Using an analogy of a patient, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner is describing Barbados’ economic condition as critical but yet stable and not out of the woods and she is saying that Government will have to take certain measures to get the “patient” on a growth path.
Sandiford-Garner, a Government Senator, speaking yesterday on the Appropiation Bill in the Senate, said that she felt Barbadians would understand the need for such measures once the reasons were explained.
She also said the “Politics of Explanation” a phrase coined by the Prime Minister [Freundel Stuart] would have to be the type of politics we practise” .
Giving a detailed statistical review of the performance of the economy in the areas of tourism, banking, credit unions and imports /exports Sandiford-Garner, however, spoke of “a parallel economy” which generated millions of dollars that cannot be tracked and escaped “the net of the treasury”.
“We don’t want to kill people’s entrepreneurial spirit …. but we have to give Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
Sandiford-Garner, who was appointed, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism after the Democratic Labour Party won the last General Elections, also focused on the “barrel trade” at the Bridgetown Port. She said she was surprised to hear that the Port benefitted minimally from that million dollar barrel trade, following a meeting she had with the board of the Port.
She also repeated the numerous calls made by various governments for a total reform of the public sector referring again to the barrel trade at the Port which she said could consume an entire day getting a barrel cleared.
Underling the tardiness of how things were done in the public sector, Sandiford-Garner spoke of a personal experience where she still was without a secretary.
“I was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary ….. in February 2013 – five weeks ago – I am still awaiting the Civil Service to give my secretary who was in the Ministry of Health [where the senator held a previous post] instructions to report for work in the Ministry of Tourism…It is an example which galls me because I come to government from a private sector environment …. and I do not understand why we have these processes within a system which are non-productive.” (JS)