Government will be injecting close to $7 million into the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to allow the state-owned enterprise (SOE) to honour its debts, including the payment of salaries.
Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams said in Parliament on Tuesday that $6 922 586 was being given to CBC since it is currently unable to pay salaries and suppliers.
Abrahams said it had been highly publicised that CBC’s board and management came to agreement with the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) to honour increments due to staff.
“Included in this amount is the amount to bring those increments up-to-date. We came last month and we had a supplementary and that was to meet the salaries for the month of February.
“It was expected at that time that we were going to deal with March as well, but for some reason that was not done, so what we have here today, the amount quite simply is to meet the trade payables for CBC. It is to meet the increments that have been agreed to be paid, and it is to meet the salary obligations for the month of March,” he said as he spoke on the Supplementary Estimates No. 6 2022-2023.
In February, it was publicised that the potential late payment of salaries at CBC had the attention of the BWU and the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM).
Both organisations indicated that they were keeping a close eye on the developing situation at the broadcasting agency, following a memo dated February 6, in which CBC’s Chief Executive Officer Sanka Price informed staff that because of financial challenges, their pay may not be on time “this month and in the months ahead”.
“The Government is trying to do right by all of its employees and all of the persons that fall under it, and CBC is one of those SOE’s that has been, I don’t want to say inefficient…. The model of CBC is one such that it cannot possibly sustain itself on that model. I think that is out there. That’s common knowledge.
“And while we have been looking at all of the SOEs, CBC is one of the ones that has had to lean on Government almost monthly to meet its commitments. So this amount is to bring us up-todate with our commitments up to the end of this year, and to satisfy the obligations and promises that we made to the union and to the employees,”Abrahams said.
(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)
