Gov’t urged to approach privatisation carefully

INTERNATIONAL Trade Specialist, Dr. Ronnie Yearwood is cautioning government in its approach to privatisation in Barbados. He said that while privatisation may have its merits it could also erode some of the progress the country has made over the years.

The lecture was titled, “Ideas for a new Politics: Governance and Truth”.

Privatisation of Government assets that include some statutory corporations has been promoted as one of the policy options for Government to deal with its worrying fiscal deficit and high debt.

“The sale of Government assets understandably would see an immediate decrease in government debt, but long-term may fail to contribute fully to the government’s earnings, or even more critical, the country’s development,” said Dr. Yearwood.

“In addition, the positive effects of privatisation are not a given. It can result in moving the inefficiencies from the public to the private space,” he reasoned.
Arguing that the approach to privatisation has to be nuanced and bold, Dr. Yearwood maintained that offering the workers of statutory corporations the opportunity to acquire shares in the same corporations which would become private entities is not enough.

Share ownership, he explained, is too simple and lets any government off the hook to claim they did the due diligence, especially in light of the government debt.
Dr. Yearwood also remarked that all too often the private sector voices calls for governance. However, his view is that those strident calls appear to be nothing more than “hollow, self-serving noises for the government to provide more contracts and incentives for more of the same services that currently skew our economic development”.
He said that Barbadians need to start thinking about government as a Business and Social enterprise.

“This will require that government, or rather politicians, get out of the way, so that the statutory corporations which government decides to keep, can actually function or make money,” the Trade Specialist advised.

“This is instead of being used for short-term non-economic ends such as employment maximisation, which, ironically, damages the statutory corporations and places the jobs which were handed out, at risk,” he reasoned.

The Official further suggested that government had to become innovative and responsive to technology, not simply computerising offices, but using technology in the actual delivery of public service. (JB)