Thorne: Govt must take responsibility for anti-crime spend

Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne says Barbadians are not blaming government for the actions of criminals; however, he says citizens want the administration to “take responsibility” for how taxpayers’ money is spent.

Thorne targeted his first salvo at Attorney General Dale Marshall who joined Police Commissioner Richard Boyce, Minister of State in the Attorney General’s Office with responsibility for Crime Prevention Corey Lane, as well as other senior officials including those from the National Peace Programme.

“Government will say to you that government is not to blame for every incident of criminal wrongdoing, and I want to quote the learned attorney general again when he described certain miscreants [as] gun-toting vagabonds,” Thorne told the House of Assembly on Monday as 2025-2026 Estimates of Expenditure and Revenue debate began.

Again, referencing the controversial National Peace Programme, Thorne told the Lower Chamber: “Every right-thinking member of this society wonders now, what is the role of The Barbados Police Service? That we are catering to persons involved in crime.”

“The police department was not placed on layoff, or short time, or made permanently redundant. Have we reached the stage in this country in which a government, at official levels, is entering into transactions with persons involved in crime?

“And this is a department of government that has supervision, daily supervision, constitutional supervision, legal supervision of The Barbados Police Service. And by open admission, in the highest legislative body in this country, we hear an admission that a government is catering to persons involved in crime.”

The Christ Church South Member of Parliament and senior attorney-at-law told the chamber: “The attorney general and government may insist that it is not to blame . . . for every instance of a gun-toting vagabond pulling a trigger. I don’t think the society is blaming government for every instance in which a gun-toting vagabond pulls the trigger.

“But what this society, this country is asking government to do is to accept its responsibility as a government with vast resources at its disposal with a police department, a Police Service which according to the attorney general this morning has dedicated to it a figure of $158 million.

“That is a heavy allocation but let us not forget that there’s a heavy responsibility, a heavy governmental responsibility that goes with that allocation and, therefore . . . we do not blame you for these instances of violent criminal wrongdoing, but we ask this government to accept its responsibility.”

Some $248.45 million has been allocated to this ministry which oversees the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Community Legal Services, the Law Reform Commission, the Law Revision Office, the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, the Registration Department, the Supreme Court, Criminal Justice Research Project, the Forensic Science Centre, the Design and Implementation Unit, and The Barbados Police Service.

Of the $248.45 million, some $158.33 million represents discretionary spending. The bulk of the Budget for the Attorney General’s Office, or $170 million is going to support the work of The Barbados Police Service.

Thorne lamented what had become a near-weekly murder in Barbados. Furthermore, he charged that appointing 13 judges to the judiciary was not the solution.

“I say to this government to give us our children back. I say to this government give us our peace back. I say to this government give us our neighbourhoods back,” he stated.

According to Thorne, “We are asking the government to accept its responsibility. Crime is among the issues that confront this country and is the one of greatest urgency.”

(IMC1)