SEVEN MILLION DOLLARS in total is being allocated to celebrate Barbados’ 50th year of Independence.
And in the face of criticism over the funds being expended, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler defended the $5.7 million budgeted in support of events to mark the country’s golden jubilee.
Speaking yesterday on the 2016-2017 Estimates of Expenditure and Revenue, Sinckler said $1.3 million had been spent in the last financial year for the celebrations, while an additional $5.73 million was being set aside for the 2016-2017 financial year which starts at the beginning of next month.
He stressed that the 50th anniversary was worth celebrating.
Although Sinckler said his speech was not focusing on the past, he began his defence of the $7 million figure by highlighting the efforts of former Democratic Labour Party leader and Father of Independence, Errol Barrow.
“In this regard Sir, it doesn’t at all escape me that we present these Estimates almost 50 years to the day, when our late revered leader and the Father of Independence . . . moved the second reading of the Appropriation Bill for that coming financial year 1966-67 – the year in which this island won its Independence from England,” he said.
Sinckler added that Barrow spent most of his speech explaining to critics why it was necessary to promote deficit spending in order to secure the country’s future economic development.
“[Errol Barrow] was anxiously preoccupied with changing the present in pursuit of ordering the future to the eventual benefit of coming generations. Today, 50 years on, the rest is history as the worn cliché goes, but what a great history it has been. Certainly one well worth celebrating.” (AD)