The government has introduced a new format to debating the 2019 Appropriations Bill. Ministers of the respective ministries and support staff will be questioned by members of parliament. It is early days how the new format will improve government, however, it must be said that hearing directly from government officials is a refreshing change from…
The government has introduced a new format to debating the 2019 Appropriations Bill. Ministers of the respective ministries and support staff will be questioned by members of parliament. It is early days how the new format will improve government, however, it must be said that hearing directly from government officials is a refreshing change from the annual humdrum of ministers spouting tired talking points.
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This govt has the greatest potential of breathing new life into the dlp
Who would have thought that with a 30-0 win that this govt would have squandered their winnings so early
Even the consultant of the IMF exhibit some nervous tension by sounding the economic alarm button serving notice to govt to have alternative streams for sourcing revenue
So far govt has shown it has nothing
Anyone that comes on BU and talks about government ministers are unable to run a country because they hired consultants ain’t too bright. In the land of Oxbridge, the government in trying to reduce spending is proposing just over £1 billion per year in consultancy services. In Australia it was over $4B in 2017 and last year in NZ over $500M. In one instance in Singapore, a consultant was paid $4M to oversee a school construction programme. There were 104 advisers to the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition govt in the UK. In 2017 there were 88. I guess all these Commonwealth countries’ governments were/are unable to run their respective countries because they hired advisers and consultants. SMFH!
links my friend
…singapore
Enuff you cant be seriuos comparing a country about 100 times bigger than barbados having sources for streaming revenue and can afford hiring consultants
Barbados cant even afford to buy one bus
The country is a hundred times bigger yes, but their Parliaments and Cabinets are much larger too and local government. The number of consultants/advisers is also larger as well as the quantum of expenditure. The central point remains–governments appoint consultants and advisers, for obvious reasons. By the way, your party did not buy a single bus, garbage truck or even a hoe for MTW in 10 years, but hired consultants including the current General Sevretary. Yet you never once said a word about consultants 2008-to 24 May 2018. 🤣🤣🤣
Yes Agree that govts need consultants in helping them to make decisions that are not in their level of expertise
However a govt that tells the people that the country is broke having no other resources than itself having no viable source of revenue to sustain its economy
Pray tell how can govt willy nilly hire consultants at astronomical cost and at the same time pressure the citizens into using their savings to help pay govt debt
Again reiterate that the Uk is.a much larger country having bigger and more municipalities and towns than barbados and would need more hands expertise in to advice
However one cannot discount the UK having resources from which to stream revenue to.pay thes consultants unlike barbados who has zero
@enuff
You can do better than to argue points with DLP yardfowls who will NEVER agree with you based on pro BLP positions. If you want to be part of change and enlightenment take the discussion to a next level?
If Mottley gets 8 out of 10 promises right DLP people will harp on the two she got wrong. You get it? Learn from the last 10 years for crissakes.
David i am not the only person sounding the alarm in reference to Govt expense in the hiring of consultants
Barbados Today editorial a paper which has bern giving givt the thumb up aporoach relay similar comments in their editorial
What govt did is unconscionable and should be question in far as rationality is given to fairness of the cost as applied to the weight of debt being handed to the people
Word on the ground says such consultants fee is unfair to the people pocket books
David i am not the only person sounding the alarm in reference to Govt expense in the hiring of consultants
Barbados Today editorial a paper which has been giving govt the thumb up aporoach relay similar comments in their editorial
What govt did is unconscionable and should be question as far as rationality is applied to fairness of the cost and to the weight of debt being handed to the people
Word on the ground says such consultants fee is unfair to the people pocket books
Population of UK…66 MILLION
Population of Australia ,,,,24.6 MILLION
Population of NZ…….4.8 MILLION
Population of Singapore…..5.6 MILLION
Population of Barbados…285,000…with ministers who are being paid to do what they CLAIMED they were qualified to do… but are now paying consultants to do….from day 1.
And who can forget the deceit, trickery and outright lies used to be elected, even invoking empty promises never meant to be kept and using a dead child and his mother…..lying to the public, pretending to care…anything to get into the parliament…but one must be very careful for what one deceives people to get.
“Former CLICO policyholders and investors feel they are reliving their nightmare ten years after the company collapsed.
..
Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA) president June Fowler said the organisation would shortly be returning to court “with a heavy heart” as they sought to get financial relief.
Fowler said she found it “very disturbing” that having been “so vocal and supportive” while in opposition, it appears the Mia Mottley Administration was now “so strangely silent on the matter of the CLICO/Resolution Life policyholders”.
Policyholders and investors remain in limbo, with Government’s debt restructuring resulting in a suspension of payments.”
David???????????????????
Could anyone explain to me what Vision 2020 is about?
