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IF Mia Cares She Should Stop ‘Picking-on’ the Public Service!

Submitted by Charles Skeete

[Barbados Underground] There are enough unpaid taxes and debts due and owing to the Government which if vigorous efforts are made to collect would make the spectre of job losses avoidable and that should have been the first order of business on assuming office because there is no such thing as painless layoffs.

Whatever strategy is employed in relation to job cuts would as a consequence be painful to the jobless.

If the government cares and we are all in it together, the new government which has not really completed a work cycle to merit vacation pay should refrain from taking the increase if they really cared since it would not relate to their time in office but the previous administration who would more have a rightful claim.

They could also abolish temporarily or permanently the unnecessary perks given to senior public officers in Government and at statutory boards. They could even consider a Tom Adams like surcharge which would touch the entire workforce rather than penalize public servants all the time who make up a small portion of the economy.

What about those self employed persons who pay no taxes or NIS THEY SHOULD BE THE ones targeted and stop using the public service as a whipping boy just because they are on the system and easy to get at. The list of indebtedness to the Government is easy to compile. Get up off your asses and do some work and stop looking for the easy way out which is counter productive anyhow since our economy like a meeting turn depends on what is circulated and layoffs takes money out of circulation and stagnates the economy.

149 responses to “IF Mia Cares She Should Stop ‘Picking-on’ the Public Service!”

  1. James Greene Avatar
    James Greene

    who else is she going to pick on but the army of occupation? and they deserve it. if you lie down with fleas you shall be bitten

  2. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @ Charles Skeete
    “There are enough unpaid taxes and debts due and owing to the Government which if vigorous efforts are made to collect would make the spectre of job losses avoidable”
    ++++++++++++++++
    This is, unfortunately, utter nonsense.

    You need to do the arithmetic. We need vigorous collection efforts to collect unpaid taxes and debts due and owing to the Government, but this will be no more than a very temporary stopgap measure if the structural imbalance in our fiscal affairs continues. The Barbados Government needs to cut it’s expenditures to the point that the fiscal deficit is zero. Renegotiating debt will help marginally, but we need to abandon the pretence that the civil service does not need to shrink.

  3. Platinum Avatar
    Platinum

    Charles Skeete, it amazes me that you have the answers now that there is a new administration. Where was your voice for ten years?

  4. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/14/how-to-feed-the-world-inside-brazils-food-security-conference-sponsored-by-pesticide-manufacturer?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

    As confetti showers a theatre inside Rio de Janeiro’s normally sedate Museum of Tomorrow, electronic pop music pounds and dozens of young people crowd the stage to dance enthusiastically, hugging each other and waving flags as their audience films the festivities on their phones.

    But this is not a religious event, or a disco. It’s an unusual conference that has attracted several hundred young people from across the world to pitch and discuss ideas on how to feed the world’s booming population with agriculture startups – and make their fortunes doing so.

    “I didn’t know it was possible to create a business that can make an impact and make money,” Mariana Vasconcellos, who runs a successful “digital agriculture platform” called Agrosmart, tells the audience. She tested the business analysing irrigation flows and waste on her father’s farm. Her story is met with rousing cheers.

    I pasted that excerpt here for 3 reasons.

    To show that our youth have potential

    TO show how other countries are involved in active diversification of their economy/ies and can generate meaningful revenues for said youth and others

    To show that The Thought Leadership Matrix of serious governments are past all the pretty talk and know how to engage while providing a meaningful Intellectual Property environment.

    ALl about the place dem promoting writing proposals to ideas for something BUT NOT A Feller ent saying anything about protection of IP.

    If Mottley was serious about enfranchising a new breed of entrepreneurs WE WOULD BE SEEING THE CLEAR BROADCAST OF THIS FACILITATING MATRIX

    and until such is made available all the rest of talk is meaningless hot air blown up our collective pooches

  5. Charles Skeete Avatar
    Charles Skeete

    My voice has always been a balanced voice
    I have never benefitted from political largesse and i have ever only sing in St Paul’s church choir
    To Mr Thompson your macroeconomic points are well taken but I was not suggesting for one moment that vigorous collection of debt was the only answer but should have been factored into the overall scheme of things
    You cannot ask those who can ill afford to pay taxes and subject themselves to layoffs and fail to make vigorous efforts to collect taxes and debts due which over the years when consolidated can be in excess of one billion dollars

  6. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    10,000 civil servants and employees of gov corps must go for the common good.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    What the article highlights is the poor revenue collection effort by government. This is despite the establishment of the Barbados Revenue Authority that was touted as harmonizing all revenue agencies of government.

