have no appreciation for mothers, grandmothers etc…so let them tek dah.”
LOL!!!
@Artax October 20, 2017 at 7:11 AM “Take “fleet management” for example. We can ask what objectives government wants to achieve with its fleet management, under circumstances where NUMEROUS government vehicles can be found parked for several months awaiting repairs, at government departments such as Ministry of Health depot in Jemmott’s Lane; QEH Ambulance Service workshop in Collymore Rock; MTW in the Pine; District A and Central Police stations.”
Maybe Little Johny the mechanic is regularly getting to work 20 to 30 minutes late because of the morning school run, then taking another 20 to 30 minutes each day for the afternoon school run, because his retired mother and father do not see how they can increase Johnny’s productivity by taking responsibility for any tasks which interfere with Johnnie’s productivity.
And not only mechanics.
But lawyers
Civil servants
Doctors
Engineers
Magistrates and judges?
Politicians.
Etc. etc. etc.
A tremendous loss of productivity.
Today is teacher’s professional day. Ask yourself how many parents of elementary school age have called in sick because a grandparent refuses to be available?
But we pretend not to see.
No doubt at some time we will call in a high paid foreign consultant to fix this “problem” for us.
@millertheanunnaki October 20, 2017 at 7:24 AM “If we were to accept your argument would you too be prepared to argue for similar treatment to be applied to the services offered by the night ‘workers’ on Bush Hill?”
YES.
Why?
Even though I would prefer that sex work would go away, I understand that it is unlikely to go away in my lifetime.
Therefore if a person is earning income by providing sexual services for paying customers, then YES, that sex worker should declare that income to the Barbados Revenue Authority and pay taxes on that income.
@millertheanunnaki October 20, 2017 at 7:24 AM “Unless you are being paid for that ‘informal’ work and declaring the receipt as income how else would it be measured for GDP recording and reporting purposes?”
Simple.
Add a couple of lines to the tax form where I can declare my unpaid work, unpaid work to my own ffamily, and unpaid volunteer work in the community. [Note that I am not asking to be PAID for the work, I simply want it RECOGNISED as WORK in the GDP]. If you think it necessary you can have the people who received the services sign off on the form, although at present much of what is declared on tax forms is taken on trust, since no government in the world has the capacity to audit every single tax form. We already know the prices paid for various kinds of work, Tax authorities can make an assumption that if I provide 500 hours of infant care per year and infant care is paid at $10 per hour, then I have provided $5,000 worth of services, and I have added $5,000 worth of value to the GDP
Add that $5,000 to the GDP.
Simple.
But it requires a rethink.
Late in the 21st century there will be a Nobel prize awarded for the economist who can get governments to implement this…but both you and I will be dead by then.
It require a global rethink.
If we were to accept your argument would you too be prepared to argue for similar treatment to be applied to the services offered by the night ‘workers’ on Bush Hill?
After all, a lot of ‘working-up’ goes on and for which they are ‘handsomely’ paid in a genuine exchange of ‘hard’ currency for ‘soft’ customer satisfaction
+++++++++++
Is that “tongue in cheek” or are you proposing the Amsterdam model where the ins and outs will be a source of taxation for a revenue starved Gov’t? The undercover work as exists on the rock is another piece of the underground activity that escapes the scrutiny of the CRA. Regulation may even improve productivity, imagine a customer engaging the services of a worker knowing she/he has a clean bill of health as established by the authorities and going home refreshed and eager to tackle the day tomorrow.
It may even revive folks interest in history, if you spot an acquaintance in the area he can always say he is a history buff and went to G Washington house as part of his research.
Simple Simon October 20, 2017 at 10:27 AM #
You are essentially suggesting that government’s vehicles have a long wait for repairs because “mechanics are regularly getting to work 20 to 30 minutes late because of the morning school run, then taking another 20 to 30 minutes each day for the afternoon school run, because their “retired father and mothers” do not see how they can increase (the mechanics) productivity by taking responsibility for any tasks which interfere with (the mechanics’) productivity.”
SMH………….I am now more aware as to why you go by the moniker “Simple Simon.”
@ Sargeant October 20, 2017 at 11:06 AM
“Is that “tongue in cheek” or are you proposing the Amsterdam model where the ins and outs will be a source of taxation for a revenue starved Gov’t?”
Lol!! That “tongue” business can land a person right inside the ‘brambles’ of confusion.
Yes Sarge, it was indeed implied in the most ironic of ‘anal’ogous ways.
A visit to that most ‘regulated’ liberal city- where the world’s oldest vocation is practised (under licensed conditions) next door to a station of religion (a Christian outpost or church) mandated to police the morality of ‘man’ in the West- does provide much more than just an eye opener.
Here is a working example where a natural urge of ‘man’ can be fulfilled in a licensed way while satisfying two birds (one the government’s coffers and the other public health standards) with one ejaculation into the female or transsexual purse of financial desire.
Yes Sarge, a highly recommended model to replace the undercover hypocrisy practised ‘nightly’ on the ‘Bushy’ Hill.
That ‘newly’ regulated trade along with the decriminalization of cannabis to facilitate the natural replacement of another grass called sugarcane would mean the wheel would have turned full circle since the introduction of the sugar cane plant to Barbadoes from Brazil (with slaves from the gold coast of west Africa) by the mercantile Jews from their trading houses on the river Amstel flowing through the same entrepreneurially foresighted Amsterdam.
@Artax October 20, 2017 at 11:45 AM “You are essentially suggesting that government’s vehicles have a long wait for repairs because…”
That and other hindrances to productivity.
You and i both know that there are multiple factors which impact on productivity.
I ain’t as simple as my moniker suggests.
@ Simple Simon
Please….. come off it…….. your point is based on a silly assumption.
Or perhaps you could present your statistical data from the survey you conducted to arrive at your conclusion.
There are administrative factors that contribute to the tardiness in government’s maintenance of property programs and issues of productivity goes way beyond people leaving work to collect children from school.
I said “You and i both know that there are multiple factors which impact on productivity”
You said “There are administrative factors that contribute to the tardiness in government’s maintenance of property programs and issues of productivity goes way beyond people leaving work to collect children from school.”
Aren’t we saying essentially the same thing? That multiple factors, not excluding the absences of young parents from work, contribute to less than ideal productivity?
Can we finish this conversation now?
Becausin’ Little Johnnie has just arrived and we plan to spend a few hours on the pasture kicking around a football, so my productivity on the blog will shortly go to zero.
LOL!!!
@Artax October 20, 2017 at 1:25 PM “come off it…your point is based on a silly assumption. Or perhaps you could present your statistical data from the survey you conducted to arrive at your conclusion.”
All right, all right.
Give me six years and as soon as I have completed my Phd I’ll send you the whole paper, including the statisticaal data from the surveys which I will have conducted.
Not.
The blasted blog has turned into a university classroom today.
Stupssseee!!!
The BSTU, along with National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), is representing the clerk/typist at St Leonard’s, who was sent home at the end of August. Redman told the meeting that the council of the NUPW on Tuesday agreed that the NUPW should take “whatever action is necessary in support of its member”.
Is the St Leonard’s clerk/typist a member of the BSTU? Is the BSTU and the NUPW now working in unison? Is this or any future government going to sort out this trade union anarchy?
@Hal Austin October 21, 2017 at 1:17 PM “Is this or any future government going to sort out this trade union anarchy?”
What trade union anarchy are you talking about?
Maybe your question should be
Will this or any future government stop sending their yardies to subvert lawful processes?