Some of our Members of Parliament recently claimed that they will not rest until someone is locked up, and they seemed to have found a target. It seems that they, media reporters and talk show moderators have all received the same memo – target Chris Sinckler. Before his reputation is irreparably damaged, let us look at the target of his legacy
After trying various iterations of a medium-term economic growth strategy, like any other entrepreneur, he seems to have happened upon his achievement, which in his case was the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL). Immediately, the same actors in the business community, established media, professional associations and unions joined with the BLP and prejudged it as unworkable.
The tax was predicted to: make products unaffordable, destroy businesses, cause mass layoffs, and lead to mass poverty. The public was encouraged to despise the tax-master, by claiming that it was unconscionable and uncaring for Chris to demand additional taxes from Barbadians, who were already so highly overtaxed that it was literally impossible for them to bear any more.
Once it was implemented, none of the predictions came true. The NSRL was perhaps the most fair tax that any Government of Barbados has ever introduced since our independence. By comparison, VAT is by far the least fair. The NSRL forced businesses to be efficient and productive in order to be competitive. VAT created unfair competition by reducing business cash-flows, and forcing efficient businesses to significantly increase the price of their products above that of their smaller competitors.
Many businesses were able to absorb the NSRL through greater efficiencies. Others simply obeyed orders and marched for: inefficiency, unproductivity, uncompetitiveness, unfairness, corrupting no-bid contracts, and getting their party in government.
Strangely, the increase in taxes under BERT are not to be seen as unconscionable and burdensome for a heavily overtaxed population. Instead, they are to be seen as responsible, for which we are expected to happily pay and gratefully thank the tax-mistress.
I was recently invited to BrassTacks (a rarity since the General Election) where Ryan Straughn explained that it was impossible for one Minister to do all of the ministerial work required in the Ministry of Finance. Minister Straughn made this comment to justify having 3 Ministers in the Ministry of Finance, plus 5 BERT consultants all working full-time every day. These 8 persons are so exhausted that they have had to outsource much of their critical work to a UK based specialist consulting firm, one White Oak.
On BrassTacks, Minister Straughn stated that “the public has to judge based on performance”. Well, let us do just that. Chris appeared to mismanage the national economy in the same manner as the other Ministers of Finance have done over the past 40 years, by implementing the same 5 programs. Namely: send home party detractors, hire party supporters, award corrupting no-bid contracts, mismanage public services, and increase the national debt.
The current Ministers of Finance, and their legion of consultants, are implementing the same 5 programs, but with one critically important difference. All past Ministers of Finance were restrained in how far they could go with each of the 5 programs, by adhering to the unbroken promise to always pay our debts to international creditors. For the first time since our Independence, we broke that promise and chose to default, and the same partisan actors could not even bring themselves to be impartially critical. But back to Chris.
If it is truly impossible for one person to do all of the ministerial work in the Ministry of Finance, then how was Chris able to do the work of 3 Ministers plus a legion of consultants, invent the most responsible tax Barbados has ever had, pay our international creditors, and sill be among the living?
@Grenville
You have drawn a comparison between the current government and Chris using the NSRL as the criteria?
The other question, was it not the governent’s responsibility and prime minister Stuart to use effective communication to persuade the people to buy in to their programs?
@Grenville
Note the blogmaster never asked how Chris as a member of parliament was able to secure lavish ‘gifts’ to distribute to constituents. Discuss the merits and demerits of the NSRL but at the root of how successive governments have governed Barbados is the obvious corruptions practised by politicians.
Chris was a crook and liar who cover up for the BLP, Good he’s gone now to expose the last 30 crooks that need to be replaced,
Really?
Since when could the NSRL be the “target of his legacy”. By various iterations, I assume you mean, various failures? The gentleman had umpteen chances to balance the books and never came close once!!! His projections were wildly inaccurate. The NSRL, regardless of its perceived fairness or not, was a last ditch effort, which also failed to meet with projections.