    We can shout to send home public officers and ignore the downside risk in the short term i.e. its impact on government revenues AND social well being read its impact on households.

    We are in a bad place, but polarized political and theoretical positions will not adequately address the issues.

  8. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @Charles S

    You’ve obviously the product of the Barbadian FREE EDUCATION SYSTEM, as PT says your math skills are NON existent. Torn has the right approach and his 10000 number appears to be right on.

  9. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    Sorry Tron not torn.

  10. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    peterlawrencethompson
    August 17, 2018 7:29 AM

    Quite so. The focus of the article is generally ridiculous. In fairness, government revenue management is poor. But that is also partly because the current tax system will not work in the Barbados environment, for a multitude of reasons.

    However, the public sector is grossly inefficient and needs severe reorganization. There are also many who see the guv’ment job as their right, rather than a service that they need to fulfill. There are truly jewels amongst the mass, but those may be the minority, or at least the smaller percentage.

    As for the statutory boards, they have always been a field for the political lackees to graze on.

    The PM is quite right in commencing the restructuring.

    As PLT says, the issue is significantly more systemic than the first form social economics that the article is based on.

    That the author wrote this and is supposed to be educated, just proves how many are completely clueless as to the current situation.

  11. Crusoe Avatar
    Crusoe

    Crusoe
    August 17, 2018 8:53 AM

    By the way, the author refers to debt owed to government, yet does not quote of the debt owed to businesses by government, which is substantial.

  12. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    @Charles
    Inefficiency is a problem yes.

    BUT, the measures being taken now serve three purposes

    I
    M
    F

    Just observing

  13. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Charles Skeete.

    ] There are enough unpaid taxes and debts due and owing to the Government which if vigorous efforts are made to collect would make the spectre of job losses avoidable and that should have been the first order of business on assuming office because there is no such thing as painless layoffs.
    –‘———”
    Good morning Charles Skeete a thoughful article
    However too late the horse has already bolted
    Previous administrations had laid out policies which in their mind would have easier to borrow and build the economy that fight against the political groundswell of collecting taxes
    One can also point to the numerous tax waivers given which might have accounted to million of taxpayers dollars
    The long and short of the story is that the chickens have shown up at all and sundry backdoor and everyone must take blame and suffer the consequences
    As gran ma tells “hard ears wont hear one day you would feel

  14. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ Charles Skeete August 17, 2018 8:26 AM

    Unfortunately the civil service(permanent opposition) is and will always be easy targets, mainly because they are the govts employees. But i think you mentioned that in your article. The BL&P and the BWA are the only 2 utilities with an island-wide stable customer/client base. Plus you need water firstly & electricity secondly to survive in Barbados However the BWA was the only candidate for the implementation of the GSC solely because its government owned.

    The civil service is a “target rich environment” because each administration over the many years have practised “padding” the different SOEs and central government departments with their supporters etc. As administrations change seldom does the new incoming administration fire or remove all the “party supporters” hired under the previous administration. The result a highly bloated SOE or department etc.

    So we got highly bloated SOEs and govt departments that became this way over the many years. If the average govt worker has 15 years service; that is equivalent to 3 parliamentary terms. Now we have implemented technology etc which normally equates to increased productivity. maybe not so much in the civil service.

    In the 1980/90’s we may have 12 typist/filing clerks and probably needed 12 persons to run an effective department. Today with the use of technology; a computer network with data storage etc we may only need 7 persons to run an effective department; but we got 12 persons from the 1980/90s and the others that were added in the 2000s and beyond. But ppl need jobs you will probablysay.

    They say charity starts at home; likewise the jobs cuts may have to start at home. I repeat the civil service is a target rich environment.

    We as Bajans may have a blind spot for the civil servants as they maybe friends family etc, but the IMF is calling the shots at this “shooting range”. The IMF generally has no “blind spots” for friends and family. The IMF sees this as just picking the low hanging fruits in the target rich environment(civil service), and MAM who wants their assistance really got no choice but to go along with them; as they right size(eliminate) targets in target rich environment.. .

