One day coming soon some disgruntled persons will attempt a Sidney Burnett Alleyne.
On the 15 July 2023 Prime Minister Mia Mottley sat down with veteran journalist David Ellis (see 90 minutes interview below) to answer questions raised early in the administration after she became the first woman to win government on 25 May 2018.
The blogmaster from time to time has circled back to this interview to use it as a measure of performance of Prime Minister Mottley and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) from 2018 to the present.
You will hear her stout defence for appointing the largest Cabinet per 1000 of population in the world. She will now argue the fact her government was reelected in the controversial snap election in January 2022 and won another clean sweep confirmed the electorate bought into government’s playbook. The blogmaster is of the view it was more a case that in the land of the blind a one eye woman is queen.
The other issue from the interview that requires repeat discussion is Mottley’s perspective on how the Freundel Stuart administration squandered tax dollars to support party hacks as consultants. Fast forward to about 25 minutes into the interview to hear her dip into the ‘red bag’ to talk a lot and say noting about the issue of tax dollars used to pay several consultants.
The blogmaster accepts that recruiting outside of the parliamentary group maybe required for specialized jobs – running a government must be complex. However, it is clear both BLP and DLP have abused the appointment of consultants through the years. It continues today even in a harsh economic environment where a caring government should be expected to make decisions that are sympathetic to the needs of the people.
We definitely need a different kind of politics in Barbados. This week DLP President Ronnie Yearwood was carried in the media instructing his party on the need to rebuild trust with the public. He is correct, the average Barbadian has become fully disillusioned with the type of politics being practiced in Barbados. The blogmaster like many had hoped Mia Mottley and the BLP would have exploited the overwhelming mandates received at the polls in 2018 and 2022 to introduce a new politics, a new way of governing. It looks like the same old, same old.
Too many dismiss the caller on the talk shows who goes with the moniker Anti-America because of his oftentimes brusque delivery style. However, for those who take the time to listen to his message, he seems to be hitting close to the mark to what is required to drive change in Barbados. The current governance system serves its narrow interest by growing the bellies of members of the political directorate, serfdoms and campaign donors at the expense of the proletariat.
Why has the local fourth estate relinquished its role to actively pursue information in the interest of the public? Why is it so difficult for the public to be informed who are ALL the consultants on government’s payroll? One day coming soon some disgruntled persons will attempt a Sidney Burnett Alleyne.
This article is confusing as I always had budavid down as a BLP-ite due to the inherent Bu lean against DLP.
Now it seems as he is part of the opposition whomever is in.
People should be careful what they wish for as low life politicians on the outside will use any and all arguments to get a toe hold when they are stumped. So it is better not to criticise a party unless you want another one in.
Independent people outside any party affiliation will vote for the best of the worst and bear responsibility when they don’t make the grade.
The other and largest contingent is the don’t vote don’t care posse.
Now I will digress about another Bu peculiarity which is the Amageddeon end timers posse who’s answer to everything is the Book of Revelations.
Are prophecies just dreams?
As if to support the blog what is the headline on today’s front page? The Auditor General again expresses concern about financial rules being breached, in this case as it pertains to the Sam Lord’s project. Bear in mind the Prime Minister’s office is plugged with an abundance of high price consultants.
The PM has defended a large cabinet by saying many hands make light work. You be the judge.
Source: Nation
Of course, David is the opposition. There is always something worth opposing. Somebody’s got to do it.
No PAC, one of the important working committees of parliament.The truth whether an elected opposition or not the PAC does not function as it was meant to in our form of democratic system. Although it suits the political directorate to maintain the status quo.
Enuff will say to us, blame the Public Servants.
Source: Nation
Another example to question if many hands do make light work. Transfers in the ministry of education effected on the night before school starts.
Source: Nation
budavid is being too harsh again with the mantrol of differing POVs
For What It’s Worth
the point I make is a warning that there is a massive difference when truly bad parties are in power and the damage done
… There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
… I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
… There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
Acceptance
This is all brazen political juggling. It’s a known fact that political affiliation has been the order of the day at MOE under both administrations.
