Release financial statements, says Worrell

LET us see those up to date financial statements for public sector enterprises.

This request is coming from Economist, Dr. Delisle Worrell in his February 2020 Economic Letter.

The letters which are published monthly highlight key economic issues, economic policy making and what he described this month as the inept policies across the government service.

Dr.Worrell said that the most recent report he could find for a public sector institution among a list published in the local media was that for the Barbados Revenue Authority. “Their most recent Report is for 2017,” Dr. Worrell remarked.

“There are no reports for the NIS (National Insurance Scheme), the Customs and Excise Department, the Transport Authority, the Corporate Affairs Office, or the Ministries of Public Service, Transport or Education,” the economist said in his letter.

He went on, “We can expect orderly implementation of new policies and effective public services only with a systemic, multi-year modernisation of public services.”

Dr. Worrell, a former Governor of the Central Bank, stated that the country requires new leadership with the required technical skills, organisational experience and modern management expertise; and we need new systems of organisation suitable for the modern world.

According to him, the Barbados public will know that this process has begun in earnest “when we begin to see annual reports being published within three months of the end of the Financial Year by all Government entities.”

His comments come in the wake of the agreement between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Government of Barbados, which among other things make provision for reforms of public sector entities.

He charged that these failures are the most recent evidence of the ineptitude of the Barbados public services.

According to Dr. Worrell, our public services are organised as they were for the society of the 1950s and 60s; teachers rode to school on Raleigh bicycles, few households could afford a Morris Minor car, and you could shop for fruit and vegetables from schooners moored in the Careenage.

The Economist maintained that the leadership of the public sector lacks the expertise and experience of implementing modern systems of organisation and management.

He remarked that the clearest evidence of public sector incapacity is the failure to publish annual reports in a timely fashion.

“The annual report is the place where departments and agencies ought to report on their stewardship,” he added. (JB)