  15. Redguard Avatar
    Redguard

    NIS is not in trouble because self employed tradesmen refuse to contribute. NIS is in trouble because of gross mismanagement, poor investment strategy and certain businessmen having the privilege of using it as unlimited source of funding.

  16. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Redguard

    I so agree with that post @ 9:53 a.m.

  17. Charles Skeete Avatar
    Charles Skeete

    Yes the situation is critical and demands critical action but we should not seek solutions which are fashionable but which end us up in a pound wise penny foolish situation.
    Prior to the 2013 election, Mr Stuart assured Barbadians that free tertiary education was a right and would not be discarded. No sooner having been returned to office supported by partisan comment all the right reasons were forwarded as to why free tertiary education should be abandoned. Shortly after assuming office with a historic mandate , Ms Mottley took the country into her confidence about the state of the economy and with an abundance of goodwill led a high powered delegation to meet with the IMF DIRECTOR Ms Lagarde personally. The impression I drew from her pronouncements on her return was that they had put their cards on the table the Draconian mini budget notwithstanding and that homegrown strategies as indicated by Ms Caddle in her speech this week would be implemented with the blessings and guidance of the IMF. Now we are hearing about the imminence of layoffs and what galls me is to hear people drawing two pensions and exorbitant salaries nonchalantly supporting a jobcuts policy which can further serve to undermine the economy and the already floundering social fabric of the country.
    There has to be other ways rather than picking on the public workers who when the honey is flowing hardly get any.
    As Senator Franklyn so ably pointed out- how can job cuts be contemplated with the substantial addition to the wage bill of other Ministries which will as s consequence demand more staff and payment of wages in the S scale. It does not make sense and suggests that some of the decisions made on assuming office were added hoc and perhaps taken without understanding the nuances of public service governance.
    Would systems be put in place to take care of the vulnerable after these job cuts and how will these job cuts be implemented? Will we find ourselves in a situation where two people from the same household are put out to struggle?
    Will there be an increase in the welfare budget to handle the concomitant applications for assistance?
    No I did not have the benefit of free education neither newer or older secondary. I went to Rudder and we were told that our education was to prepare us to deal with the world after we left school and not for certificates only.

  18. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Do not worry, Charles,

    Like death, devaluation will hit the businessmen, the judges, the Ministers, the senators and all high bureaucrats equally.

  19. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Charles Skeete i hear you .However the public was warned that with a change of govt the inevitable of going full circle to the IMF would occur
    The people voted and took the chance now they would have to live with the consequences
    Btw Charles Skeete i notice that the voices of the Unions are silent
    What’s up with dat silence

  20. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    Charles Skeete August 17, 2018 10:15 AM

    I will only quote what david/BU reminded me (all of us) when he implied ”Politicians will say whatever it takes to convince you to vote for them or get their party elected. once elected then the will worry about governing.

    If anyone truly believed any (politician or political party) aka team “liar liar pants/pantyhose on fire” they needed their head examining in Black Rock, hopefully free of charge?

    They lie to us to get the chance to lie to us when governing. When “u plant potato you gine rap casava? hell no u gine reap potato unless u is perennial larcenist; where you don’t plant just reap.

  21. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Btw Charles Skeete am i right in my suspicion that younare taking it as a responsibility to be the lone voice speaking on behalf of one of the Unions

  22. Redguard Avatar
    Redguard

    Owen Arthur was handed a civil service of 15000 (correct me if I am wrong) and by the end of his 14 years, he had almost doubled it.
    His unchecked expansion of government with no justifiable or concomitant improvement in productivity or real revenue increases is the real reason we are here. (Selling off assets was not real revenue generation neither was taxes from the offshore sector).

    That he continues to get a free pass for his major role in this is a tragedy

    “our economy like a meeting turn depends on what is circulated and layoffs takes money out of circulation and stagnates the economy”

    I strongly disagree Mr. Skeete. No layoffs have occurred yet and the economy has been stagnant for the last 5 years. Printing money to maintain government jobs is what has stagnated the economy.

  23. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Ha ha Redguard – you the pot steaming hot.

  24. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    Question to all.

    How do u tell a virile eager & male that he is going to be castrated with a dull rusty knife without the use of anaesthetic or disinfectant, behind the paling of the next door neighbour.?

    If you are crafty you hire a PR consultant and pray for your victim. Pray that they have a very short memory and that they are deeply religious and will forgive you for what u are about to do.

