Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of Barbados Today.
The job is management
We cannot become immune to poorly managed government projects or the waste of resources. Two points to start with. First, as stressful as it is and with everything we have to do with COVID, ashes, managing our families and our lives on a daily basis, I said at a public forum in 2017: “We have to pay attention to what our political class is doing. It’s not about them.
It’s about us because this is our country and we are getting the government we deserve. Let’s deserve it better for all of Barbados. Second, I stated in the last column that a government may not create a natural or artificial problem, but rather needs to fix it. Saying the problem is “global”, the problem is “difficult”, or the problem “has been there” does not fix social problems.
Therefore, when a government is in one of these mindsets, it may appear that the government is giving up its basic government duty, which is to solve social problems. If a government fails to address social problems, the government may need to think about breaking free from government duty.
Endless road works on Highway 1
When you live in St. James, St. Peter, and St. Lucy, not only do you face water issues (which I want to address in another column), but the nightmare of a road construction project that has become Highway 1. An Suffice it to say at this point that both the water and road problems indicate poor planning and guidance.
Despite the best efforts and excellence of its media savvy leader, will this become an issue of this government? As I said in the previous column, good governance and accountability is not just about fighting high-level corruption and passing the laws for it (although this government has not yet done so), but also about good administration of the state Resources is your tax dollars. The fact is, no matter what a government tells you about its budget, a government gets most of its money from you through taxation or borrowing.
Borrowing is a late tax. The other fact is that we have a revenue problem in Barbados. The amount that various governments have spent over the years is more than what governments deserve, hence the high and growing national debt. Hence, any money spent needs to be properly managed, from small to large projects. Projects should be completed on time and within budget.
The Minister of Transportation, Construction and Water Resources (MTWWR) announced in September 2020 that the Highway 1 project will be completed in less than three months and will end in December 2020 at a cost of $ 15,281,656. In November 2020 became the President of Barbados
The Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) questioned the level of planning that went into the project, given the scope and cost, the transparency to stop cost overruns, and the steps to take to complete the project on time.
The President of BAPE stated that it is not a question of the competence of the public service, but of the ability of the Ministry to achieve the completion of the proposed project within the planned budget, time, expected quality and to the satisfaction of the many stakeholders involved. .
BAPE fears adequate project preparation in terms of designs, construction documents and contracts to ensure that the scope of the work has been clearly understood and assessed by the contractors before the work is carried out.
Town halls and PR
In addition to the announcements made by the MTWWR Minister in September 2020, a virtual town hall meeting was held on October 7, 2020. During this town hall meeting, the government assured residents that the project would be completed on time with minimal disruption to local residents and businesses.
Interestingly, there were no more announcements from the minister and the project is still running, four months too late and with no clear end in sight. Nothing from MPs about the plight of businesses and residents in their respective constituencies. Where is the representation and accountability? Where is the truth, the trust and the transparency? The hallmarks of good governance.
We can only wonder how much of the budget was spent on Highway 1. In fact, the government had 12 supplementary budgets for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, varying in amounts from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
Some COVID were, as expected, related to people affected by the COVID pandemic, but others were not, indicating poor budget, planning, and project execution across government.
No price
Politicians tend to promise to fix things with mixed results. Roads are usually at the top of this list, as if it wasn’t a fundamental part of the work of government. I’ve said it before; Streets, street lights, water and the like are what governments provide on a basic level as social goods.
There should be no reward for a government claiming that it is performing its basic function, especially if a government is not competently performing that function. Politicians seem to believe that the price appears in the media by cutting a ribbon or putting a badge on it to open something new. I wonder if a minister will cut a ribbon to reopen Highway 1.
Incline your heart to common sense
Perhaps the government should take its own advice and turn its heart to common sense. Better still, go to the source, Proverbs 2: 2, for the full interpretation, which is to “tilt your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.” Therefore, a government must not only listen to its citizens, but also listen, understand and act.
BAPE warned and came up with solutions for managing the Highway 1 project that were apparently ignored. That seems familiar to me.
Another professional organization, the Barbados Association of Medical Processionals (BAMP), provided advice, warnings and solutions during COVID last year that the government ignored only so that the country could later pay for an economy that is precisely the very livelihood at risk that the government wants to protect.
The road is less busy
As we sweat about governance and accountability in these columns, some people openly mock us for bringing up these issues, because lack of accountability seems to be priced into government behavior. However, Robert Frost wrote: “… Two roads diverged in a forest, and I – I took the less traveled one, and that made the difference.”
Dr. Ronnie Yearwood is an attorney, lecturer at UWI, Cave Hill, and social commentator. Email: yearwood.rrf @ gmail.com
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