Opposition Leader says someone must pay

Someone has to pay for the economic and financial mess in which the island now finds itself.

Leader of the Opposition Bishop Joseph Atherley made it clear that with nothing to show after being taxed billions of dollars over the last decade by the former Democratic Labour Party government, citizens are insistent that the new administration look into the matter.

“Barbadians want to know that somebody, some entity, some group will pay the price for getting us into this mess in the first place. If it is a question of bad policy, the electorate has spoken and dismissed the last administration. If it is a question of misdeeds, corruption and ill-doing, Barbadians want to know what the current administration is going to do about having somebody pay the price for their pain,” he said yesterday.

Defending the policies and programmes of the previous Barbados Labour Party administration, Atherley, who served as a Cabinet Minister within that government, stressed that its borrowing patterns, which some had blamed for putting
the country in a precarious position, in fact had given the island foreign exchange earning capacity, and productive capacity.

“People knew where the money went, but we must be told why we have nothing to show for $22 billion in taxation by a government over two terms – no buses, no trucks to collect garbage, bad roads,” he stressed.

Giving his reply to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s Mini Budget presentation in the Lower House, he urged the new government to get to the bottom of these issues.

“People of Barbados want to know, and this government if it understands its mandate, must also understand that the people want to know why government contracts were limited to a couple of repeat and seemingly favoured beneficiaries? They want to know why social services are so poor? …They want to know why infrastructure around us is crumbling, why maintenance and management of government buildings is not carried out?” he stated.
(JMB)