It hurts the way in which Government workers were unceremoniously sent home last Friday.
In these matters it is not so much what you do, but how you do it that counts. And, quite frankly, the entire process to date has been badly handled.
The fact that it became necessary for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to state on Monday that he was going to meet top officials to ensure the situation involving temporary workers was “not mishandled” speaks volumes to the amount of egg his administration has all over its face.
It did not need to come to this. People know the situation is bad and that Government must cut costs to avoid a deeper fiscal crisis that could lead, at worst, to us having to seek international assistance to bail us out. And they know such “help” would likely mean more severe cuts and possibly devaluation of our currency.
No right thinking Barbadian wants this.
What’s more, public servants were warned by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler in last month’s Financial Statement And Budgetary Proposals about the possibility of this action.
Sinckler said: “Government has been careful to design these expenditure adjustments in such a manner as to limit the potential for major job losses in the Public Service, through instructing line ministries and statutory entities to use retrenchment as a last resort, while preferring to institute creative programmes for work hours/days/week reductions among staff.
“The Ministry of the Civil Service and the Ministry of Finance will assume general oversight of the implementation of this aspect of the measures so as to ensure that the targets are achieved, while adherence to the preferred approach outlined by Government is maintained.”
Given that statement – though somewhat vague as the Budget had serious errors – people realized that job cuts could happen. So all Stuart had to do was tell the country, in a brief televised statement last Sunday night, that in keeping with the cuts needed to meet Government’s targets, a number of temporary assignments and acting positions that ended on August 31 would be discontinued and the workers affected would be notified the following day by the particular ministries.
That statement would have prepared temporary workers and those in acting positions. They would still be angry, but at least they would have been told something. That is human resource management 101.
Instead, people in acting positions lost that additional money, some as much as $600 and more, without a hint it was going to happen, while some temporary workers were not even paid. And to add insult to injury, they were treated to nonsensical statements blaming Government’s accounting system SmartStream It was awful.
These actions undermine confidence in administrations and the Prime Minister should recognize this.
Again, given that the Ministry of the Civil Service and the Ministry of Finance have general oversight of these cuts, Stuart and Sinckler, as the respective ministers responsible, should have been briefed on how many workers would be affected and when. But Stuart’s statement on Monday that he was intervening to ensure the matter was “humanely and sensibly managed” suggests he wasn’t made fully aware. Imagine that.
But what is even more disturbing than the mishandling of these layoffs is the impression I’m certainly getting that the administration did not do enough consultation within the civil service for preparation of the Budget itself. My feelings here relate to the serious errors concerning two of the new revenue measures – the consolidation tax and the solid waste tax.
The consolidation tax on gross income of people earning $50 000 and over, covering a 19-month period, was estimated by Sinckler to raise approximately $42.1 million. Its application was set out as follows: $50 000 to $75 000 (0.5 per cent); $75 001 to $100 000 (1.0 per cent); $100 001 to $200 000 (2.5 per cent); and over $200 000 (3.5 per cent).
But in a full page newspaper advertisement last Wednesday, the Inland Revenue Department, without explanation, adjusted the rate of tax for two categories: $100 001 to $200 000 and $200 001 and over, from the 2.5 and 3.5 per cent, respectively.
The Friday before that, Minister of Industry Donville Inniss said the solid waste tax of 0.7 per cent on the non-improved value of land announced in the Budget was entered in error. That tax, according, to Sinckler, would be placed on the non-improved value of land and replaced the greening levy announced last year.
Inniss said: “That matter is being addressed by the Minister of Finance and Commissioner of Land Tax” and that an appropriate statement to the level of correction would be issued.
Confidence is undermined when a Government makes fundamental errors in tax measures, bungles pay cuts and the layoff of workers. The Stuart administration must do better!
• Sanka Price is a NATION editor.