He oversaw, the largest annual deficits in the island’s history, and with literally very little to show for them.
I suggest there are more targets during his tenure than the NSRL. May I suggest you review the Auditor General Reports for some ideas.
From a pure political spend what is the merit to this article given the result of the general election in May last year?
Who heard Stephen Lashley’s comment yesterday referring to Bobby Morris’s response to the initial position by the BLP government about a change to the constitution to recognize the party garnering the most votes at the last general election?
That was BEFORE Atherley grab the prize!
I
nteresting.
Why have prices not dropped since the removal of the NSRL?
@ David
Are we going to investigate how ALL Mps.get to the resources distribute gifts to constituents or just Sinckler?
And while we are at it: Ard we going to find out how BOTH parties got the millions they spend in general elections?
Are we going to find out the salaries of ALL consultants for the last ten years and also include all from the current regime?
Are we going to lock up all the private sector bullies who deducted national insurance from wages and never paid them into governments’ coffers ?
Are we going to lock up all those who never paid in the VAT?
Let’s stop the partisan crap and put Barbados truly first !!!
@William
You have not been following BU? All the issues raised by you have been dealt with here.
Chris
Had over a billion in FX to burn, ten year of learning on the job, Made plenty of mistakes, an out of Control prints g Press press and really forked the country
Maybe if hè had done advisors someone could have pointed out his mistakes and guided HIM on a beter Path.
But we know what happende to th CB govenor when hè tried to di that.
There is more to goverment finances than a fair tax.
Not print money, closing the deficit, growing the economy, maintaining infrastructure and FX reserves are a few of the things that chris did not achieve
Kudos to him for the fairest tax ever in Barbados after destroyed the gem of the Caribbean
What Chris did achieve was not to hold hands with an international collection agency whose sole purpose was that of having a one glove fits all policy when collecting debt from small island nations
Chris reluctance to stay the course of small pirtions at a time would have rub the the big mcgufgies in control of barbados local economy the wrong way
Chris rolled out a plan in which included the rich in helping to pull the debt laden wagon.
A plan which would have worked
However what we are witnessing is a reversal by present govt and new policies which gives the mcgufgies tax breaks and largesse tax waivers
Go figure
What Chris did achieve was not to hold hands with an international collection agency whose sole purpose was that of having a one glove fits all policy when collecting debt from small island nations
Chris reluctance to stay the course of small pirtions at a time would have rub the the big mcgufgies in control of barbados local economy the wrong way
Chris rolled out a plan in which included the rich in helping to pull the debt laden wagon.
A plan which would have worked
However what we are witnessing is a reversal by present govt and new policies which gives the mcgufgies tax breaks and largesse tax waivers
Go figure
“…then how was Chris able to do the work of 3 Ministers plus a legion of consultants,….”.
The answer is that he DID NOT & that is why he was such a miserable failure!!!
He wanted to be a “one-man-band”, assuming that when his policy was successful, he would be hailed as the “Great One” & savior of Barbados……….unfortunately for him, he failed.
Chris worked with he had and was crticized for not doing enough
Now present govt make unilateral decision ..decisions formed on a policy “more hands make for light work” a policy which borders on expanding govt at a tune of unknown dollars to the tax payer
Chris might not have recived what he hoped for econmically to pave barbafos out of economic self destruction
But he did not as sure as hell did not set barbados on a course of an eroding social enviroment built on long term austerity plans which will happen
Why are we having this discussion? The people rejected his and DLP policies after 23 downgrades.
@ nextparty246
“If it is truly impossible for one person to do all of the ministerial work in the Ministry of Finance, then how was Chris able to do the work of 3 Ministers plus a legion of consultants, invent the most responsible tax Barbados has ever had, pay our international creditors, and s[t]ill be among the living?”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
How could the NSRL be the “most responsible tax” ever invented when your 10% tax on all incomes has been around since the formation of Solutions Barbados?