Many outstanding teachers actually refuse to seek promotion because they don’t want to bend to the incompetents masquerading as education ministers under both administrations.
In other words they sacrifice themselves for the love of their profession and principle.
All of this is reheated cold soup . I am certain that hundreds of teachers would read this and give one big stupse…….nothing new here.
Government by chaos.
Reminds me of a toy train with all the bells and whistles.
Pick nonsense from nonsense!
To the ‘BLOGMASTER’ who wrote this fluff, do you comprehend the word ‘serfdom?’
What different kind of politics do you need in Barbados? Can you offer the people a solution? Tell us something new, something different.
Should you not take the time to coherently knit simple sentences together and then attempt to weave compound sentences to clearly elucidate and convey your thoughts/thesis to the public?
Here is an individual who gets all pissy because others do not think in simple thoughts of sheep like he’d wish, yet he has demonstrated that he cannot even think clearly furthermore write clearly, while attempting to police the thoughts of others.
Why were you not offing comments on this blog years ago when it was in its infancy? Are you so established now that you can afford to shut down commentators?
Clearly you’ve demonstrated why Barbados stands at a dimly lit crossroad…..EVERYONE THINKS ALIKE!
You are clearly domiciled in a vitreous place blog’master.’
David, if Enuff ‘would say, blame the Public Servants,’ then, in all fairness to him, he would be correct. Simply because politicians do not have direct access to public funds.
@Artax
And that would be a cop out given the model of governance practiced in Barbados.
Why would politicians NEED access to public funds when they have FULL access AND control of the inept Public Servants who do?
David, perhaps you may want to explain how it is “cop out given the model of governance practiced in Barbados,” not based on what you ‘think,’ but on your familiarity or in depth knowledge of government’s financial regulations.
@Artax
Bush Tea
Hit the nail on the head in his comment.
#bigworks
LOL @ David
You seem yet to realize that B.B. Bajans HAVE the ‘government’ that we DESERVE…
…a bunch of clueless women and she-men – who are fully indebted to the descendants of our long-time plantation masters – both at home and abroad, and whose ‘strengths’ lay in emotional bullying and in the weak-kneed shiite-men they have around them.
Boss…
There are some people who you CANNOT help!!!! …ask the Saffry chap in Bridgetown.
There is ONLY one way to solve such endemic idiocy …and it is on track….
BTW… you should have banned Kiki YEARS ago …as Bushie had suggested, and invited AC back to liven up the damn blog….
murda!!!
By ‘saying,’ politicians “have FULL access and CONTROL of inept Public Servants who do,” you essentially apportioned BLAME to civil servants, thereby CONFIRMING the ‘assumption.
@Artax
It would not have passed you that often times Minister Ryan Straughn is constrained to respond on the AG’s report. Anyway this is a moot point, the political directorate calls the shots.
Okay, David. Let us accept “the political directorate calls the shots.” If an accountant of a statutory corporation complies with an order from the minister or chairman, to authorise the disbursement of funds for questionable purposes, or without the required supporting documentation to substantiate payments, knowing it contravenes the rules and regulations governing the control and disbursement of public funds, for which he/she is accountable. Should the accountant be absolved of blame or given a ‘free pass because the minister or chairman tell them to do so?’ Or, should he/she maintain his/her personal and professional integrity by refusing? Bear in mind there is also a ‘Code of Professional Ethics’ accountants must adhere to.
@Artax
Of course not!
@Artax
You heard Minister Adrian Forde admit to breaches in the financial rules at NCC? Should a public servant have issued the confirmation?
One of the problems I have with BU is some contributors ‘conveniently adjust’ their opinions on issues, based on WHO comment thereon. I remember mentioning in this forum, of complying with an instruction given by the board of a SOE at which I worked, to transfer any funds remaining at the end of the financial year to the consolidated fund. Caswell Franklyn ‘said’ ‘did not know what I was doing,’ in other words, incompetant. He was supported by de pedantic Dribbler and a few other contributors. There were’nt any examples given or references to ‘scape goats.’ There was a general acceptance of BU’s ‘golden boy’ comments from the SAME PEOPLE who are NOW blaming the ministers and chairmen for misappriation of funds. Hypocrisy at its best from the usual suspects.
