Cut CBC, SOEs – Inniss

It is time for the government to let go of some state-owned enterprises (SOE) including the debt-ridden Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) says former Government minister Donville Inniss.

With efforts to reform several state-owned enterprises (SOEs)  underway, the former Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development insisted that taxpayers’ money should not be spent in ownership of a radio and television station.

“Should the government of Barbados still be owning, controlling and spending vast sums of money operating a media house? I don’t think so. I think the government’s role is to provide an enabling environment and a regulatory environment for the media, but do we need to own buildings and equipment to compete with the private sector media houses? I don’t think that is necessary today,” he said.

Agreeing with the current administration’s move to reform many of its SOEs to create much-needed fiscal space, he said while some of these should be restructured, others should be let go.

“Some of them quite frankly, as far as I’m concerned, can go. This is a view I held when I was in government and one that I still hold today,” said Inniss who returned to the island on Friday night after completing a prison term in the US for fraud and money laundering. 

The former high-profile Democratic Labour Party (DLP) member however refused to specifically identify which SOEs should be placed on the chopping block.

Speaking with Barbados TODAY in an interview at his Husbands Heights home over the weekend, he suggested that if the government wanted to maintain the public service at its current size, productivity would have to increase.

“Beyond the state-owned enterprise issue, there is a bigger issue, which is how do we get our public service to be more efficient, to be more productive? We perhaps can maintain the same size public service, but increase the level of efficiency and level of productivity, so that at the end of the day this justifies the expenditure we make on them because the wider society is benefiting,” he stated.

Admitting all governments have been challenged with SOEs, Inniss stated that with several of these providing an important service to the community and employing numerous citizens, the current government did not have “an easy task” ahead of it. 

“It’s okay to say ‘Oh, you need to cut back on SOEs’ and the first thing that people normally touch is the payroll, which results in sending people home. Every individual who loses a job in government, the private sector or an NGO, is a member of your family. This is a small society. Politicians and governments think about these things. It’s not just a numbers game…When individuals become unemployed and go home, there is more pressure on your healthcare services, on education, and all of the social services start to face increased costs in operation. And this is what most rational, right-thinking politicians have to look at as well. It’s not an easy task, but having said that, clearly there is a need for some state-owned enterprises to be restructured,” he argued. (JB)