Sutherland: Engage in debt reprofiling

THE Member of Parliament for St. George South, Dwight Sutherland, is saying that Barbados has more than a revenue problem.

Speaking in the House of Assembly, yesterday, Sutherland charged that the country also has a debt problem and encouraged the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to engage in debt reprofiling.

“I can speak to that because I went through a similar situation in the private sector. We have the right to engage in debt reprofiling because when we are seeing high interest payments, when we are looking at the high payments to be paid out to our creditors, then we ought to do something about it,” he said.

“The real strategy is a strategy of debt reprofiling to ease the pain of this country and while we are doing that we need to out our citizens at the front-line. We can’t continue to talks about cuts in health care and education and all of these areas. We have a more fundamental issue in this country that needs to be addressed and that is our debt profile,” Sutherland added.

The member of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) accused the Government of doubling the debt profile in the country within the last ten years.

He said while the revenue has collapsed under the current administration, no strategic measures have been taken to stimulate growth in the country, noting that the high level of taxation affected many Barbadians.

Sutherland charged that Minister of Finance Christopher Sinckler spent close to six hours on Monday, during the delivery of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2017-2018, asking for solutions and trying to blame the Opposition for the state of the economy.

“Our political leader has offered solutions to the crisis that we continue to face in this country. Further to that Mr. Speaker, the Barbados Labour Party has produced a Covenant of Hope on how we intend to engage the people of this country to give them hope for them and their families. So I don’t know what else the Democratic Labour Party want us to offer to them. We have offered many solutions, the private sector has offered solutions, and I would go further Mr. Speaker, the Right Honourable Member for St. Peter [former Prime Minister Owen Arthur] has offered solutions on the current economic crisis that the Democratic Labour Party face,” he said.

“And right in their backyard Mr. Speaker, the Member for St. Philip West [Dr. David Estwick] has offered solutions on many occasions to the Prime Minister of the ruling party, who has failed to act on his recommendations. What else can we do, Mr. Speaker? Is the request for help from the Member of Parliament for St. Michael North West sincere? I don’t think it is a sincere request. I think it is theatrical and we have to safeguard the citizens of this country from the sport and the comical comments that come from the Members of the Democratic Labour Party,” he continued. (AH)