@Artax
You will recall the AstraZeneca procurement matter and who led that matter? Unfortunately what should happen based on separation of powers and the incestuous nature how government’s business is done is known.
@Artax
If the chairman who is appointed by the minister signaled concerns about reported breaches are we to think Minister Forde would have been unaware?
Come on, David, don’t be silly. The minister is responsible for what occurs in ministries and SOEs under his/her portfolio. A point made by in this forum on several occasions and recently reinforced a few days ago in your Ronnie Yearwood thread. You are essentially presenting two different arguments. However, a clerical officer was charged and convicted for stealing in excess of $1M from the psychiatric hospital. Should we blame the minister and should the clerk issue confirmation of his theft?
No!
The minister although he is not responsible for financial disbursements in this Barbados the blogmaster k owe very well, the political directorate is all powerful. You may have the last word.
David, by asking questions based on comments you believe I made, is essentially creating strawmen to knock them down. And, you’re ‘all over the place’ with this Forde issue. I suggest you should relax, gather your thoughts and come again.
@Artax
The blogmaster is fine. The politicians and public servants it can be stated these days there is no demarcation.
Party supporter to M.P.
Skipper things brown
M.P. hold on there’s a little thing coming up soon
Party supporter : how soon
M.P.: A week or so
One week or so later
M.P. to chairman of board:
My brother ah hear you got a lil ting coming up moving some stuff
Chairman: what yuh need
M.P. one of my boys need a little something
Chairman : send me the name
M.P. ok bro’
After phone call:
Party supporter : dat will cost $x
Chairman : No problem
M.P. a few weeks later:
Yuh get fix up
Party supporter: tings good
Auditor general report
Funds not properly disbursed or accounted for.
And round and round it goes.
Answer : Find a scape goat to blame for it and we all know the scape goat.
David
“One day coming soon some disgruntled persons will attempt a Sidney Burnett Alleyne”. Promoting one-side of the story also contributes to public revolt.
You mentioned that Barbados “has the largest Cabinet per 1,000 of population in the world.”
So my first response is to look at how we compare regionally and, for the fans of Ronnie(wh)O?, the UK and Singapore.
Barbados – Cabinet 23; Population 282,000.
Trinidad – Cabinet 31; Population 1,526,000. There is also the Tobago House of Assembly 15 members (9 “Ministers”) and 14 Municipal Corporations (141 Councillors) each with a Mayor or Chairman and its own decision making Committees akin to a Cabinet.
Jamaica – Cabinet 31; Population 2,826,000; 14 local authorities (228 councillors). Each with its own Mayor and Council, which sets policy.
St. Lucia – Cabinet 15; Population 180,000.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines – Cabinet 12; Population 104, 340.
Dominica – Cabinet 13; Population 72,412.
Antigua & Barbuda – Cabinet 9; Population 93,219.
St. Kitts & Nevis – Cabinet 9; Population 47,606.
Grenada – Cabinet 14; Population 124,610.
Guyana – Cabinet 25; Population 805,000. Guyana also has ten regional development councils, seven municipalities and 65 neighbourhood democratic councils; as well as 75 Amerindian village councils.
United Kingdom – Cabinet 24 plus 99 additional Ministers; Population 67,672,000. There are also Assemblies in London (an elected Mayor, 10 appointed Deputy Mayors, and 25 elected Assembly Members with Committees); Scotland (129 elected members with a First Minister and 30 other Ministers and Junior Ministers); Wales (60 elected members with a First Minister and 13 Ministers and Deputy Ministers); and Northern Ireland (90 elected members with a First Minister and 9 other Ministers when fully functioning). Add 11,930 or so Councils with about 20,000 elected councillors. Each Council has a Cabinet. Finally, there are currently 117 paid and unpaid Special Advisers across the various ministries, with salaries ranging from £40,500 to £145,00. The PM has 41, 30 are paid at rates for the most part higher than what Ronnie(wh)O? claimed the PM makes.
