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Call to Account – Corruption and Mismanagement Rife @Transport Board

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There is another important exercise unfolding in the Barbados Parliament. One of the most important working committees of parliament – PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE (PAC) – chaired by leader of the Opposition Reverend Joseph Atherley has been meeting to call to account the workings of the Transport Board. The revelations from the PAC so far corroborate the Auditor General’s several reports over the years – see recent Auditor General Special Audit of the Transport Board 2019. The Transport Board joins the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Barbados Water Authority and other SOEs to be deliberately mismanaged by BOTH political parties over the years to facilitate the siphoning of taxpayers dollars to feed corrupt behaviour.

 

It is good to see the PAC doing its work and carried live for the public to follow. From the number of views logged on the videos it tells a story of perennial disinterest by the general public. Truth be told the matter of a lack of civic awareness and lack of engagement in our system of democracy by Barbadians is a subject the BU family has flogged unmercifully over the years.

Some of us are quick to call for impact assessment studies; environmental, traffic, social  to be undertaken to inform important decision making by the authorities.   The blogmaster takes the opportunity to ask for another study to determine the impact of a poorly run Transport Board on the nation of Barbados about to celebrate our 53rd year of independence.

After watching the first PAC meeting on the 4th November 2019 the blogmaster decided to visit the Bridgetown river bus terminal early a morning to observe and experience first hand. The terminal has the look and feel of any public terminal, the PA system was used efficiently to inform the public when to queue at the gates.  A few private buses co-opted by the Transport Board to supplement public transport were seen doing the job. The one negative was the length of time one had to wait for a bus. The blogmaster boarded a bus at 9AM and scores of children were still in the terminal and standing at bus stops along the route waiting to be transported. The look of resignation on the young faces suggest the wait was a normal occurrence.

The mismanagement of the Transport Board and other State Owned Entities (SOEs) by successive governments have had a debilitating financial and SOCIAL impact on our people. A mismanaged Transport Board continues to contribute to the degradation of our society and the powers that be prefer to serve self interest rather than deliver on the mandate to serve the people. Something has got to give!

 

 

 

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162 responses to “Call to Account – Corruption and Mismanagement Rife @Transport Board”

  1. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Enuff

    Plse explain.

  2. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff November 27, 2019 2:56 PM

    But the man has point!

    You have to give Hal his ‘observational’ jacket of constructive criticism when the talking jack of all disciplines deserves it.

    How can a so-called professor(e) support a rebirth of a manifesto of Keynesian style economic expansion in the UK while backing austerity measures in the Bajan economy whose main engine of growth is symbiotically tied to economic growth in the very UK?
    The public infrastructure in Barbados especially the roads along the tourism belt and those that traverse the once spectacular views are in gross need of repair.
    So too are the public housing stock and utilities.

    As a professor you cannot be sitting on both sides of the economic management fence; unless you are a slick-talking serpent with a forked tongue whose bread is buttered on both sides from the cookie jar of double-dipping consultancy fees.

  3. SirSimple SimonPresidentFoeLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentFoeLife

    @Vincent Codrington November 27, 2019 11:37 AM “Simple Simon, Surely you are not suggesting that at no point in our history were our leaders tied to high morals and appropriate standards of value?”

    Yes Vincent. That is exactly what I am suggesting.

  4. SirSimple SimonPresidentFoeLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentFoeLife

    @Vincent Codrington November 27, 2019 11:37 AM “our leaders.”

    And in any event how does one become a leader of people? Who selects the leaders? Are the leaders selected by the majority of people? If the leaders are a small self selected minority how can they have moral authority to lead.

    My own father, a good decent hardworking man who died well into this 21st century, could not vote in this Barbados until he was well past his 40th birthday. So were the leaders acting in the best interest of my father and people like him?

    My own mther, she who died in this 21st century, also a good, decent, hardworking woman, and in 1951 a mother of 6 could not vote either until she was almost past her child bearing age. Were the leaders acting in the best interest of my mother and the many, many people just like her?

    i am not talking ancient history. i am talking contemporary Barbados, the Barbados of many. many people who are still alive.

  5. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Corruption is too rife in Barbados, too many names being called in thefts.

    https://www.facebook.com/jackie.stewart.965/videos/1178636672345870/?t=116

  6. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @ TLSN November 26, 2019 9:10 AM “Historians will one day carry out extensive research on how Barbados became a failed state. Future generations will need to know how it was possible for a country that had a minuscule population, that shared the same religion and racial background, having had no history of crop failures.”

