The Senate on Monday gave their stamp of approval for provisions for four senior minister posts that Leader of Government Business Senator Lisa Cummins said will not only enhance coordination of major projects but ultimately lead to improving the ease of doing business and attracting more foreign investment.
She highlighted the benefits of the coordinating ministers’ roles as she introduced a Resolution to approve the Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries (Remuneration and Allowances) Order, 2022.
After her general election win in January, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw with coordinating responsibility as a senior minister for Infrastructure; Attorney General Dale Marshall as Senior Minister coordinating for Governance in Cabinet; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Dr The Most Honourable Jerome Walcott as senior minister coordinating for all Social and Environmental Policy and Minister of Energy and Business Development Kerrie Symmonds as senior minister coordinating the Productive Sectors.
Explaining the need for these ministers to have special responsibilities, Senator Cummins said there were several projects that involved a variety of ministries and government agencies, and required a range of approvals, and coordination oversight would therefore be beneficial.
“When we have tourism investment projects, for example, they come from an investor or from the private sector. They then have to find their way, Mr. President, through maybe five, six, seven arms of government to have those approvals . . . . Those are complex approval processes that govern infrastructure development, and Town and Country Planning processes, but they also have a direct impact on our ability to engage in investment projects, for us to be able to move more smoothly through doing business indicators,” she said.
“There are also implications for us to be able to attract investment to the country and to be able to provide jobs, both in the construction of new projects and when those projects are completed.”
Senator Cummins added that the efficiency would “make a strong statement to the world that one investor has been so successful or all investors have found the experience of doing business in Barbados so efficient and so effective, that it is able to bring further investment to Barbados and with it, more jobs and more opportunities for Barbadians”.
She said this was why Prime Minister Mottley had made the “bold” move to ensure there is a senior minister sitting above agencies across those crucial ministries.
The Government senator said the four would engage in troubleshooting to ensure that Barbados’ public sector investment and capital works investment programmes that are meant to help stimulate the economy are on the right track.
During her contribution, Senator Cummins also suggested the importance of civics education to give Barbadians a better understanding of how government works.
Using herself as an example, she said that on entering the foreign service as a university graduate of international relations and diplomacy, there was much she did not know about how government works.
“I didn’t know how to write a diplomatic note, I didn’t know how to communicate across government, I didn’t know the role of ministries and what a permanent secretary was. Those are not things that you learn from outside of government,” Senator Cummins said.
“As we grow through the process of managing governance and we listen to the conversations, it is very clear in our country that there absolutely must be civics education and civic education on how our country works, and how the arms and the institutions of government work, because it is very clear that so many still need to benefit from that exposure and that understanding that those of us who came through the government service at any level have been able to benefit from.”
Senator Cummins said having experienced eyes and hands who understand the mechanisms of governance and government, and how they work, “is very much incorporated in the structure of senior ministers”. (DP)
