Fair is fair. During the period of the so-called ‘lost decade’ the Freundel Stuart government paid a heavy price for mismanaging the economy. If you needed a reminder the price was an unprecedented defeat at the 2018 polls. During that period the contentious ratio of debt to GDP rose north of 150%. In 2024 using the same ratio it hovers just over 100%. Some will be quick to explain the 2018 debt restructure was largely responsible for the reduction and that it had nothing to do with Barbados expanding its earning capacity.
Based on the recent central bank economic review domestic debt has reduced significantly, however, foreign debt continues to increase compared to the 2018-2019 period.
Believe it or not the purpose of this blog is to highlight (again) our deep concern about the National Insurance Fund and the insouciant way Barbadians continue to respond. The blogmaster and some members of the BU family have been repetitive in our concerns regarding the lack of available up to date audited financial statements. The quality of the governance framework at the rebranded National Insurance and Social Service (NISS) which includes a high level of political interference in the investment policy remains a concern as civil society didthers.
Much of what is transpiring is the private sector’s fault. In 2016, they had the opportunity to withhold taxes and NIS contributions into an escrow fund to force compliance. “We kan do dat” the island is bankrupt as it is.
In 2018, they again refused, the new administration would be different, give them time.
In 2021, they again echoed “We kan do dat”, this time it was due to the pandemic.
Enter 2024, and most doubts about ‘being different’ had been erased. Yes, they could get three readings of a proposed Bill in 1 day, and have it sent to the Senate, looking for an equally speedy approval. Yes, they could travel. Yes they talked far more than Froon’s crew. Yes they could create and pass record pieces of legislation. But as far as accountability, they were just as bad as the “lost decade actors’.
The private sector has the opportunity again to force compliance. Place funds in escrow and release them ONLY when the accountability Reports are released, as per the Law. They will not report unless forced to do so.
We Can Do This, and we should.
Barbados or Little England as it is known in the history books has modelled many aspects of our way of life after England, including the NISS. It is instructive to follow recent developments in the United Kingdom as it relates to the National Health Service (NHS). A recent report has found the NHS to be in a ‘mess’. The newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given NHS a warning – ‘no more money’.
We must continue to question the lack of drastic and urgent reform by the Mottley government to make many of our support structures fit for purpose in order to secure a quality of life for our children.
All too often the blogmaster develops a sinking feeling that our government is clueless about how to solve what have been allowed to morph into systemic problems. What makes finding solutions difficult is the extent the public service has been compromised to do its independent job. We have reached a stage where an unholy rot has taken root and the boundary between the public service and executive has blurred.
We have a large Cabinet to make light work of the problems (Motley’s rationale) but after a six year do we agree? The joke is that there is no relevant political opposition to create a dissenting voice in our system of government as it was designed to do.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
The expectation after a lost decade should be a period of ‘recovery, renewal and reform. It has been six years with a Mottley government in the chair – are we there yet?
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.