The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) is urging Government to cut its expenditure sooner rather than later.
William Layne, chairman of ICAB’s public sector committee, said based on the Accountant General’s report, the fiscal deficit stood at 12.5 per cent of gross domestic product, or more than $1 billion.
Speaking during a recent news conference, he said this figure was “staggering” and no entity could continue generating such deficits.
“If we continue as a country spending more money than we are earning, there will be a point in time in which the domestic [lenders] . . . and the international lenders will say ‘no more’,” he said during the event at ICAB’s Hastings, Christ Church office.
Layne, a retired permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, said “serious decisions” had to be made about where the cuts would happen, noting that it would not be an easy choice to make.
Meanwhile, ICAB president David Simpson said while some cuts were needed, Government also had to become more efficient in the deployment of its services.
“We have made a call before that Government needs to do an analysis of what it really costs to run some of these entities and based on that cost, determine and share with the public what it is costing to provide these basic services that we believe are a necessity . . . ,” he said.
Simpson suggested that some of the costs may need to be transferred to citizens who accessed those services.
The accountant contended that if the burden remained on Government, further taxation would be required to close the gap between expenditure and revenue.
He said there was room for some aspects of Government’s services to become self-supporting.
“I think in terms of health care there are some basic things that we will need to ask citizens to pay for. I am not advocating that the entire health care system becomes a paid one but I think the reality is, as a country develops, those who are able to pay for services should be asked to pay for them,” he explained.
Simpson also noted that the public needed to be made aware of what it costs Government to put one individual through the University of the West Indies.
He pointed out that although education was important to the country’s development, not everyone needed a degree, whereas diplomas or technical qualifications might be better for some.
Simpson suggested that the high net-worth individuals Government was seeking to attract should be encouraged to invest in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital or the university. (NB)
