A Guy's View: Productivity is essential to economic growth

Word is that the National Productivity Council is about to be disbanded. If one were to ignore the continuing attempt to rewrite the political history of Barbados, getting rid of the Productivity Council could be seen as another unfortunate consequence of placing this country in the hands of the International Monetary Fund, but whatever the reason or motivation, the consequences of this move should be examined.

“We will set up a National Productivity Council to review scientific, technological and managerial progress, with a view to arriving at a more effective way of increasing employment and productivity. The main functions of the Council will be:
Investigation of the applicability of advances in Science and Technology to areas of national economic endeavour.
Measurement of productivity.
Management guidance.
Provision of counselling to business concerns and public sector bodies, paying particular attention to human resources development.
The Council will comprise representatives of the trade unions, private sector, and the public sector.”

The extract above is taken from the 1991 Manifesto of the Democratic Labour Party. I believe that the Council was established in 1993. Given the rush to redden the history of Barbados, one can understand the twisted rationale for the demolition of the Council. But the time has come for sensible Barbadians to demand a stop to this cannibalism and require our administrators to act in the best interest of this country and all Barbadians.
The persons who established the Council had the foresight to recognise, nearly 30 years ago, that the world ahead of them would be driven by different engines and that advanced scientific approaches would be necessary for our success in all areas of endeavour. They also recognised that modern technology would be an indispensable feature of a progressive country, hence, they decided to lay the foundation for those developments.
Consistent with the principles of democratic socialism, it was envisaged that the Council would be a counselor for the public and the private sector alike. To effectively carry out this role, the Council had to attract to itself a level of expertise that may not have been common across the public sector in 1991. Even the process of acquiring these skills would be a plus for the country.

Some people are fantastic bluffers. They can appear to be busy all day while doing nothing. The only way to verify that they are producing is to find ways of measuring their output. Some unions would shut down the country rather than to have the work of their members measured. Occupation without effort is one reason why our country has been unable to grow its economic fundamentals.

Against this background, one can find some justification for trimming people who have no intention to work from the workforce. But this would have to be scientifically pursued. Trimming would have to be based on performance appraisals which were objectively implemented. The carnage which we are witnessing in Barbados now neither touches nor concerns objectivity. If you were employed under the previous administration, you are in trouble.

Emphasis on productivity is most important at a time when redundancies are in vogue. It is unwise to rid slimmed departments of their best workers. In the best of times, it is traditional for only a percentage of the workers in Government departments to pull their weight. One can imagine what it would be like when the ones who work best are let go. This is one way to guarantee that nothing gets done in the public sector.

Everybody will suffer as a result of this. Persons who wish to do business here will find it more difficult and frustrating to have routine decisions made so that their projects can move ahead. This is an important consideration for a country that is trying to position itself as a hub for international business.

But we have a tendency to look at how what we do may inconvenience persons from abroad and disregard how our citizens are affected. Barbadians make greater use of local services than foreigners, or to use the American term, aliens. We are the people who will suffer most when our services do not work or work badly.

It is Barbadian litigants who will be disadvantaged when they go to a registry and cannot have documents filed without taking an entire day off from work. Or when obtaining a Birth Certificate becomes a major project. We are the ones who suffer when it is an obstacle course to register for unemployment benefits after we have been fired and have to take a bus from home in St. Lucy or St. Phillip to Bridgetown, another from Bridgetown to the National Insurance building in Collymore Rock, another back to Bridgetown, another to Warrens, another back to Bridgetown, and yet another back home. It is no fun doing business in Barbados when our systems do not work.

Productivity consciousness is the solution to this unfortunate arrangement. It tells a story when in 2019, given the peculiarities of our work culture, a Government could decide to disband the entity which was established to enhance productivity on the island.

While there may be factors which dampen productivity in some work places, no one can dispute that there is tremendous potential in Barbadians. A look at the exhibits at Agrofest, our showcase of activity in the agriculture sector, would demonstrate that there are hardworking Barbadians in every parish who are dedicated to producing high quality outputs for the benefit of Barbadians. The most pleasing aspect of this is the young farmers, some of whom have very little land space available to them.

For the most part, these farmers work unsupervised, and yet nothing gets in the way of their high quality work. This puts the lie to the idea that workers always have to be watched to ensure that they produce. All our workers need to be productive is the right incentive, and this does not necessarily mean money. People who can identify with the importance of what they do and how it fits into a larger national interest would go beyond the call of duty to deliver their good or service. Take the police for example. They are never paid enough for what they do, but that does not stop them from putting their lives on the line in the interest of the very people that curse them.

Since we are demolishing the pillars that underpin our social structure and removing the main entity that was tasked with encouraging productivity in both the public and private sectors, we are laying the groundwork for a wasteland and this will lead us into fail state status. A few rich people do not a successful country make.