    That Barbados of which you speak is a mythical place. You speak of cop failures. But Barbados was for most of the last 400 years was a massive sugar plantation which did not grow enough crops to feed the people who nurtured the sugar cane. So you can’t speak of lack of crop failures when people were barely subsisting on imported Canadian cornmeal, and Canadian salt fish. I have said before that my own brother almost died of hunger in this Barbados, and this was not because my parents were ignorant, or stupid, or lazy. You know don’t you that Bajans in this Barbados chased the rats out of the canefields and cooked rat soup, not because they were lstupid or lazy, and not because they particularly liked rat soup, but because there was little else to eat. Barbadians have endured cyclical starving times. You remember don’t you that until the 1960’s and 70’s August was know as the hard time.

    Guess why it was called the hard time?

    I am not that old but I remember a Barbados where people had to use dried cow dung as fuel to cook their meals. Do you think that people use dried cow dung because it is their first choice of fuel?

    A friend of mine whose mother is still alive recalls how her grandmother gave birth to 12 children, but only managed to raise 1 adulthood, because “in those days children used to just die” Do you think that parents feel happy about 11 dead infants?

  7. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Donna November 27, 2019 1:04 PM “That decorum and respectful behaviour by the “elite”

    I don’t know that the elite were ever decorous, and they were certainly not respectful to the people they regarded as their inferiors. You spoke of the maids. Ask those maids even now how many are treated respectfully by their employers? I have a cousin, not yet retired who worked as a maid for a sugar factory manager. It was only after he died and she went to NIS that she discovered that he was paying in only half of her NIS contributions. So for the rest of her life her pension will be much smaller than it ought to be.

    I don’t call that respectful behaviour, do you?

  8. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Hal Austin November 27, 2019 11:51 AM “@ Vincent, Ignore the waffle.”

    So I speak waffle, and you speak what, wisdom? Believe me I know Barbados much better than you do.

    You are way, way too full of yourself.

  9. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @fortyacresandamule November 27, 2019 2:31 PM ” Even basic service delivery turns in an exercise of atomic splitting. And surprisingly, this dysfunction also shows up in the private sector.”

    Why would you be surprised that “this dysfunction also shows up in the private sector”

    Aren’t the public sector and the private sector not all part of the same society. Don’t the public sector people and the private sector people not all raised in the same homes, chucrhed in the same churches, educated in the same schools?

    So why are you surprised?

    Less than 10 years ago our family was planning a dinner for 100 people, we called to make arrangements, for a site visit and reservations etc. and we were told by the private sector company “we at the bay house, call back.”

    Of course we did not call back. We checked several other places and contracted with a company which understood how customers and potential customers should be treated.

    So nope. It is not just public sector. The public sector and the private sector are cut from the same cloth.

  10. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @ Hal Austin November 27, 2019 2:49 PM “Here is a story, but do not laugh. Prof Persaud is the prime minister’s chief economic adviser, so presumably he is an advocate of austerity. But, it appears, he is a signatory of a letter by over 160 UK economists who are calling for massive state spending by a future Labour government. Which side is he on? We ought to know.”

    Perhaps the U.K. in in a position to engage in massive state spending, and Barbados is not?

    Simple truism: Circumstances alter cases.

  11. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    None pf them have respect or manners, neither public nor privat sector…..they believe themselves entitled and owed by the population…unprofessional and backward, that is all they are….ya always find yourself telling them off.

  12. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    Now I know that we have/had three Barbadoses.

  13. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife November 27, 2019 6:03 PM
    “Perhaps the U.K. in in a position to engage in massive state spending, and Barbados is not?”
    Simple truism: Circumstances alter cases.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    How come Barbados is in the financial position to import so many expensive luxury vehicles and secondhand steel donkeys mainly through Indian -owned businesses while the already overcrowded roads are in an almost total state of disrepair?

    What about the millions of IMF-borrowed foreign dollars that are thrown down the well of conspicuous consumption through the importation of stale water in plastic bottles which are then dumped indiscriminately all over Barbados eventually leading to the clogging of the drains and suck wells?

    It’s a matter of priorities. Barbados is holding the financial donkey by the tail and is about to get a massive back-kick up its economic ass.