Singapore – Cabinet 36; Population 5,454,000.
In most of the countries where local government exists, various matters such as garbage collection, policing, health, street cleaning, roads, streetlights, education, planning etc are dealt with at the local level.
@enuff
The blogmaster is not interested in any benchmarking to countries that have historically lagged Barbados, aren’t we use to being the model?
The point made is that the reason given for appointing a large cabinet in Barbados was that many hands make light work, however, when we read the AG reports, listen to talk shows, number of false starts to government projects etc there is no justification for the large government. It is a simple point.
“BTW… you should have banned Kiki YEARS ago”
Is that the only song you know?
B Side
The World is Ending Again
Yes, AGAIN!
@ David
To be fair Artax has a valid point in that the minister is not responsible for the day to day activities. In some cases there is a board or other structure in place as well. That is what is written anyhow. But in reality what happens?
Let’s take the NIS for example, the ministers from B and D have done as they like with the NIS fund. As a result many will find their first pension cheque and death grant coming in the same envelope. So hence what should happen in principle does not happen in reality.
Truth is we will never know the true cost of Sam Lords because from what we can see, the accounts are in a mess. That of course will not stop us from deciding what to rent it for though, after all who needs such boring data anyhow to make a decision.
Some politicion will no doubt still stand up and say ” what a successful project this has been.”
@John A
The blogmaster is aware how the government is suppose to function. What is being stated is that there is no way in Barbados a chairman appointed by the minister would have noted concerns at board and the minister not be aware. The blogmaster stands by this position.
@ David
I Agee with you but the question is if the chairman or board did state their concerns would it of even mattered?
I think the NIS is a classic example of when a minster is hell bent on destroying an entity how easy it can happen, regardless of whether a board exist or not.
@John A
That is a fair point but were the blogmaster the Minister a statement would have been issued to get ahead of the note from the AG to show some initiative dealing with the matter. We t would win public support?
David, there is a process. The auditors would’ve outlined their concerns to the organisation’s director/chairman, which would’ve initiated an investigation, the results of which together with necessary explanations would be communicated to the Aud Gen Office. And, included in the Aud Gen’s report. Obviously, the minister would be aware of the concerns through discussions with the chairman and review of the board minutes.
@Artax
The blogmaster understands there is a process, a process that is not working. Year after year we feature AG notes and what. If the public service is failing it is left to policymakers to revamp the system.
@ David
They are few Tony Marshall’s in this world unfortunately.
This writer supported Mottley when she argued that many hands make light work.
And given the state the other boys left the country in we would be so minded in similar circumstances.
Now that we have more than five years as a tract record no such meme could receive any independent support.
For only people like the perennially loyal Enuff will be prepared to ignore the less than stellar performances of this Mottley crew.
Indeed, from top to bottom we’ll be pressed to avoid giving them all a failing grade.
Those who rightly contended, from early on, that there was too much of ‘an army of occupation’, as once said by barrow, our words, within this regime must take a bow.
This represents a spectacular failure. For it means that even with a bloated army Mottley was not able to avoid failure.
Having failed, it’s high time for Mottley to ruthlessly apply the machete to the otherwise unemployable around her.
“who are the owners of Sam Lord’s Castle and how the expenditures on the Sam Lord’s Castle Redevelopment Project are to be treated”
How did we get back here?
We cannot find out who owns Paradise or where the money went which was supposedly paid for the land…and now ownership rears it’s head again.
Even the BTII seemingly were unaware the land they sold Kinch, or parts thereof, were not owned by them.
One word is the key to change…remittances. Without remittances the bricks come tumbling down.
In the comics one of the ‘most feared crime fighting team’ is the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin.
Sadly, our duo of Dale Marshall and Corey Lane seem to have the super power of invisibility. Our attempt to mimic the comics have failed and given us a disappearing duo. They have not been heard from or seen in recent times.