@ Sargeant
Here is what Vision 2020 is in a few words.
“Theft of a Written Proposal dated ***”
Which is a continuation of the Transport Board and Transit Authority GPS shy$e
All Vision 20/20 is that when you submit you ideas 4 Barbados, you can be pretty sure dem gine teif de idea from right in front you eyes EVEN IF YOU GOT 20/20 VISION!!!
@PUDRYR
Can we focus on positive outcomes at some point?
Vision 20/20 is more waffle, just a year-long party. I have said before, the prime minister is not good at details, she likes flowery speeches. Where is the WRITTEN Vision 20/20 plan? Where is the government’s policy on crime? Where is the government’s policy on economic growth (isn’t this part of BERT)? Where is the government’s policy on a public transport policy? Where s the government’s cultural policies? Where is the government’s leisure and tourism policy, apart from a hotel corridor from Hastings to Black Rock, Sam Lord’s, Four Seasons and more hotel rooms? What is the government’s policy on Venezuela, apart from being neutral? What is the government’s health service policy?
Is there any policy initiative that this government has come up with on its own? We now know that the bogus Sandbox Regulation was imposed by the IMF; that the re-structuring of SoEs was ordered by the IMF.
@Sargeant
There is a Facebook page created to explain the initiative. What about the objective you do not understand?
https://www.facebook.com/WeGatherinBarbados/?ref=page_internal
A Facebook page is not a policy document. Get real. This government is sailing without a map, as it does with all its policies. They often substitute properly written policy documents for flowery and repetitive speeches. We are not familiar with policy analysis, so it does not matter. This is the Barbados way.
What are we gathering to do
Barbados is an expensive destination
Barbadians does not need Mia to tell them to come home
Barbadians understand the need of coming home to visit their family
This govt has embarked on political gimmiatrick policies as a pretentious and woeful act towards goverence
The diaspora cannot be easily fooled and knows the difference between an open arm welcomed and when being used as political staging props to serve govt interest
This 20 20 vision is a visionless approach which will not save barbados social and economic enviroment from sliding down a slippery slope to devastation
Hal as usual you are spot on with your forthright comments
This govt had no answers to the economy
Time is running out for this govt to be honest and have an economic policy absent of IMF intereference
The policy of gimmicks which govt introduced by way of PR stunts have run out of steam
This govt is beginning to look like a deer sterring in the headlights not knowning which way to go
The 20 20 idea seeems to have been an idea coming out of the survey which govt had send to homes
Cant belive that million dollar cuntsultants and elected ministers were paid to bring such a frivilous and lucklustre idea to the people without proper thought or vision
@David
I thought that you were directing me to a document of some sort but instead there is a politician’s speech, the same speech that was on CBC during the cricket game. Don’t want to sin my soul this Sunday morn but couldn’t you do better than that?
@Sargeant
The government will in time roll-out the initiative with the communications to support, commonsense dictates they do. The initiative is a 2010 initiative. There is time.
I get yuh “David” mek um up as yuh go along
Incidentally the Nation says that there are 600,000 Bajans overseas, are those voodoo figures?
@Sargeant
You appear to have some insight to the strategic planning for Vision 2000, “We Gatherin”. The blogmaster will have to defer to you 🙂
What is the context the 600,000 number was mentioned?
David
But my comments are not restricted to Mariposa or the Salemite’s eyes, anyone who visits BU can see them. All and sundry can therefore be enlightened or misinformed. Look at the nonsense of a response by Abigail. She points out that the UK population is 66M but ignores the 314 government MPs and 108 Ministers, including the 29 that attend Cabinet. Additionally, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved parliaments, London has a Mayor (with appointed, paid “advisers”) and an Assembly of elected members, Manchester and Liverpool also have Mayors. Plus there is local government across the UK. Nonetheless, there are still currently 99 Special Advisers to the government (37 to the PM) being paid between £65,000 to £142,000 annually and a £1B budget for consultants. Are those 108 Ministers and their 200 plus party colleagues incompetent? Her argument would make some sense if she took all these variables into consideration then gave me a per capita spend and hiring. The internet is a wonderful thing, especially when one has at least an idea of what one is looking for, then it’s not just an exercise in cut & paste.🤐
@David
What kind of blog would it be if we didn’t question the powers that be? Incidentally the Nation’s headline read “Mia’s Vision for a Better Barbados” (Freudian slip?) note it didn’t say the Gov’ts Vision etc. read the article and find the 600,000📲
@Sargeant
You are holding Mia accountable for the Nation’s headline?
