Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
by Dr Ronnie Yearwood
The job is management.
We cannot become immune to poorly managed government projects or wasting of resources. Two points as we start. One, as tiring as it is, and with all we face daily with COVID, ash, managing our families and lives, as I said at a public forum in 2017, “We have to pay attention to what our political class does. It is not about them.
It is about us because this is our country and we get the government we deserve. Let us deserve better for all Barbados.” Two, in the last column, I noted that a government may not create a problem, whether natural or man-made, but it has to fix it. Saying the problem is “global”, the problem is “difficult” or the problem “was there before” do not fix social problems.
Therefore, if a government finds itself in any of these mindsets, it may appear that the government is abdicating its basic duty as a government, which is to fix social problems. If a government does not fix social problems, then perhaps the government needs to start thinking about relieving itself of the duty of governing.
Never-ending Highway 1 road works
If you live in St. James, St. Peter and St. Lucy not only have you been struggling with water issues, (which I plan to address in another column), you also struggle with the nightmare of a road works project that has become Highway 1. Suffice to say at this point, both the water and road issues appear to point to poor planning and poor leadership.
Is this turning into a theme of this Government, despite the best efforts and stellar performances of its media savvy leader? As I said in the last column, good governance and accountability are not only about tackling high-level corruption and putting the laws in place for that (though this Government has not as yet) but it is also about good management of government resources, that is, your tax dollars. The fact is that no matter what a government tells you about its budget, a government gets the majority of its money through taxing you or borrowing from you.
Borrowing is a delayed tax. The other fact is that we have a revenue problem in Barbados, the amount different governments over the years have spent is more than what the governments earn, hence the high and growing level of public debt. Therefore, any money spent must be properly managed, from small to big projects. Projects should be completed on time and within budget.
The Minister of Transport and Works and Water Resources (MTWWR) in September 2020 said that the Highway 1 project was to be completed in less than three months and end in December 2020 at a cost of $15,281,656. In November 2020, the President of the Barbados
Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) questioned the level of planning that went into the project given the scale and cost, the level of transparency to stop cost overruns, and measures to have the project completed on time.
The president of BAPE stated it was not about the competency of the civil service but “the capacity 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 concerns related to adequate project preparation regarding designs, construction documents and contracts to ensure that the scope of the works were clearly understood and priced by the contractors in advance of the execution of works.
Town halls and PR
In addition to those announcements made by the Minister of MTWWR in September 2020, there was also a virtual town hall meeting on October 7, 2020. During that town hall meeting, the Government assured residents that the project would be completed on time with minimum disruption to residents and businesses.
Interestingly, there have been no more announcements from the Minister and the project is still ongoing, four months late and without a clear end in sight. Also, nothing from Members of Parliament about the plight of businesses and residents in their respective constituencies. Where is the representation and accountability? Where is the truth, trust and transparency? The hallmarks of good governance.
We can only wonder how much of the budget for Highway 1 has been spent. In fact, the Government had some 12 supplementary budgets of various amounts from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars for the financial year 2020-2021.
Some COVID related as would be expected to help people affected by the COVID pandemic, but others were not, indicating poor budgeting, poor planning and poor project execution across Government.
No prize
Politicians tend to promise to fix things with mixed results. Roads are usually high on that list, as if that is not a basic part of the job of a government. I have said it before; roads, street lights, water and the like are what governments at a basic level provide as social goods.
There should be no reward in a government claiming that it is executing its basic function, especially if a government fails to competently execute that function. Politicians seem to think that the prize is appearing in the media cutting a ribbon or placing a plaque 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 incline its heart to common sense. Better yet, go to the source, Proverbs 2:2 for the full interpretation which is to “incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding.” Therefore, a Government not only has to hear its citizens, but listen, understand, and act.
BAPE warned and set out solutions regarding the management of the Highway 1 project which appear to have been ignored. This sounds familiar.
Another professional organization, the Barbados of Association of Medical Processionals (BAMP) provided advice, warnings and solutions last year during COVID that were ignored by the Government, only for the country to pay later, with the stop start re-openings, which damaged the economy, endangering the very livelihoods the Government wants to protect.
The road less travelled
In these columns, while we sweat about governance and accountability, some people may openly mock us for raising these issues, because lack of accountability seems to have been priced into the behaviour of Government. However, as Robert Frost wrote, “…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.”
Dr Ronnie Yearwood is a lawyer, lecturer at the UWI, Cave Hill and social commentator. Email: yearwood.r.r.f @gmail.com