Perhaps two more team members will be added to this disappearing duo and in our parallel universe we will have the failing four instead of the fantastic four.
Don’t you wish you were in a comic book.
Deja vu
Nothing is new
Just circling the mulberry bush. The auditor general report will be dissected and then shelved.
New legislation will be introduced; commissions formed … The smartest men in the world will once again be outsmarted by the smartest politician in the world.
Deja vu
Nothing is new
David
Of course you were benchmarking. I was merely laying out the facts for my part two. But before I proceed, how do you determine that the Cabinet is too large, based on what? Not a benchmark? LMBAO! It can’t be based on the AG Report and call in programmes because to do so you would have to show that the failures/complaints outweigh the successes/compliments. Good luck demonstrating such.
The current Cabinet consists of 22 Ministers, I’ll include the Parliamentary Secretary to make it 23. Stuart had 18; Thompson 19 and Arthur’s last Cabinet 18. So the current Cabinet is 4/5 members larger than what obtained under Arthur, Stuart and Thompson. The key differences between your hero David Thompson’s Cabinet and the current one are the splitting of the AG and Home Affairs, Infrastructure, Crime Prevention and the QEH. The structure seems aimed at facilitating continuity in certain ministries where regular travel is required by the line minister, crime, the QEH and the government’s legislative agenda. To support your position, do some digging and let the blog know what government has accomplished Isn’t that what the PM said to judge her Cabinet size by? Is/will Corey’s appointment work in addressing crime? Will the A&E and QEH improve by having a dedicated Minister? Is Duguid speeding up the planning process and getting projects out the ground faster? After all I remember how this same blog cuss the Ministry of the Blue Economy when it was Kirk Humphrey. Yet between 2008-2021, even with 2 years of Covid disruption, on fisheries alone he managed to repair or rebuild 6 of the fish markets in Barbados. Those phytosanitary upgrades the Dems couldn’t do in 10 years. I’ll reserve my judgement.
David, I want to offer congratulations and best wishes to Ashton Hoyte, a visually impaired young lad who began his secondary school journey at Harrison’s College, this new school year.
@Artax
A good news story amid the din. Let us wish him well. It is good to see, slow though it is, the inclusion of differently able people in the traditional structure. Well done HC. We have seen it at a couple other educational institutions in recent years.
If not now, when?
The United States, from whence these structures depend, as a colony, for sustenance, has a national debt of 33 trillion.
A debt which will be 50 trillion by 2030. Currently interest alone is one trillion annually.
Financialization gone mad!
And the only thing the Mother Country can do is deploy government to aid corporate interests at the expense of everybody else.
Barbados too sees government as such an instrument.
That government itself cannot justify its own existence, as measured by its relative size and failures to deliver, should be a wake up call as it comes within an international environment which becomes more and more unstable by the day.
BTW, these debt levels, though real, are notional, because the USA does not intend to ever repay them nor expects to be called upon to so do.
Sooner or later this shell game must end.
Off topic recently heard Mr Blackett saying the cabinet is a cost over run on brasstacks.I had to listen to 5he repeat later on.This coming from a man who as minister for 10 years in my view said or did little of consequence.In my view he is best remembered for keeping noise for the reinstatement of their 8 percent pay cur and for being reported involve in the cussfest of Ms Mottley near the stadium.He was in my view onwe of the biggest cost overruns of the last dem government.In fact most of them were except in my view, Mr Sealy, Mr M. Lashley in housing and to a lesser extent Mt S. Lashley in culture and Mr Inniss as health minister.I gone.
failure.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/09/26/speakingout-our-primary-school-crisis/
Source: Nation
Wait a freaking minute! Caswell Franklyn giving a speech at DLP HQ? Is that the same Caswell Franklyn that executives of the DLP tried to prevent giving a speech at the St. Peter constituency branch of the DLP?
The DLP doesn’t know which way is up
@Sargeant
Yearwood had to make a call, allow the old and disgruntled guard who are narrow minded in focus to ride a position that is popular read NIS or deescalate and wait for his time. Best in mind he is trying to solidify his position. This will come when he wins a seat.