  14. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @Hal. Yep, incompetency is one of our ”strength”, nothwitstanding our constant bragging about how educated we are as a nation. And not to mention our superb analytical skill, according to no other than the prime minister herself. The irony is lost on most of us.Then add corruption to that state of affair and the situation becomes very messy.

    I guess the professor has to eat too. Flip flopping based on your audience is part and parcel of the game.

  15. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @SimpleSimon. Fair enough. However, I am surprised because some of these businesses in BIM should have gone under long ago based on their history tardiness. Or are we just a bunch suckers?

  16. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Sell out negros of parliament.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2019/11/28/lesc-for-sale/

    “There is a possibility that Government could sell the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) in the not-too-distant future to its main occupant, the Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM).

    This hint came from Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds, who said the island’s need for a larger conference facility was rapidly increasing.

    “Increasingly, we are contemplating the reality that it would probably would be better to allow Ross [University School of Medicine] to have all of this place and we shift or move from the capital gains of a transfer of this asset to Ross to a brand new convention centre, which would allow for even greater capacity in terms of the ability to host people and host events.

    “That is not a policy decision that has been taken. I am just saying to you that is where our minds are at,” Symmonds told the opening of a local investor conference at the LESC on Wednesday.

    There have been reports in recent times that the RUSM, which is located at the Two Mile Hill, St Michael location, was in discussions with Government to purchase.”

  17. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    This is what corrupt governments do all the time, that is why the island cannot recover until these BLP jokers are gone FOR GOOD..

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2019/11/28/independent-senator-blasts-shoddy-bill/

    “Stop disrespecting us by sending this type of legislation up here. Stop it. Stop it with this nonsense and drafting. Finish your clauses. Do not send me a bill with incomplete information. Do your legislation properly… Rush, rush, rush it is time to stop. I cannot come in this place and approve badly-drafted legislation, legislation that is incomplete.”

    Taitt pointed out a number of loopholes, ambiguities and conflicts in the draft bill while raising a number of questions.

    “Who is the executive chairman’s boss? Who is going to appraise the person? Who is going to discipline the person? Who is going to determine if the person is entitled to incremental increases? I remain confused. What is the protection if anything happens? Does the Employee Rights Act (ERA) apply to that person?

    “I am saying anytime the Minister of Health changes or the Government changes the executive chairman is going to cost Government unfair dismissal damages. Who is going to implement the progressive discipline? The damages under the ERA are higher than the Severance Act.”

  18. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    The Aljazeera video stated that the Prime Minister of Grenada has been in power since 1994!

  19. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    This will have to be a bad dream. Will someone please wake me up?

  20. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    @SirSimple SimonPresidentForLifeNovember 27, 2019 5:49 PM

    @Hal Austin November 27, 2019 11:51 AM “@ Vincent, Ignore the waffle.”

    So I speak waffle, and you speak what, wisdom? Believe me I know Barbados much better than you do.

    You are way, way too full of yourself.

    Dear Simple Simon, Hal the bullshitter from the Ivy is not only full of himself, he is also full is full of shyte.

  21. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    @Hal, why don’t you roll up your shirt sleeves and go and assist the poor in England. Go and help out at the over crowded food banks and soup kitchens, help the homeless who pitch tents at night and have to get up early in the morning to take then down so that the authorities will not seize them. Go and act as an adviser to the many cities with boarded up businesses and high unemployment. compassionate folks like Simple Simon, Vincent, etc. will take care of the poor in Bim.
    Go get to work bullshitter!

  22. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    If we have a problem with transporting 300,000 people, will we be able to handle 1,000, 000?

    We have to stop trotting out quick answers which create a host of new problems and just fix the original problems.

    Given our past experience with different administrations, we have to examine each new/proposed initiative with a magnifying glass. What if instead of 700,000 new residents, they just wanted the first 1, 000 citizens with enough money to buy citizenship?

    Ten years down the road you will be sitting wondering where are the other 699,000 and these political jokers will be somewhere laughing at the million ̶d̶o̶l̶l̶a̶r̶s̶ citizens heist.

  23. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ WURA et al

    Any government with a two thirds majority can actually do anything it likes. The Duopoly has always seen this as a goal. You will note that Senator Taitt also said in that speech, that with such a majority , the government could have gone ahead and do the same thing without any debate etc.
    This is the point I tried to make in relation to the debate re Atherley’s legitimacy. Whether it is a one or two person opposition is hardly relevant. The real power is found in the two thirds majority. Already we have seen the constitution used effectively to enhance the government’s desires.

