Have International Financiers Tightened Up Barbados’ Credit Since Cricket World Cup?
Prison Warders Not Paid Since February
SINCE FEBRUARY more than 50 temporary prison warders have not received one red cent.
And while the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) is not threatening any protest action, deputy General Secretary Derek Alleyne said yesterday the situation was “unreasonable”.
He told the DAILY NATION that he met with the ministry of Home Affairs back in March and the commitment was that the situation would not recur.
“We want the people to get their money. This level of hardship is unreasonable and unconscionable. This is nothing new, this is a reoccurring problem and they (ministry) have promised that the people would get their money but the same story reinvents itself,” Alleyne said.
Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs Dale Marshall said that while he was not aware of the particulars of the situation, he acknowledged that the records showed that some warders were not paid since the middle of May. The issue had come up for discussion just last week at a meeting, he added.
Marshall said that he had asked the Chairman of Public Service Commission, Nigel Jones, to look at proposals made by the Ministry of Home Affairs where a small committee would be delegated to oversee the payment of the substitute workers.
… continue reading this article at The Nation News (link here)
Context Is Everything!
If I’m late with a mortgage payment after ten years of always on time, the bank won’t be terribly cranky because they know our family is hard-working and reliable. Be late again the next month, and eyebrows raise. When you’ve been late four out of the past six months, alarm bells start to sound.
Here are a few of our past articles. Like I said, context is everything.
Think “Borrow and Spend – Steal A Bit, Borrow and Spend – Steal A Bit, Borrow and Spend… Oh OH… Looks Like We’re A Little Late With This Month’s Interest Payment…”
March 13, 2006 – Secret Memo Highlights Impending Cricket World Cup 2007 Cash Crunch
March 26, 2006 – “Barbados Government Cash Flow Problem – Tip of the Iceberg?”
March 19, 2006 – Barbados Free Press Readers Comment On “Is Barbados Bankrupt?”
April 25, 2006 – Barbados Spending Cannot Continue – And GEMS Scandal Just Keeps On Going And Going And Going…
June 26, 2006 – 1000 Barbados Water Authority Employees Walk Out Over Non-Payment Of Wages
June 27, 2006 – Barbados Government Cash Flow Problem?
July 13, 2006 – Barbados Police Recruitment Plan – Half The Pay Found Elsewhere
July 24, 2006 – Horrors!!! – After 12 Years Of Borrow and Spend, Barbados PM Discovers Money Has To Be Paid Back
September 5, 2006 – Some Barbados Ministry Of Health Workers Not Paid For 3 Months
October 3, 2006 – Barbados Government Priorities: New Cricket Stadium, Flyovers, Golf Courses – While Citizens Haul Water In Buckets, Use Outdoor Pit Toilets In The Dark
January 8, 2007 – Barbados GEMS Hotel Scandal Still Costing Big Time Tax Dollars – Will It Never End?
February 21, 2007 – Barbados Auditor General Says Millions Missing – We Say No Laws Were Broken
March 4, 2007 – More Labour Troubles Because Barbados Government Can’t Meet Payroll Again
March 15, 2007 – How Long To Pay Back $51 Million Barbados “Investment” In Harrison’s Cave?
March 25, 2007 – Is Barbados Tourism “Growth” Really Just Inflation?
May 17, 2007 – What Happened To The Money From Hotel and Resorts Ltd’s Assets Sale? How Much Went Into David Shorey’s Pocket?
