Some members of the Monitoring Committee of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme. From left are Greg McConnie, Donna Wellington, Edwin O’neal, Senator Toni Moore and Chairman Edward Clarke.
CHANGE MODEL
THE financing model of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the University of the West Indies (UWI) needs to be revised.
This is the view of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan Monitoring Committee.
Presenting a Public Report yesterday, Chairman Edward Clarke said that the revision is necessary if the Barbados Government is to contain the transfers within the ceilings set in future periods and without accumulating arrears or challenging the ability of the two institutions to effectively provide their public services.
He said that to date, transfers to the two institutions were $486 million versus the $498 million limit.
“Of note is that for the two largest institutions – the QEH and the UWI, the transfers in the nine months to December 31, 2018 were only 41 per cent and 50 per cent of their annual target allocation,” Clarke reported to the media.
He also said that the two indicative targets under the Extended Fund Facility related to the ceiling on Government’s domestic arrears and the floor on social spending. Both targets were met.
The domestic arrears include overdue trade payable for goods and services, over due contributions, rents and loan repayments to the national insurance Scheme and overdue tax refunds.
According to Clarke, this significant reduction to the ceiling was achieved through arrears owing to the NIS being converted to bonds and as such these amounts have now been included in the public debt stock. Additionally, he said that arrears were owed between the various government agencies have been written effective December 31, 2018.
Dealing with the ceiling on Barbados’ public debt, Clarke said that the maximum limit applies to central government’s domestic and external debt, central government’s guaranteed debt, and arrears. As at December 2018 following the successful restructuring of the domestic debt, the stock of total debt was $12 828 million versus the adjusted cap of $13 679 million under the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies agreed with the IMF.