    The Duopoly Rules

  24. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    William…until such time THE PEOPLE…throw their asses OUT of parliament, then the 2/3 majority won’t say a pang.

  25. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “Operators of Sandals Resorts International (SRI) do not have forever to decide if they are going ahead with the stalled multimillion-dollar Beaches project in Heywoods, St Peter.”

    This is KEY location, closed for many years now, and of the utmost importance to Tourism in St.Peter, and the continued rejuvenation and urban renewal of Speightstown. Because it is legal, I suggest the GoB immediately begin compulsory acquisition of this land and project. This assumes, they do not own it already.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    It is the second time Butch has come to Barbados and sat doing nothing on prime real estate, Paradise is the other. He needs to be declared persona non grata.

  27. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    How about an “ole time” bus excursion to Heywoods ?

    30 metres above the high water mark belong to Bajans.

  28. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David BU

    Have you noticed there are only three (3) annual reports listed on the Transport Board’s website….. for financial years 2006 – 2007, 2008 – 2009 and 2009 – 2010?

    I have not seen any reports for financial years ending March 31, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. (Please note, because I have not seen them, it does not necessarily mean they weren’t prepared).

    Between 1997 and 2006 government purchased 316 buses for TB. In December 2006, TB received seventy (70) new buses (5 Mercedes Benz Sprinter for the disabled and sixty-five Mercedes Benz Marcopolo Torino units). Yet, over the years management has been struggling to have an average daily bus availability of 200 units per day.

    What does this say about TB’s maintenance programme, especially if you take into consideration the Board has its own mechanics in addition to UCAL, which is also “in-house,” and repairs were outsourced to Simpson Motors, L&N and Trans-Tech as well?

    Also, their quality assurance manager had over 40 years experience working at TB.

    Ironically, although TB was never able to achieve the 221 buses required to adequately service all routes and the average bus availability fluctuated each month during the FY ended March 31, 2010……… the number of drivers gradually INCREASED from 411 in 2006, to 512 in 2010.

  29. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David

    To say that Butch sat on prime land on two occasions is wrong. The project at St. Peter was halted because of differences between the administration and Butch. The other Sandals in Christ Church, according to all the tourism agencies, is a huge success.
    The other property at Paradise is an embarrassment to say the least. Don’t forget that Professor Persuad , was employed by the last administration to get investors for Paradise and he failed. However, he has still found employment with the current administration.
    In the event that the government and Butch cannot reach an agreement on the current situation , I am certain that it will not be another Paradise fiasco.
    There are two sides to the current story: one side claims it only wants what was promised while the other claims it cannot deliver on the promises made.
    As the minister has said the matter will soon be resolved one way or the other. I have no reason to doubt him at this time.

  30. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @Artax

    The TB has been used as an employment agency by the Duopoly. What we are seeing now is the result of such gross political largesse. Another result of party decadence.

    The Duopoly Rules

  31. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @WS
    “Don’t forget that Professor Persuad , was employed by the last administration to get investors for Paradise and he failed.”
    Failed? The GoB created a special purpose vehicle, known as Clearwater Bay, which the same GoB guaranteed its loans, which were to restart Four Seasons. Sometime thereafter, the lands associated with the project were reportedly sold, without a restart, to a Pharliciple Inc. And we haven’t heard a peep about it. Hence his tenure may have been very successful, not at restarting the project, but there is a whole lot of money, which nobody seems to be keen on accounting for. On the 2013 election platforms, the DLP has plenty to say about the current PM’s involvement as a lawyer, in companies associated with that project.

  32. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Artax
    this lack of reporting is par for the course across many of the SOE’s. It didn’t just happen?
    @HA will tell you its incompetence. I don’t buy our financial accountants are incompetent. Or incapable.
    If the reports were “prepared”, none have been laid before Parliament as is customary. Nor it seems were any available to the Auditor General.
    And after this much time has elapsed, with multiple outstanding reports, to claim ‘rife with corruption’ is fair, until the proof can be shown that is not the case. One only gets the ‘benefit of doubt’ for so long, then it expires.

  33. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @David. Butch has a tendency to buy prime real estate and sits on it for whatever reason. That’s how wealthy the guy is. I heard of two similar cases in Jamaica and another in The Bahamas where he did the same thing. I guess land banking is part of his strategy.

  34. David Avatar
    David

    @fortyacresandamule

    This is the point.

    @William

    The project at Haywoods was stalled before the decision by this government.