“She points out that the UK population is 66M but ignores the 314 government MPs and 108 Ministers, including the 29 that attend Cabinet. Additionally, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved parliaments, London has a Mayor (with appointed, paid “advisers”) and an Assembly of elected members, Manchester and Liverpool also have Mayors. Plus there is local government across the UK. Nonetheless, there are still currently 99 Special Advisers to the government (37 to the PM) being paid between £65,000 to £142,000 annually and a £1B budget for consultants. Are those 108 Ministers and their 200 plus party colleagues incompetent? Her argument would make some sense if she took all these variables into consideration then gave me a per capita spend and hiring. The internet is a wonderful thing, especially when one has at least an idea of what one is looking for, then it’s not just an exercise in cut & paste.🤐”
Sometimes i actually wonder at your age….cause most people who live in the metropolis’ KNOW….that the bigger the country and the larger its population….THE BIGGER THE SOCIAL AND PROBLEMS…people are actually dying in UK by the tens of thousands.
let this be a teaching moment..
Barbados’ population….= 285,000
Barbados’ size per square miles = 266…….21Lx14W
ah feel generous this morning, don’t make it a habit.
…..THE BIGGER THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS….
BTW…ah think yall got problems…real life big problems of yall own making, on a tiny island, easily managed as Obama told the lazy Caribbean leaders…compared to the 50 state 300 million population he had to deal with..
…a little dot in the ocean with a tiny economy and lazy government ministers are acting like everything is rocket science needing consultants…steupppps…take wuh wunna get…lol..it is on…
https://www.facebook.com/RaquelGilkesUnscripted/videos/2243302645924060/?t=15
Enuff…ya can click the… watch on Facebook….. link embedded in the post…and enjoy..lol
Ah soon retire…give the younger folks room to strut their stuff…lol
ah need the time to stay closer to family anyway….may just hang until the next election…wuh ya think??
….don’t ya just love when a project works to perfection…i do.
@Waru
Could it be possible that there are cities with a population and an area that are larger than those of Barbados? I doubt it. We are numero uno
N̶e̶w̶ ̶Y̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶C̶i̶t̶y̶:̶ ̶A̶r̶e̶a̶ ̶3̶0̶2̶.̶6̶ ̶m̶i̶²̶ ̶P̶o̶p̶u̶l̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶:̶ ̶8̶.̶6̶2̶3̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶(̶2̶0̶1̶7̶)̶
Aren’t we on par with the US, China, France Canada, any European country, NZ ….?
Aren’t we punching well above our weight?
I find it frustrating when we run to examples that are not our equivalent.
Perhaps our references should be St. Lucia, St Kitts, Trinidad,, Jamaica, St. Vincent …
But I suspect if we use these as our reference points, many of the arguments that are being made will fall flat on their face
Theo…ah ready to retire from their madness…ah achieved most of my goals…let them run along now that the young and everyone else have learned and understand how they should be handled…the same way they lie to, cheat, steal from and deceive the people, brutally…just as the producer of the video is doing…effectively.
Barbados’ size per square miles = 166…….21Lx14W
sorry ah gave Barbados a 100 sq ml more than it has…..which proves my point beyond a shadow…
Fact-the population is bigger as well as the number of MPs, ministers, consultants, advisers, layers of government and budgets for advisers and consultants. The smaller size of the population does not negate the need for assistance beyond the Cabinet, just at a reduced level–commensurately. The point remains–consultants and advisers are appointed by governments across the Commonwealth and it is not due to incompetence as you argued. The skills and knowledge required do not all reside in a Cabinet or in the civil service. This may even be more evident in societies, with small populations. Don’t you spend your entire time on BU trying to prove you should be in the Cabinet? You may have the last word, as it is useless debating with people who struggle to grasp the basic elements of a debate.#dunceinseason#egofowlism
We should focus on the skill sets of the consultants given the calamitous state of affairs the country finds itself. After all the hot air is blown the government must be prepared to be marked hard if a criterion is that to who much is given much is expected. That day will come soon enough. Until it does we have a responsibility to ensure the criticism is constructive.
@Enuff
“The smaller size of the population does not negate the need for assistance beyond the Cabinet, just at a reduced level–commensurately. ”
We may be in agreement after all but have a large disagreement on one word —— “commensurately”..
HAGD
BARBADOS !!!!
“The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has uncovered a case of squatters paying for illegal water at the Rock Hall, St Philip squatters village.
Acting on a tip-off, a crew from the utility company descended on the village occupied by hundreds of squatters and discovered an illegal service connected without a meter, but hooked up to the main.
A BWA source told THE NATION residents revealed that for the past ten years some of them were paying a woman between $20 to $150 for buckets of water from the illegal connection.
The source said they traced several metres of buried pipe to a house in the village. Workmen turned off a ball valve which was discovered and then cut a section of the pipe.”
” Fowler said she found it “very disturbing” that having been “so vocal and supportive” while in opposition, it appears the Mia Mottley Administration was now “so strangely silent on the matter of the CLICO/Resolution Life policyholders”.