May 28, 2007 – Barbados Underground Barbados Spends Millions On CWC 2007 And Other Projects But Ordinary Workers With Children To Feed Continue To Wait Over Two Months For Wages
May 29, 2007 – Again – Barbados Government Workers Not Being Paid For Months, Weeks
June 12, 2007 – Patrick Hoyos – The Selling Of Barbados “To Keep Our Artificial Economy Ticking Over”
July 6, 2007 – The Legacy Of Cricket World Cup: Debt, Debt And More Debt
July 23, 2007 – Cricket World Cup Stiffs The Barbados Police – Officers Owed Over A Million Dollars For Security Duties
August 5, 2007 – Barbados Psychiatric Patients Not Being Fed Because Road Taxes Not Paid On Hospital Vehicles
August 21, 2007 – Nation News: Prison Warders Haven’t Been Paid Since February
August 22, 2007 – Queen Elizabeth Hospital Owes Millions To Suppliers, Some Haven’t Been Paid In Four Months
24 Comments
August 21, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Bankrupt ??? This gov’t is Bankrupt of ideas, this gov’t is Bankrupt of a moral base, it is financially Bankrupt. just Bankrupt of proper leadership. Resign please let us progress again.
August 21, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I have no doubt that the Governments budget is stretched to the limit. And I think this is in a large part due to the colossal failure of CWC and the debt load resulting from it.
But here is what is of even greater concern to me and I think it shows that the BLP Government is falling apart.
To have the press report such a disgraceful situation as Warders not being paid since February 07. And to then have an Attorney General of all people trying to nit pic by saying it wasn’t February but May is most unprofessional coming from a man in charge of a portfolio responsible for Justice. But here is another side of this unprofessional incident that is even more troubling!
This BLP Government have had to be witness to some of the most bizarre, unprofessional conduct, that came out of the Glendairy inquiry that led to the burning down of that facility. And all of it happened on their watch and obviously they did not know it was happening or did not care!
One would think that even the dumbest of people would make sure that with an impending election that portfolio (Attorney General) and the services it embraces especially the jail and which it is responsible for would be run in a manner that would not draw bad publicity to it. Instead the very thing that caused Glendairy to be burnt down which was the lack of good morale, high standards of supervision etc is again being put in danger of erosion when these guards are 3 to 7 months behind in pay.
And another thing when one considers that had this Government been doing its job as it should have been the burning down of Glendairy might have been avoided. Instead Barbadians are now faced with rebuilding Glendairy at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars and that project too is under scrutiny because of alleged corruption. Where does it all end?
Maybe Owen Arthur has had imported under the dead of night an “Underground” Mint that is printing money as fast as he wastes it!
August 21, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Maybe Owen Arthur has had imported under the dead of night an “Underground” Mint that is printing money as fast as he wastes it!
It is my belief that our economy is being assisted by the cheque books of the likes of the Smith’s, Smurfitt’s, Tabor’s, Fearless’s, Paynter’s, Joyce’s, Williams’s, Bejerkham’s, Weatherheads but primary the good will of Dereck Smith an Michael Tabor of Sandy Lane fame.
These rich boys will allow him all the line he needs but when they sink the hook in him he will be well and truely grigged and they will be able to do whatever they want with him, planning permissions, change of use, moving mount stinkeroo as they have requested for a long time now, anything else that they so request.
August 21, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Dale Marshall, that smarmy poseur we have for an Attorney General right now with his unctuous ingratiating platitudes, is not to be associated with the Glendairy Mutiny.
That dubious honour goes to our Deputy Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
It was Mia who failed to keep informed of the disastrous state of affairs within the prison service. Clearly it was her duty and responsibility to check and see how this important area of her ministerial portfolio was faring.
Clearly she did not do so. No doubt she will say she was waiting for them to come to her with their problems, but that is fatuous and weak. I doubt she is the most approachable person to go to with a problem, but it was up to her to enquire and verify that morale among prison staff and among prison inmates was healthy.
A conscientous and able Attorney General would have made it their business to know what was transpiring, and then take remedial action so that it never came to our attention.
Instead our illustrious windbag wakes up to find a disaster she should have preempted, and acts as if she is the nation’s heroine to bring in the troops etc. when it is too late.
Ministers are normally fired for such total negligence of their duties. Is O$A scared of her, or was he glad to have her mess up, to keep him top dog?
August 21, 2007 at 8:58 pm
“IS BARBADOS BANKRUPT?”
Hello-o-o?
Anyone with half a lobotomized brain can figure that out!
