Opposition slams ‘important’ but ‘rushed’ digital payments bill

Government has been accused by the lone voice of opposition in Parliament of rushing the bill to create a digital payment system

While acknowledging that the National Payment Bill was important, Bishop Joseph Atherley charged that it had not been properly scrutinized.

He told the House of Assembly: “My view is that notwithstanding what measure of time the Cabinet was afforded to scrutinize it, it seems to me a little bit rushed to the Parliament and through the Parliament of Barbados. It is an important piece of legislation which will impact upon the economic culture in Barbados, which will also impact not only economic but social life in Barbados,” Atherley said during debate on the Bill in Parliament today.

“The fact that to me it is rushed here fairly hastily is something of which I am not fully comfortable and certainly not happy. It has not been given as far as I have heard, and as far as we’ve been told, any form of scrutiny in the public arena of Barbados, yet it is a piece of legislation that will affect all of us.”

Atherley also declared that the move towards a digital payment system had been demanded by “international financial institutions”.

He said it was not the first time legislation had been rushed and brought to Parliament.

The Opposition Leader said: “Many of the pieces of legislation brought in this Parliament in recent times, months, in the last year, have been brought out of a sense of obligation… have been brought under the strictures of the institutional dictatorship of global players. The global institutions demanded, Barbados fears its brand, Barbados fears penalty and loss, so we rush to come to Parliament to put in place legislation demanded of us by the dictates of international financial institutions.”

He also contended that the legislation did not address important matters such as economic disparity.

Said Bishop Atherley: “This piece of legislation in my view seems intended to facilitate improvement of the economic status quo; in other words the Barbados economy as it is currently profiled with the benefits lopsidedly skewed towards a certain privileged bunch and certain sectors. It would seem as though this legislation is intended to make sure that these people can be better served and that their interests can be better served.

“The people who live the marginal experience in this economy, unless they are helped to a position of betterment largely will not benefit from this. One or two may be able to break through, but largely they will not benefit from this. This will put our operations in the financial sector, our institutional arrangements in the financial sector on a better footing and therefore those who normally benefit will be in a better place and a better position.” (RB)