Policyholders and investors remain in limbo, with Government’s debt restructuring resulting in a suspension of payments.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/238625/policyholders-limbo
@Hants
@Everybody
Ten years?
Hundreds of villagers supplied with water?
Are bank accounts frozen?
Was this loss of water marked down as wastage by the BWA?
Does the BWA has any measure for determining water usage?
Can we investigate who dig the path for the pipe?
Who did the connection of the pipe? T
Was anyone arrested?
Are arrests coming?
What was the bail amount for the perpetrators?
This is a case where the slow justice system should work for the public good. Jasil somebody.
This area is a known squatters area. Adriel Brathwaite for political expediency would have turned a blind eye. It is no different to Don Blackman/Trevor Prescod which unfolded in the Belle Gully years ago.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/238630/-stop-placing-blame-fix-crime-pm
yeah…stop the blame game and fix what is wrong…without consultants and without violating the human rights of the people.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2019/02/24/come-home-bajans-in-2020/
Pure shite talk.
nothing is fixed..
corruption is not being addressed…oh really.
TheoGaz
You and your cohorts’ inability to robustly defend wunna position is painful. You really believe I would be able to find the number of government advisers and consultants to Caribbean governments? Stupse!
@Enuff
Let us not go down any paths locked in combat.
We Mugabites must not fight each other.
But you seem to have information for Greece, Australia, UK, NZ and Singapore.
This is actually the popular sentiment across the island. Government is lying and everyone knows yet, yet Mia has convinced herself of the exact opposite…
https://barbadostoday.bb/2019/02/23/bteditorial-for-those-with-cards-standing-in-line/
“Additionally, if the Ministry of Finance has at its disposal multiple homegrown economic planners dealing with the Government’s debt restructuring programme, why the necessity for an overseas concern? At the end of the day Barbados’ is a very tiny economy. Is this a demonstration of a lack of confidence in our local consultants? Are the foreign consultants practising some form of economics previously unheard of by mankind?
Mr Straughn spoke on Monday of consultants now “renegotiating all of the egregious contracts that have been agreed to under the previous administration”. Could he inform the public whether there is a consultant attached to the National Cultural Foundation? Is there a British consultant in the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports? Is there a consultant with the Ministry of Tourism? Attorney General Dale Marshall has already identified his consultant thus no questions need to be asked. Are these part of the re-negotiators? Could Mr Straughn, in clear and modest terms, speak to the going rate for a consultant and if that rate ranges from four to five-figure monthly salaries, how will Government save $1 billion from these specific expenditures?
The irony is that like the last Democratic Labour Party administration when it took up office in 2008 and criticized the Owen Arthur Government for allegedly spreading the wealth around to its political loyalists, the current administration correctly admonished the Freundel Stuart administration for such instances. Now the current government seems set to carry the practice to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, the lines at the Unemployment Bureau are getting longer and longer each month.dditionally, if the Ministry of Finance has at its disposal multiple homegrown economic planners dealing with the Government’s debt restructuring programme, why the necessity for an overseas concern? At the end of the day Barbados’ is a very tiny economy. Is this a demonstration of a lack of confidence in our local consultants? Are the foreign consultants practising some form of economics previously unheard of by mankind?
Mr Straughn spoke on Monday of consultants now “renegotiating all of the egregious contracts that have been agreed to under the previous administration”. Could he inform the public whether there is a consultant attached to the National Cultural Foundation? Is there a British consultant in the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports? Is there a consultant with the Ministry of Tourism? Attorney General Dale Marshall has already identified his consultant thus no questions need to be asked. Are these part of the re-negotiators? Could Mr Straughn, in clear and modest terms, speak to the going rate for a consultant and if that rate ranges from four to five-figure monthly salaries, how will Government save $1 billion from these specific expenditures?
The irony is that like the last Democratic Labour Party administration when it took up office in 2008 and criticized the Owen Arthur Government for allegedly spreading the wealth around to its political loyalists, the current administration correctly admonished the Freundel Stuart administration for such instances. Now the current government seems set to carry the practice to unprecedented levels. Meanwhile, the lines at the Unemployment Bureau are getting longer and longer each month.”
Yeap the unemployment line gonna be getting longer day by day
Cause Mottley moving at brek neck speed to repay the IMF 290million they loan barbados and the people are Govt only source of income
So expect more heads to be chopped under the IMF guillotine
When it finally sinks into Mia’s skull that she was NOT elected, hired and being paid by the people to fix up and elevate her friends, family, hangerson, imps, pimps and yardfowls….and the minorities who financed her election campaign, while neglecting the majority who elected her, particularly the vulnerable who are unable to fight back.
Yardfowls can stay deluded, we expect that.
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