Government has performed “virtual wonders” to manage the country’s economy while struggling to stabilise key sectors including transportation and sanitation, says Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
Amid growing criticism from opposition parties and some members of the general public, Mottley used her platform at the St Michael West nomination meeting yesterday evening to defend Government’s stewardship.
Mottley suggested the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) who last week gave Government a failing grade for its leadership of the country was in no position to judge efforts over the last 16 months to stabilise the country.
“This party has performed virtual wonders over the course of the last 16 months to stabilise this country. Let us be clear about it. It has not been easy and those who want to talk about report cards need to find a card and report on themselves first,” she said, while addressing party faithful at the St Leonard’s Secondary School.
Mottley admitted the country’s economic recovery has not been easy, but Government had “stemmed the tide”. While the PM did not speak to specific economic policies, she pointed to the stability of the Barbados dollar as a major stride.
“Nobody talks now in Barbados about the value of the dollar because they have taken it as a given that we have saved it…but you do not lose a decade and recover it in one or two years,” she added.
“Without the money to purchase as a Government, we first had to stabilise the country, because if you didn’t stabilise the economy, the bleeding would continue and the value of the Barbados dollar would have been lost. Once we stabilised, the next duty would have been to set about looking for the money that they (DLP) did not leave.”
The Prime Minister then took aim at the numerous critics of Government’s management of transportation and sanitation, stressing that seven new garbage trucks would soon be cleared from the Bridgetown Port and another 12 were on the way.
She also lauded the Transport Board under the chairmanship of Ian Gooding-Edgehill for keeping the ailing bus company afloat with limited resources and promised the much-needed machinery would soon be on the way.
“I want us to get order and regularity as soon as possible and that is what we are doing. In the absence of the buses being delivered, I want to thank the Chairman and board of the Transport Board for going beyond the call of duty to get the bus numbers back up to over 80 on an average day in this country, from the near 40s where we found it as a result of the last government’s behaviour,” she added.
Mottley also promised Government would be increasing the number of garbage skips in densely populated communities to help ease pressure on the SSA amid the shortage of resources.
Last week DLP president Verla DePeiza gave the Mottley administration a failing grade over its first 500 days in office. She said that thus far the Government had only succeeded in heaping more social hardship on the backs of Barbadians with only the “smoke and mirrors” of foreign reserves, propped up on borrowed money, to show for it.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
