CUSTOMS/BRA matter TO BE SETTLED

MINISTER of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, has promised that a resolution to the issue relating to Custom Officers joining the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) will be forthcoming.

 

The Minister, who had a scheduled 3 p.m. meeting yesterday with officers, stated that although Government has bent over backwards to accommodate them, the administration is still meeting resistance. 

 

“But I can tell you that some resolution is going to come to this matter, if I have anything to do with it,” he told a discussion yesterday with members of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre.

 

“What people don’t know or what they fear they will resist,” Sinckler said.

 

His comments came as the October 1, 2016 deadline passed with Customs Officers still not coming under the BRA. 

 

The workers’ bargaining body, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), has said there are still issues to be sorted out before the transition can take place.

 

However, Sinckler pointed out  that this is over two years that this matter has been taking place. He explained that based on the conceptualisation of the process under the previous Barbados Labour Party (BLP) Government, it is almost ten years it was being undertaken.

 

He said that every time they have reached a certain stage in the process, something new comes up.

 

According to him, “The Committee that worked on the creation of the BRA and also the transition of the Customs Department into the BRA had sitting on it representatives of the trade unions.”

He said that while he came and found the basic structure, the issue of appointments as a result went through a laborious exercise, only to hear that all the issues have not yet been completed.

 

Sinckler said that it is known that everybody cannot be appointed because legally; “it is not possible for various reasons, including that some of the officers the union want to have appointed are not qualified to be appointed to the job".

 

He has promised to hold a full news conference on the issue along with the Labour Minister, Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo, at which they will be putting forward Government’s position.

 

“I can say without fear of contradiction that the Government of Barbados had literally bent over backwards to accommodate Customs workers,” Sinckler declared. 

 

“If people are not interested in cooperating to move the country forward in the interest of efficiency, then it does not matter who is in office, who is the Minister or the Prime Minister, it will never advance,” he charged. (JB)