If you perceive Chris Stinkliar to be such a doyen of fiscal (mis)management how come he, blatantly, refused to take onboard your own ‘god-created’ tax which was well thought out, rigorously reviewed and ‘ethically approved’ by professional accountants?
If Chris had only attended your Well(bent) college to be schooled strictly and straightly in the basic art of differential calculus to learn how to tell the 100% difference between a decimal and a fraction you might have been able to convincingly inculcate in him that by following the ISO 9001 programme he would have succeed in his first plan of 2014 to restructure the Bajan economy instead of having 5 iterations of the purblind fiscal madness.
The NSRL is a tax on inputs and production processes which can impair the costing mechanism and lead to pricing inefficiencies in the competitive supply market.
Whereas you 10% across-the-board tax on revenues (incomes) board is nothing more than a ‘simple’ sales tax in disguise which is nothing more than an unsophisticated version of VAT.
There was nothing ‘Novel’ about the NSRL.
It was nothing more than a reintroduction of a burdensome price distorting indirect ‘taxing’ regime on production which was replaced (quite rightly) by the technically superior VAT ‘recommended’ by the IMF to the Sandiford political administration but advantageously implemented by the Arthur copycats.
A simple increase in the VAT rate and a wider casting of an efficiently bigger net would have caught far more of the tax paying fish than some backward levy which could only be promoted by certified practitioners of fiscal tomfoolery.
Thank God Chris and the gang of theives were kicked out on may 24 2018
The day Barbados Graves a lifeline
Or by now we would be stelling more shyte than what happended on the South coast
I have read many on this blog calling for the writer to hand over his party’s responsibility for this column to more capable hands.
This idiotic attempt to canonize the last MoF has reached depths of absurdity unreachable by contaminated sunlight.
Dear sir, please do the decent thing and relinquish the responsibility of this column to more capable hands or lay it peacefully to rest. You can still honor in quitting while you are behind.
@ Mariposa
You are showing your blinkers in your comments on this Topic.
Chris Sinckler was an incompetent, arrogant and very very crooked DLP Politician.
There is no way anyone can defend him and also Freudel Stewart whose idea of Management was to disappear and let his thieving conniving Ministers run wild.
NSRL replaced with crippling taxation
What do we have here?
Freudal Stuart
Listen up first as my only association with this party is one of ideologies
Principles formulated by Barrow to put people first
Say. Crticize any failures of pastgovt is fear play and what democracy is all about
However when a page is taken from the political playbook on both sides there was an intention of having past government remove no matter who was in charge
Freundel and Sinckler did what could have been humanely possible to stop barbadians from taking a path of harsh and unrealistic austerity policies
Now if my comments stands for being a fan of past govt do be it
Say what anyone likes dislikes about past govt
They presented an economic plan to create growth and jobs and put money in the peoples pocket
Hence there was the Renewable energy project which eas beaten in the ground and Hyatt
So what we have going forward under present govt is almost a year of nothingness to formulate a growth plan of any kind
However still wanting to undertake and include Hyatt as a means to an end
Do we put Barbados first, right or wrong? How do we define this form of nationalism, can it be compared to Trump’s nationalism, or Mussolini’s, or Hitler’s, or is t more progressive? Are there caveats, if so what are they?
Mariposa, my Jamaican female friend was utterly shocked when she read that Barbados was the second richest country in the Caribbean … and bear in mind that this was during the DLP tenure …and beyond …
Hal Austin
I have never seen a Nationalism like the Jamaican Nationalism … now when you hear the Jamaican motto: out of many one people that motto holds true for every race of Jamaican… Jamaicans identify themselves by country first and race second no matter if it is Chinese, East Indian, White, Mulatto or Black …
Hal Austin
It is the kind of Nationalism that is the envy of all West Indians because no other island or island people comes close to the kind of Nationalism Jamaicans exhibits…
Lexicon
It’s patriotism
Gabriel
What evidence do you have to support your veiw that Jamaicans are patriots rather than nationalists? Don’t give me a definition … give me the actions which leads you to this conclusion?
