Auditor General Special Report Slams Management Of The ABC Highway Flyover Project

Auditor General Leigh Trotman

The Special Audit Barbados Road Network Infrastructure Improvement Project Report has been updated on the Barbados Auditor General’s website. The report gives an unflattering summary of how one of the largest capital projects (ABC Highway Project) in Barbados was managed under the former administration. After reading the report we are tempted to blame the many senior civil servants who would have worked the project which has led Auditor General Leigh Trotman to issue such a negative report. Why would the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and the Director of Finance have presided over such a project where such obvious incompetence and inefficiency were commonplace?

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government when in opposition made much political mileage on the campaign trail about the ABC Highway Project. When the DLP assumed office Prime Minister David Thompson in unprecedented fashion fired 3S from the floor of parliament, the company responsible for managing the ABC Highway project. Months later Barbadians have heard nothing about the status of the 3S relationship. BU sources confirm the government of Barbados is close to agreeing to a settlement with 3S; more tax dollars down the toilet!

As usual with this project like others preceding it the malfeasance attributed to the former government will die a natural death.

Remembering What WAS Bajan

Submitted by Sapidillo

CLICK On Image

There seem to have been many characters with the same nicknames in other neighbourhoods. A lady named Silvia; one day, she asked one of the boys on the pasture to run an errand for her; she offered him some soup.  He said that Silvy taught that she was making dumplings and made kite paste. Her husband called “monkey,” he used to clean toilet pits — another town man and town woman.  After monkey cleaned a pit or two and was paid, he would find himself at the closest Snackett.  If people were sitting on the stools and saw him coming, they would scamper; the man smelled like pure shit, didn’t even smell like a poop that would fade away in thin air.

If I keep digging up in this ole shoebox, I en gine get it tuh close bak.  I wud have to take de few coppers I have left and buy a valise to keep this memorabilia in tact.

These are some of the characters I remember while I was growing up.

The Link(?) Between Garbage And Economic Prosperity

Submitted by Amit, Pull!Push! blog

Letters to The Editor

Sir, I am writing this letter to you today because I would like your assistance in thanking someone. A few days ago, while driving home from work, I noticed someone throwing their garbage out of the window of a bus waiting at a junction. Sir, it is this individual that I would like to thank and I am seeking your assistance in doing so by asking that you publish my letter. What follows is for him (or her):

You see, when you (i.e., the throw-er of the garbage) threw whatever you threw out of the window, you weren’t littering, you were doing your bit for the economy! You were trying to show us that there is another way besides tourism!

You probably figured that if everyone else were to throw their trash out of the windows of buses and cars and trucks and whatever other vehicles that had windows that were available to throw trash out of, that it would result in the SSA going on a mass recruitment drive, or, increasing the salaries and wages of its current employees (as a result of the increase in trash).

You are clever, whoever you are. They (whoever ‘They’ are or were), wouldn’t just let the trash sit there and pile up. No, you knew that someone would come behind you and clean it up at some stage.
You never intended to act in a selfish, dirty, disgusting, shameless and disrespectful manner. You were merely trying to achieve two important objectives: 1) Job creation and 2) Increased wages and salaries! How noble of you!

An increase in employment and/or wages would be good news for everyone! Wouldn’t it? Yes Sir! More people working (and earning more we hope) means more money being spent in the local economy. Hah!

Who needs tourism?

Read full blog on Pull Push.

Bajan Economy Not Doing Well

Submitted by Looking Glass

In economics the standard ways of measuring, assessing and rating can and do lead to unintended consequences. Countries differ substantially in terms of human and natural resources, capabilities and position in the global marketplace. All things are neither equal nor rational. The same credit rating agency who gave us a negative rating bestowed AAA rating upon the collateral debt obligations that proved worthless and provoked the current global financial crisis. It was known for quite some time that our economy was ‘unsustainable.” So why wait until now to downgrade? There is much more in the mortar than the pestle.

We were in crisis before the current global financial crisis. (See Stimulus: more debt and dislocation; On the road to perdition). Before the global crisis we were faced with humungous national debt, deteriorating fiscal condition, large trade and budget deficits, declining production and revenue generation, high unemployment and ever increasing social costs. We borrowed to pay pensions, were without penicillin for about four months, and remain unable to satisfy basic everyday Bajan domestic requirements. The global crisis merely magnified and exacerbated our dilemma. The IMF (2006) likened it to “a breeding ground” for social unrest and disorder. Declining government revenue did not start with the global crisis. The change in outlook to negative can hardly be attributed to increases in fiscal stimulus which to date has been minimal

US Foreign Policy To Nowhere

President Barack Obama

Tonight President Barack Obama as US Commander in Chief will advise Americans of his decision to deploy up 30,000 plus troops to trouble spot Afghanistan. His decision will come after months of careful deliberation. His decision will add billions to the US deficit at a time when its economy is trying to rebound from a deep recession. President Obama like Prime Minister Thompson has quickly realised the making of election promises is a whole different ballgame compared to when in government.

If we were list the hotspots in US foreign policy, top of mind are: Iraq, Israel-Palestine, North Korea, Iran and Afghanistan of course. Does President Barack Obama believe his well trained soldiers can outmanoeuvre the Taliban who continue to use the rugged terrain of that region to good advantage?   The Americans were led to believe by former President Bush that it would have been a slam-dunk to nail Osama Bin Laden.  The inability of the Americans to control Afghanistan clearly demonstrates how superior knowledge of local conditions can compensate with superior weaponry.

Don’t Give Jagdeo Another Cent!

Submitted by Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy

President of Guyana Bharat Jagdeo

NEW YORK: Corruption in the Guyana government is again coming into sharp focus as the Commonwealth Heads of Government conclude their meeting in Trinidad and Tobago. The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) Tuesday called on developed countries and Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFI) to halt financial aid to the Jagdeo administration in Guyana, charging that that regime is one of the most corrupt in the world.

The CGID statement came in reaction to Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo’s declaration to reporters in Trinidad and Tobago last weekend that the true cost of fighting climate change will top 300 billion dollars. Jagdeo said that leading economists have calculated that “the cost of action and mitigation would be about one percent of the global economy.”

“This is one percent of the GDP of a 30-trillion-dollar global economy,” he estimated. “If resources of that magnitude were available then you’d be able to take serious mitigation action immediately.” Jagdeo’s comments came after the second day of the Commonwealth confab when the attendees adopted a declaration on climate change which called for a legally binding accord at global talks when world leaders meet in Copenhagen.