Any country existing from loan to loan to loan is in the deep ca-ca.
That includes USA!
Do you hold any Gold?
No?
You have everything in paper “securities” ??
Oh verrry ’secure’! – I’m impressed!
I laughin at wunnuh.
Paper is the stuff we wipe with.
Gold and Silver are the only real money.
Helloo-o-o!
———-
And again…the Barbados dollar and the Trini dollar are effectively worth the same in their individual countries.
Just walk into the supermarket and pay approx. $50 per bag you bring out.
BARBADOS IS Bankrupt. yes,
- has been for years now.
It’s all done by “kiting” !
Ask your accountant about that term.
August 21, 2007 at 9:01 pm
“Is O$A scared of her?”
You would be too, sweetie – you would be too!
Have you seen the sheer size?
have you seen O$A’s sheer lack-of size?
Who do you think would win a “I’ll sit on you til you cry Uncle” competition??
August 21, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Pandora:
Lets really open up your box.
Was the riot engineered by Nurse’s intransigience
under government sponsorship.
Was Dodds always a necessity, but the cost prohibitive without a riot and total destruction.
With VECO handily placed for Mia’s convenient solution.
August 21, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Wishing in Vain has a verrrry good point!
I always knew that Barbados would once again(soon?) belong-back to the British
who saw fit to free the Bajan dog from the Colonial chain, back in 1966.
Less than fifty years and the scenario is complete.
Any takers?
August 21, 2007 at 9:10 pm
CWC-07 failed, but that’s why we have the OIL, offshore.
To save us. Duuuh!
- Don’t you read the newspapers?
We are potentially RICH – rich like Trini!All we have to do is vote back in the BLP
and the OO (Offshore Oil) will automagically disappear..or is that appear?
Oh dear, I think I’ve messed up my Magic Act!
Great pity, really, it was going so well….
August 21, 2007 at 9:43 pm
My suggestion with respect is that the BLP should stop kidding the Bajan people about off-shore oil. Because as we have seen from the last ten years of BLP rule the only oil we have lots of is the steady diet of Castor oil the BLP is on. And we are being buried in their BS as a result!
August 21, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Welcome Reporter:
I enjoy your refreshing no-nonsense posts.
Hope you can be with us for the long haul.
August 22, 2007 at 2:49 am
Breaking News……
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
The Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners is calling for the resignation of the entire board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
BAMP is warning Barbadians that it’s willing to undertake whatever action it deems necessary to effect change at the hospital.
August 22, 2007 at 2:59 am
“Tuesday, 21 August 2007
The Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners is calling for the resignation of the entire board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
BAMP is warning Barbadians that it’s willing to undertake whatever action it deems necessary to effect change at the hospital.
This as it accuses the board of failing in its mandate to improve patient care at the premier health care facility. “
August 22, 2007 at 3:00 am
BFP check CBC online for the story about the QEH.
August 22, 2007 at 3:04 am
One problem after another.
Lets see if once again SuperOwen will come to the rescue of the QEH.
August 22, 2007 at 4:59 am
Does this call also call on the Minister responsible for Health the Hon Mrs Jerome Walcott to also resign as surely it has been at the forefront of this disasterours reign ?
Why is it that everything that can go wrong in this island is going wrong?
Is it a lack of management of the affairs of state ?
If so lets get to it and correct it with our vote, we have no more time to doodle around while Owing contiues to rape this island of its money.
No wonder we have a disaster zone for a Health care program, instead of directing much needed funds to correcting the ills within the health care system by putting money and action into the ministry and installing workers with the job at heart, we have installed one who is uncertain of most things including its gender and is aloof and out to sea most of the time, we have been asking for sometime now to have a few of them removed and replaced in the ministries such as Walcott, Clarke, Prescod, Eastmond, Mottley, Thompson, Lynch, Wood, Marshall and actually if the PM had a heart he would fire himself too but the scamp he is, not for him he is sitting tight raking in the money from the slots, the change of use permissions, the land deals, the prison project you name it he has a hand in the scam.