Grenville, you okay???????
When last has William Skinner set foot in Bdos to know if prices have fallen? What goods attracted NSRL?🤔
@NorthernObserver February 13, 2019 2:08 AM
Thanks.
Exactly why I could not vote for Solutions Barbados.
@David February 13, 2019 6:23 AM “Who heard Stephen Lashley’s comment yesterday referring to… response to the initial position by the BLP.”
I did. And I thought that it was interesting too. I appreciate Stephen’s frankness.
Seems that the DLPites are not in universal agreement about things political.
Love Bobby too, but maybe it is time that he step out of the political arena?
@ SirSimpleSimonPresidentForLife February 13, 2019 7:50 PM
“I did. And I thought that it was interesting too. I appreciate Stephen’s frankness.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frankness my donkey! The man is a politician; not even a priest.
Now that Donville has been put behind political bars for life the ‘Lil’ man called Hitler has his eyes set on the easy prize of becoming the next sitting member for the constituency of St. John.
As the MAM/BLP public approval ratings begin to tumble when BERT bites deeper he also fancies his chances of becoming the leader of the DLP and the oldest and ‘shortest’ PM.
In the coming months check for much more cameo appearances before the camera of public opinion as he goes about in true Goebbels style of stabbing his former friends in their now discredited backside.
@ the Sage Annunaki
Say it ent so?
You mean dat de Minister of Wukkups of the Deceased Lickup Party is vying to get back pun de scene?
Dat mean dat de grandson going gots to get busy again?
Say it ent so!!!
https://imgur.com/ax1V06u
Rasta Children feat. Nattali Rize | Playing For Change | Song Around The World
Nattali Rize – Evolutionary feat. Dre Island & Jah9 [Official Video]
@ Lexicon,
Your analysis on nationalism s spot on. There is a reason why Indians, Africans, Chinese and Lebanese in Trinidad and Guyana separate in to individual ethnic groups. In Jamaica, in the main, they identify as Jamaicans.
Once again Barbados murder rate increase
this budget will be the first to show the cost of keeping the artificially high exchange rate. and i think most will be surprised how high a price that is. future budgets will do the same, while the overpriced bds dollar continues to retard growth. jamaica choose to keep civil servant jobs and nav on government debt and the expense of their dollar. we decided to keep the dollar and pay with jobs and a hair cut on private loans to the government. lots of taxes more to come, lots of jobs to be lost, lots of user fees and increased bus fairs, all to pretend that our dollar is worth .5 usd.
The plan is to reduce expenditure in the next financial year by 1.3 billion?
no doubt a lot of that cut in govt subsidies will be provided by the users of the services. also no reduction in tax take despite the recent cut in the corporate rate. that means someone else is going to make up the difference. more layoffs necessary to get the government anything close to right sized, and i can’t see all of this not impacting consumer spending and in turn private sector jobs. all needs to happen, but i suspect once again bajans will be surprised.
Given the significant items available to support such a deep cut we will see SOEs being drastically impacted.
What is disappointing is that we are responsible for the mess again. We went through a restructure exercise with Lloyd Sandiford in the 90s and through greed, disinterest in our system of government and a general lethargy we have repeated. The list is not exhaustive.
because both parties honestly believe that the way to get the most votes is to take from the productive and give to the unproductive. they only resort to proper financial management when they have to. when we can consistently invest in the productive and starve the unproductive will we grow jobs, and improve the standard of living for all and a freedom to manage our own future
We have political parties not anchored in a philosophy. As Dee Word will say absent the vision. They go with what is popular and worry about the rest after the damage is done. This is not a Barbados malady.
