Leader of the Alliance Party for Progress (APP) Bishop Joseph Atherley is promising that if elected to Government, his administration will introduce a new system of governance that prioritizes independent accountability for members of Cabinet.
During a visit to Eden Lodge with the APP’s St Michael North candidate, Maria Phillips, Atherley explained that a key feature of this new model of governance would require each sitting government minister to report to a “citizens panel” every six months.
“The people in Barbados, once they elect a government by marking an ‘X’ against somebody’s name or party are then distant from the process and have no direct influence on the process until the time of the next election,” he said.
“Now, we want to set up what we call citizens’ panels and we want to give to citizens’ panels certain significant roles and responsibilities, one of which is this – every six months in the Parliament of Barbados, every minister of government must come before a citizens’ panel and answer, be accountable, especially if there are questions raised with respect to any issue in relation to his or her portfolio,” the former Opposition Leader promised.
Atherley said that while the current mechanisms are useful they are still too dependent on cooperation from the government.
He noted two instances under the current administration where decisions were made with little to no accountability.
“One of them is the move to become a republic. Opinion is strong in Barbados that we are getting this wrong. In fact, there are some who even question whether we are living under a proper constitutional structure at the moment based on how this thing has been done. Barbadians have been excluded from that process largely and the Government pressed on…. Now we are a republic without a constitution,” said Atherley.
Another issue for the Bishop is last year’s COVID-19 vaccine saga. He believes the Government has not adequately explained what went awry when an intermediary was engaged to source vaccines on behalf of the Mia Mottley administration.
“It was an attempt that failed, but from all that we have been able to glean, the Cabinet was not aware of that, the Minister of Health had no knowledge of that, the permanent secretary acted on whose authority? That is the level to which we have descended when it comes to governance in Barbados,” Bishop Atherley lamented.
“The mechanisms that are set up to ensure accountability must be such that independent people, representative of the interests of the people of Barbados should be the people before whom you appear to give account of your stewardship,” Atherley stressed.
(KS)