They needed to have a cabinet reshuffle over a year ago but it was not done it suggest to me that Owing was comfortable with who he had installed there and were allowing them the opportunity to build their nest while was doing likewise, or maybe he opted not to move them because he had idiots standing on the sidelines and they could not have been risked with the ministry of anything, we ought to remember the backbencher Rommel Marshal the crook that masterminded the insurance scam that he pocketed his retiement funds from and just before the election Arthur decleared him the hardest working minister in his cabinet and on giving them back the seat the spineless bastard got fired instantly, but has sat quietly on the backbench only to open him mouth twice in five years to state that he supports Mottley for the post of PM of course he would support it as both of them are cut from the same cloth and he has been dismissed and put to pasture by Arthur and he the spineless person he is has said not a word in disguss.
August 22, 2007 at 9:30 am
”Lets see if once again SuperOwen will come to the rescue of the QEH”
Too little, too late. Should have been done years ago.
There is only one action we await now, obviously ‘call to election’.
August 22, 2007 at 9:34 am
”Marshall said that he had asked the Chairman of Public Service Commission, Nigel Jones, to look at proposals made by the Ministry of Home Affairs where a small committee would be delegated to oversee the payment of the substitute workers.”
We now need a Committee to oversee the payment of workers?
Huh? Governmental Management has now evolved into a satirical comedy.
Rule of Thumb is to appoint a Board, Committee or Enquiry to avoid the blame for oneself and be able to ‘point the finger’ elsewhere.
August 22, 2007 at 11:16 am
Thank you Idealist for the few kind words and encouragement.
I cannot believe my eyes that over and over again the QEH is once again in the news this time being condemned by credible sources for their grave inefficiencies.
Glendairy, burned down because of nonchalant and irresponsible Government stewardship, the QEH incessantly under the microscope for gross incompetency. And let me quickly add that I am not pointing fingers at the dedicated staff. But from the lack of basic and badly needed medical equipment and management practices.
The Press being manhandled by police for doing their jobs. Barbadian workers being denied employment at the Four Seasons for instead illegal Chinese workers.
Squatters being told they are a danger to aircraft among other things. How can these people be a danger to aircraft? Then the PM orders their removal and even his Minister Prescod which credit must be given to correctly said this is “WRONG” and it is the Town Planning who is at fault, suggesting desperate people do desperate things.
Where is it all going to end? Barbados has reached a crisis stage from a Government that is now falling apart right before our very eyes and do not seem to know what to do about it!
August 22, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Very Interesting posts so far, change of government in my oppinion is needed sooner than later.
This current administration has made far too many blunders to have deserved 3 terms in office
(Tourism, Health Care, Prison, World Cup, Greenland, NHC Warrens Building, more govt worker strikes than any other administration, list goes on and on) zero accountability. I hope Bajans can brace for inevitable restructuring of this economy.
August 23, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Can this current administration even name one thing it has succeeded-in in the last 6 years… And I mean something they set-out to do from the start????
I’m not talking about something that just happen to fall into place but something planned and calculated (accurately) with success?
August 23, 2007 at 11:36 pm
JP:
The over-runs on every single major project were probably intended from the outset.
Planned, calculated and achieved in full.
August 24, 2007 at 4:25 am
“Can this current administration even name one thing it has succeeded-in in the last 6 years… And I mean something they set-out to do from the start????”
Yes “tiefing”
December 2, 2007 at 1:46 pm
LOL…
You gotta be kidding me…
People are dying in the QEH, people are getting their lands swiped from them and people are getting swindled by lotteries….
Prices are going up, wages are going down and unruly and disrespectful foreigners are being “smuggled” ito the country en masse…
Our own garbage dumps are being positioned in bad places, people are builing houses on unsafe areas, amd the pick of the land is being distributed among the rich and famous (or not-so-famous)…
Anyone wanna stay here? Good Luck!
If you got sense, Get Out!!!!!