    Their in lies the challenge that MAM faces with the bloated civil service and the expected job cuts.

    Expect a PR assault to be launched; cus after all “watch muh”?

  25. A. Dullard Avatar
    A. Dullard

    @ Charles Skeete

    I am no fan of the civil service but I am sympathetic to some of your albeit clumsily expressed views. While there is always much talk around shrinking the public service, there is hardly any about going after the private actors: those who owe tremendous sums in taxes, those who don’t even pay taxes, those who owe NIS on behalf of workers, etc.

    After the civil service is gutted, what next? Will laying off hordes of clerks and typists get us to the fiscal promised land?

    I have not heard of many defaulting states who have not had to devalue their currencies. Larger and more diverse economies than ours have had to revalue their currencies and focus on the fundamentals. What is so special about Barbados?

    Why not take the bitter medicine one time by devaluing and get down to the business of restructuring. This piece meal approach seems counter productive. Once done properly there is usually rapid economic growth after a restructuring.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @sirFuzzy

    An apt scenario.

  27. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    The blame game continues every day on BU. It is not about blame, it is about today’s public expenses. ALL of them. If “we” cannot find an operational balance, the IMF will find it for us.

  28. Bernard Codrington Avatar
    Bernard Codrington

    Good piece Charles Skeete.

    I applaud your effort to restore some balance to the austerity debate.

    I can only underline the point that imposing taxes can only yield results if they are collected.

    That is a point which the Auditor Generals report has made for decades. There is considerable leakage from the revenue streams of the Consolidated Fund and The National Insurance Board.

    So if there are no tax revenues , GoB has to borrow. If creditors do not lend, CBB has to print money. If CBB cannot print money because of the limits imposed by lack of Foreign Assets . Then there will be devaluation.

    In the Devaluation situation we are going to eat each other. Let us hope we do the sensible things first as outlined in your submission and elsewhere. Devaluation is no salvation for Barbados, except for the predators.

    The idea that the main Public Service is too large is IMF ideology based on free market economic theory which all the evidence point towards as a failure. There is big government in all the Western Countries.

    This new dogma that IT will do a better job and is cheaper is unsubstantiated.

  29. Bernard Codrington Avatar
    Bernard Codrington

    @ Northern at 11:56 AM

    You are right to the point where you want to allocate responsibility to the IMF. That is not their responsibility. They do not manage the process. I know. We create the mess and we have to manage the passage out of it.
    So you too are suffering from the blame game syndrome. All loans have conditionalities attached to them.

  30. A. Dullard Avatar
    A. Dullard

    “In the Devaluation situation we are going to eat each other.”

    And they won’t eat each other in the other possible austerity scenarios?

    Cosseted, mollycoddled, post-independence Bajans in general know nothing about true hardship. What about in a situation of real austerity, not mild – like an 8% pay cut?

  31. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Redguard 9.53

    You are right, but government has not prioritised the NIS as in need to urgent reform. In fact, neither has the central bank been in focus. What we got, approaching three months after it was elected, is the prime minister having a photo op with former US attorney general Eric Holder and the Bajan attorney general inspecting a building; and a promise the prime minister will be attending a board meeting of LIAT.
    Was this recommended by the Chinese man, Mr Jong? Does she delegate to her ministers? In any case, why does Barbados hold a 49 per cent share in LIAT?

  32. Bernard Codrington Avatar
    Bernard Codrington

    @ David BU

    The statement you constantly repeat about Greece is the Troika propaganda. I think you ought to read the views of the then Greek Minister of Finance as well as Nobel prize authors on the subject.

  33. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @BC
    trying to appreciate your point.
    WHO determines the loan terms/conditions?

  34. A. Dullard Avatar
    A. Dullard

    “but government has not prioritised the NIS as in need to urgent reform”

    The NIS is in need of immediate attention.

    By now the NIS has to be in awful shape, at this rate will probably be insolvent in a few decades. It is being hit hard from both sides of the balance sheet. On one hand, over exposure to BBD gov’t debt on which they will have to take a haircut on the other lengthening lives, high employment, leading to increasing liabs. Worsening contributions but increasing benefit payouts spell disaster for any PAYG system.

  35. David Avatar
    David

    @BC

    Thanks, will add to reading list.