  35. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @Artaxes. How many buses do the TB need to service the island effectively? 300 buses sound a lot to me, given the number of household with automobiles.

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    According to the Auditor General report financials for the period 2010 to 2018 are outstanding, therefore the website should be updated upto 2009.

    https://www.barbadosparliament.com/uploads/document/7b537e9b1deebf85297cb96b93f5ebf7.pdf

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @fortyacres

    The last special audit by the AG mentions 178 buses required to adequately service routes.

    https://www.barbadosparliament.com/uploads/document/e3824c4c2348654c876fa1f27dbcaa35.pdf

  38. Piece the Legend Avatar
    Piece the Legend

    @ all of you who dare to go where Angel’s fear to tread…

    You would all be advised NOT TO GO TO THE BARBADOS GOVERNMENT WEBSITE and download anything to your hard drives!

  39. Piece the Legend Avatar
    Piece the Legend

    @ Artaxerxes the Superlative Archiver

    I wonder if you see that your superlative skills are being engaged in a Useless Exercise ON PURPOSE?

    De ole man will explain.

    1.Reports are missing for 7 or 8 years.
    2.Bus inventory and parts purchases are known to be totally at variance with the Auditor General’s reports
    3.There is a clear relationship between who either a. Signed the cheques or b. Who signed for the inventory
    3.Mugabe Mottley has been in power for 19 months
    4.Mugabe knows who the teifs are!
    5.Nothing is being done to bring charges against the teifs BY THE MUGABE REGIME

    Then it is clearly obvious that this is a campaign to create verbal dissent by using the expertise of people like you, HERE IN THIS DIGITAL SPACE, to make it seem like something is happening.

    You are not the PAC, and the same way nothing is going to happen when you risk opening the Infected GoB pdfs and compromising ALL YOUR COMPUTER DATA, nothing is going to happen at the PAC level because REVEREND ATHERLEY IS NOT GOING TO INSIST THAT ANY ACTION IS TAKEN AGAINST ANY THIEF

    Mugabe Amin Mottley will threaten to lock up people BUT THAT WOULD BE STUPID OF HER, since it will expose her to similar legal actions when she admits office in 2021!

    Does get entrapped by Mugabe’s agents Artaxerxes

  40. Piece the Legend Avatar
    Piece the Legend

    @ the Honourable Blogmaster your assistance please with an item here for Artaxerxes thank you

  41. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @HA will tell you its incompetence. I don’t buy our financial accountants are incompetent. Or incapable. If the reports were “prepared”, none have been laid before Parliament as is customary. Nor it seems were any available to the Auditor General.(Quote)

    Who is responsible for the preparation of the reports? Who is that person’s line manager? Does the person get annual appraisals? If so, what do they say?
    Who does the manager of the Transport Board report to? Who are the board members of the Transport Board? What are their responsibilities? What is the responsibility of the permanent secretary? Why is the minister not held to account by parliament? Why does parliament ignore the auditor general’s reports?
    For example, how can the NIS be years late in its reports and nothing is said/done about it? This is not corruption, it is gross administrative incompetence. But the notion of corruption transforms this in to a political issue which Bajans prefer and are more comfortable with, when it is to do with training and delivery.
    An annual report must be presented annually and on time? If it is late, then heads should roll. A biennial report must be presented every two years etc? I will bet anything that all the accountants have the appropriate qualifications; the managers have MBAs, MAs and PhDs.
    The crisis is one of managerial COMPETENCE, managerial COMPETENCE, managerial COMPETENCE. Not paper qualifications. Stop rotating mediocrity and employ competent managers, even if this means bringing in people from outside. Stop the nonsense about punching above our weight.

  42. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    fortyacresandamule

    According to TB’s annual report for FY ended March 31, 2007, the total number of buses were listed as 308 when compared with 240 recorded for FY 2006…. an increase of 68 buses over the period.

    You cannot seriously believe “300 buses sounds a lot.”

    Supposed, for example, the bus fleet totals 200 and the average bus requirement for any particular day is 175. If 2 buses each from Mangrove Depot, Fairchild Street, Pelican and Speightstown bus terminals were withdrawn from service as a result of accidents, inspections or for mechanical repairs, that is 8 buses less than what is required, which would ultimately affect the servicing of several routes. 8 buses can be taken from the remaining 25 and allocated to the 4 terminals. I understand this was done in previous years.

