#BTEditorial – Yes Minister, but officers must do their job

The Ministry of Finance’s move to swiftly meet with the hierarchy of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Treasury Department, to address the obviously embarrassing revelations in the Auditor General’s report is an expected and desirable move.

Many of the disclosures from the 2021 Auditor General’s Report were damning. They were not a good look for a government that is seeking to extricate itself from the crippling effects of successive global crises.

There is not much more that can be said about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, as we now face an inflation disaster.

For even though its worst effects are subsiding, the loss of gross domestic product (GDP), the near implosion of travel and tourism, and the extensive borrowing that resulted in an effort to keep the economy afloat during the pandemic are serious remnants that will take time to normalise.

The fact that individual households have been trying to keep a tight rein on expenditure, leveraging every possible cent that could be saved, Leigh Trotman’s report has understandably  galled many taxpayers.

The thought that, for example, almost $4 million in pension payments were made to the accounts of dead people, some of whom departed more than a decade ago, was the kind of stuff for which heads should roll.

This too, at a time when seniors have been bombarding the radio call-in programmes to complain about the late payment of pensions, and the impact it was having on their ability to purchase food and pay utilities.

However, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mr. Ryan Straughn disclosed to the media that he met with top officials of the two departments and was confident the payments to the dead did not represent a “systemic” issue.

Some may argue that for accounts of deceased persons to receive cash each month for ten years, in of itself, portends to systemic deficiencies.

Tax payers will be somewhat gratified by the assurances from the Minister that some of the millions of dollars has been recovered, though we have not been told how much.

“I am satisfied that the issues raised are not systemic in relation to pensions and the process has already been started with respect to recovery of those pension funds, as that would belong to the estate of the deceased, and we will work to get those monies back.

“We are meeting with all of the financial institutions involved to be able to get this done and we have already recovered some of those monies,” Straughn was quoted as saying.

Of interest was the Minister’s statement that he was not aware of the situation and should have been informed of the issues surrounding the development.

“One of the things that I did indicate, especially to the Treasury and to the NIS, was not alerting me as to the fact that the Death Register was not available for the past three years,” he said.

We agree that as the Minister, he should be informed. But to average onlookers, this appears to be a rudimentary part of the workflow of the NIS and the Treasury, to which a supervisor or head of department should address.

Is this not what we pay our public sector functionaries and managers to address?  Why should the Minister in the Ministry of Finance, who has to develop policy, introduce necessary legislative changes, manage the hundreds of millions of dollars we have borrowed, among other high level responsibilities, be consumed with the Death Registry.

Something about this scenario seems mix-matched.

We compliment the Minister for wanting to be on top of what is happening in his Ministry, but he cannot be expected to put out every grass fire in the various departments over which he has authority.

There has to be accountability by the leadership of institutions, especially those that have stewardship of our revenue collection and revenue generating arms.

Where there are deficiencies, lack of resources, outdated systems, or plain failure to perform by those who are paid to do so, then it is for the management of those entities to take the required action.

What we do want to hear from the Minister are his thoughts  on the ridiculously conflicting figures between the Treasury and the Barbados Revenue Authority on receivables owed to the state.

It is more than embarrassing that these two departments could have variances of hundreds of millions on what is owed to value added tax, corporation tax, land tax and personal income tax.

That Sir, requires a ministerial deep dive.