MINISTER OF FINANCE Chris Sinckler made a number of major announcements today in the House of Assembly as he led debate on the Appropriations Bill 2014-2015.
In the presence of a full Government side including Agriculture Minister David Estwick as well as most members of the Opposition, Sinckler blamed many of the problems facing the island’s economy on deep structural problems that had been in place for several years.
He told the House that the problems should not be blamed on bad management by the current Freundel Stuart administration.
During his three hour presentation, he said that unless there was significant reform to the way statutory corporations were run, they had the capacity to pull down the Barbados economy.
According to the Minister, Government was giving a total of $1 billion annually to statutory boards to support their operation.
He said while the functions they performed were important, somebody had to pay to fund their activities.
Sinckler also announced that Government had allotted $68 million to the University of the West Indies for the coming financial year and the institution would only receive $40 million more in any supplementals over the next year. (GE)
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