    Then, you must consider buses can be used from the 25, for charters and schools, without out disrupting the normal scheduled service.

    The unavailability of an appropriate number of buses to adequately service all routes results in disruptions or delays in the scheduled service…. and in some cases, routes being combined, (for example, routes such as Connell Town/Josey Hill; Boscobelle/Indian Ground/St. Lucy’s Church or Deacons Road/Grazettes/Cave Hill, that would otherwise require 8 buses rather than 3).

  43. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Miller November 27, 2019 8:16 PM “How come Barbados is in the financial position to import so many expensive luxury vehicles and secondhand steel donkeys while the already overcrowded roads are in an almost total state of disrepair?”

    It seems that we Bajans have a strong preference for “expensive luxury vehicles, and second hands steel donkeys”, and not much of a preference for excellent roads.

    As the old people used to say “ya can’t have it in the bottle and in the cup too”

    But as your compatriot Hal would point out, the old people did have no MBA’s.

  44. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David

    When was Paradise first purchased? How long was it idle? These are essential questions.? Paradise St John Polyclinic Greenland . All of them have one trade mark. They all remained idled or out of use through both administrations.
    I think Stuart bought Paradise in 1992 almost thirty years ago.
    Now you see why Hal talks about a failed state. How long has Greenland been idle? How long was the St John Polyclinic Idle before it was restarted?
    How long has there been a shortage of buses? How long have people been complaining about inadequate water supply. All of these issues go back twenty and more years. Gross incompetence and political skullduggery. Simple facts ; simple truths that no apologist or party junkie can deny.

    The Duopoly Rules

  45. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    The record is public. The Paradise was a private transaction until David Thompson made the decision to assist the project after the 2008 global meltdown.

  46. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    So, you are saying that it was a private project but it was not around for nearly thirty years ! Was the liquidation Centre a private project? Were the St John Polyclinic and Greenland private projects? Are the BWA and TB private projects. My main point is to expose duplicity. We have acquired the liquidation Centre in record time! It proves that the Duopoly can act when it wants to.
    BTW I note that after all the cussing that you cannot question whether Sandals is a success and has contributed millions in forex.
    There has to be a reason why we are bending over backwards to accommodate the “former” villain Mark Maloney but seem so eager to chase out Butch Stewart.

  47. David Avatar
    David

    You are moving the goal post William, Paradise was mired in the courts then Butch refused to sell. The truth about Liquidation will come out, eventually.

  48. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Hal.

    The TB saga should have played out this way.

    The failure of the GM to ensure financials were prepared should fall at the feet of the board.

    The failure of the board to ensure annual financials were laid should fall at the feet of the minister responsible for the TB.

    The failure of the Minister to ensure annual financials were provided falls at the feet of the Minster of Finance.

    The failure of the MOF to ensure annual financials were done falls at the feet of the PM.

    finally the fact that we do not insist that such matters are addressed is our fault. We accept mediocrity in everything and that is what we get!

    So you now see the pathetic situation we are in, as no where in the line of management did anyone do their dam job!

  49. Piece the Legend Avatar
    Piece the Legend

    @ Mr William Skinner

    One notes that for the last 3 months at least, you have been posting comments that are at loggerheads with the Honourable Blogmaster

    You must take care that your comments about the DUOPOLY are not moderated after being ascribed to “your submission was not posted because of the pejorative language directed at other commenters” namely the Barbadian population

    What is becoming evident about the Barbados Underground blog IS THAT MULTIPLE PEOPLE ARE LEVELLING THE SAME DISSENT AT THE MUGABE GOVERNMENT in different ways!

    Nuff people are being more vocal about this in a multiplicity of ways.

    You see procedural arguments, accounting practices, financial best practices, sectoral opinions, international agency perspectives AND REPORTS, everywhere THERE ARE COMMENTS!

    So, you have to be careful because, if you continue, you gone too.

  50. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ John A

    There has been a failure at every level, no matter which government was in power. It is cultural, gross incompetence. A system failure. A failure of our business education, managerial competence and oversight regimes.
    By the way, does Prof Persaud believe in austerity or in neo-Keynesianism? What is the economic advice he has been giving the government? This is important since it will determine how we escape the mess we are in.
    Where is the president to give leadership? Where is her vision, apart from kids being bilingual and able to swim? The nonsense at CBC is not the answer; CBC needs more than just title changes for the person in charge. Its problem is editorial content. Good journalism; good programming; imagination.
    Barbados is a failed state.

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