  36. Bernard Codrington Avatar
    Bernard Codrington

    @ Northern

    Loan conditionalities are mutually agreed between borrowers and lenders. No agreement . No loan. The IMF does not administer a caning to the Minister of Finance’s derriere if she/ he does not accept the conditionalities.

  37. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    The NUPW should argue that “many hands make light work” and then go on to call for more civil servants.

  38. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Good one Skinner. Lol

    Indeed Sir.Do Fuh Do -ain’t nuh obeah lol.

  39. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Ok. Agree and accept mutual agreement, and guilt in furthering blame.

  40. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    Here are the facts:
    1. The Barbados Government needs to reduce the fiscal deficit to zero (currently ~4.5% of GDP);
    2. Reducing wastage and improving revenue collection will achieve no more than 15% of that goal (do the arithmetic);
    3. Overall Government expenditure is ~32% of GDP;
    4. The largest areas of Government expenditure are:
    (a) transfers to State Owned Enterprises (12.5% of GDP)
    (b) interest on debt (7.6% of GDP)
    (c) salaries & wages (7.4% 0f GDP)

    The government has already started the process to renegotiate debt, but at best we can claw back 0.5% of GDP. Transfers to SOEs will be cut, but because many of these enterprises provide critical services (eg. QEH) the most we can hope for is 1.5% of GDP, and this will have an impact on employment at these enterprises. MIA’s new taxes will raise at most another 0.5% of GDP

    So to add up 0.675% from reduced wastage and improved revenue collection, 0.5% from debt renegotiation, 1.5% from SOEs, and 0.5% of new revenue we’ve reduced the fiscal deficit by about 3.2% of GDP.

    That leaves 1.3% of GDP to be gained through reduction of the Government wage bill, which amounts to an over 17% slash. It would be socially catastrophic to slash the public service by this amount unless we put in place specific programs to cushion the blow to individual households.

    Furthermore, to suddenly remove this purchasing power from the consumption of goods and services will throw the economy into a deep depression. We must phase these changes in over at least three years and provide generous cash buyouts to those who lose their government jobs so that they can invest in starting productive enterprises of their own to sustain them.

  41. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @A. Dullard August 17, 2018 12:39 PM
    “NIS has to be in awful shape, at this rate will probably be insolvent in a few decades.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++=
    Fifteen years to be more precise. The Government’s “additional information for creditors” shows the NIS going belly up in 2034.
    http://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/additional-data/

  42. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @PLT
    based on the growth in T&S over the past 5 years, I will ‘guess’ one can extract more than the 1.5% you are offering.

  43. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    P.Thompson

    if what you are offering @ 1:16 p.m. is true – then one may ask where is the silver lining between this rock and a hard place.

  44. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Very gloomy prognosis Peter re the NIS.

  45. David Avatar
    David

    Yes gloomy, it was trending for years. The blogmaster recalls a UPP candidate calling the Brasstacks program to engage Glyne Murray on the IMF report that pointed to pension expense exceeding income and he was treated harshly.

    #allaboutpolitics

  46. A. Dullard Avatar
    A. Dullard

    @PLT August 17, 2018 1:21 PM

    WOW!

  47. A. Dullard Avatar
    A. Dullard

    @A. Dullard August 17, 2018 12:39 PM

    Just had a quick look at the spreadsheet. The data is decennial so the first -ve surplus occurs in 2034 but if the projections were annual , it would show insolvency a few years earlier than 2034!!

  48. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @NorthernObserver August 17, 2018 1:25 PM
    “based on the growth in T&S over the past 5 years, I will ‘guess’ one can extract more than the 1.5% you are offering”
    +++++++++++++++++++
    I’m not one of those who believe that the late unlamented DLP administration did absolutely nothing at all, or that the new dispensation of May 24th heralds manna from heaven. Transfers to SOEs increased from 9.8% of GDP in 2005/06 to a peak of 14.4% of GDP in 2013/14. Reforms, which began in 2014, have already made some progress to my estimate of 12.5% of GDP.

  49. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @T.Inniss August 17, 2018 1:29 PM
    “then one may ask where is the silver lining between this rock and a hard place”
    ++++++++++++++++++
    The silver lining is that crisis and opportunity are two sides of the same coin (and that the sun will rise tomorrow).

  50. T.Inniss Avatar
    T.Inniss

    Peter

    Hmm.

    Got Yuh.

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