MP for St. Joseph, Dale Marshall.
Marshall expresses disapproval of DLP’s ‘misadministration’
One Opposition Member of Parliament is adamant that this island is losing its ability to attract investors.
In his address to the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals 2017 on Thursday, MP for St. Joseph, Dale Marshall, said that this was largely due to a lack of proper management.
“The one thing that investors always look for, the one thing, is whether your country is well run. Investors, true, will be concerned about your credit rating and will be concerned about a lot of those kinds of things; they will be concerned about your deficit, but investors – I would bet – will be more concerned about the way a government makes decisions. You know why? Because decision making by public authorities is supposed to be transparent, it is supposed to be predictable and it is supposed to follow rules,” he stressed.
Marshall said that there was an air of uncertainty surrounding exactly how government was making its decisions and therefore investors would be reluctant to place their resources here.
“This administration does not understand what good governance is. It does not understand the importance of accountability. It does not even understand its obligations to the people that put them there,” he continued.
Marshall, while accusing the Government of “misadministration and maladministration”, stressed that Barbadians have been placed under nine years of hardship due to the DLP administration.
Describing the budget as burdensome, he said it was dumping on the back of the already strained backs of citizens. Saying the Social Responsibility Levy had originally been formed to deal with issues in health care and on servicing loans for sanitation, he stated that there was no evidence that it had done what it was supposed to.
He added, “The SSA does not have a new truck, not one! How is it that you were not a good steward of the $100 million that you got when you had it at two per cent, but you have the gall to come into this chamber and increase it to ten per cent?!” (JMB)