Like the proverbial Phoenix we will rise again from the ashes.
i think the problem is that we have political parties and a general population that is extremely anchored in the belief that it is best if what we want is provided by the government. all evidence shows that the govt is at best very ineffecient at providing what we need and at worst a total failure at it. daily the govt x in taxes in gives us back 50% of x in services and we smile and say thanks. imagine like the old people where you got a job, built your own house, sent your child to school, saved for retirement, etc. we have given up self reliance willingly to a system that is a proven failure. remember “job #1 is jobs”? so govt hired lots of people using debt and everyone was happy until the debt had to be repaid and 2008 happened and no-one would lend us. how about “job #1 is non-government subsidised jobs” and no taxes.
We know this, hasn’t the conversation moved to how we can disrupt it?
we are. or the imf is. but it will be very painful. 50 years of economic madness to be undone in 3 will hurt. assuming like after 91 we dont undo the gains again.
Is it a case we have no choice to coerce the right behaviors in our people or will it be a case of suffering the hurt to continue the behaviors we have become addicted. We can implement rolls Royce policies, however, what the last government has taught us well is that unless we have the buyin the policies will fail.
the real question is how do we convince the population that giving up one oppressor for another just because they look and sound like us dint advance the cause any. self reliance is best. that is a tough sell to the unproductive.
the real task is convincing the population that giving up one oppressor for another just because they look and sound like us is still oppression. self reliance is best for all. that is a tough sell to the unproductive.
Is that the question? A better question is where can we find a credible third option?
i think we disagree that we need a third option. we need the people to tell the govt what we require from them and what we will accept. if we “need” someone to tell us what we need and run our lives for us we have a problem. we need less government and less taxes. anyone who can’t provide that gets voted out. the b’s and d’s are only giving us what they think we want. even if they dont believe it is what is best. they are someone else will adapt to our new needs when we send a very clear and unchanging message.
i suspect that the message we send after this budget is that we have changed our minds and want back the printing press. the unions want more govt jobs. the private sector more subsidies and more import duties. the politicians more opportunities for bribes. etc. that is not the right message. the real questions is how do we change our wants to our needs and stick to the plan and the message. the parties will fall in line if the population wakes up.
Take from the productive what! What did the “plantation class” ever produce on their own? Those who are “productive” usually do so off the backs of the “non-productive”.
We must seek some sort of balance here. Government is necessary for some services. Just not for all. We must be more self-reliant but there are some things a government must do. There must be some taxes.
The thieves them are being warned…
glad enuff I did not see tiefing from the elderly and their beneficiaries.. as any honest profession.
https://www.facebook.com/jackie.stewart.965/videos/975680909308115/?t=73
All I want to know is…will they tell Prince Tampon how they tief from the elderly and everyone elseait for everyone to die to tief their properties… and use the UK crown to do it…something that does not even happen in UK.
AND…these rotten so and so and “badwords” ..ah done cussing for today… …got the goddamn nerve to want to drag Rihanna into their stinking apartheid racist, segregation system against their own people.
Wuh if they don’t tell Prince Tampon…someone else should though.
We need to get some of those big-headed people on Cave Hill to give us a more sophisticated analysis of election results over the years.
In what follows, I will give a very simple explanation of Barbados elections over the years. I can give a more sophisticated analysi(,put in some formal statistics) but I wanna be paid.
——My simple analysis*——–**
It is somewhat surprising that the Mugabites constantly refer to the 30-0. Here are results of recent elections
1986 DLP 24/27
1991 DLP 18/28
1994 BLP 19/28
1999 BLP 26/28
2003 BLP 23/30
2008 DLP 20/10
2013 DLP 16/14
2018 BLP 30/0
Clearly, lop-sided victories are part of the Barbadian political landscape. The 26/28 followed by 23/30 and then a loss
to the DLP suggests that we misinterpret the data if we take the ‘whitewash’ as a permanent defeat of the DLP.
In looking at the data, it seems as if the opposition comes into power with a significant victory and then the enthusiasm dies off. The BLP were firing on all three cylinders during 1999.. We see a fall-off in 2003 and the flame was extinguished in 2008.
Permanent defeat? No!
Based aon current performance: A three-peat is the height of optimism, a 2-peat lies within the realm of possibility, we cannot rule out the possibility of a one-term government.