Thumbs up
Government is being lauded for allowing certain payments to be transacted online, thereby improving the delivery of those services.
The kudos has come from Consumer Analyst and head of the Barbados Consumers Research Organisation (BarCRO), Reverend Malcolm Gibbs-Taitt, who said he is looking forward to seeing even greater improvements made going forward. His comments came as he said he is fully in favour of the decisions to allow, for example, the payment of drivers’ licenses online, and for persons to apply for and pay for police certificates of character online, as such have significantly cut down on the wait times in both instances.
“I think it is a good idea, I can’t say I don’t like it, I do. But we must be cognisant that if people do not have money, improving the ease of doing business still cannot function for those people,” he told The Barbados Advocate.
He made the point while noting that a number of persons are currently struggling to make ends meet because of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gibbs-Taitt added that these tough economic circumstances also necessitate that consumers are able to get the best value for money when shopping, especially in supermarkets across the island.
Call for price list to be made public
On that note, he said consumers in this country have a right to have ready access to the comparative prices of common items in supermarkets. The Consumer Analyst who has repeatedly called over the last several years for the comparative price list of the items from the basket of basic consumer goods to be published, as was done over a decade ago, is adamant that with so many people out of work and others living on reduced incomes because of short time, it is needed now than ever.
During the COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year, Gibbs-Taitt insisted that the absence of these prices had been a “serious omission” by Government and was even more glaring because of the stay-at-home order that was in place. He is now reiterating the call for the information to be published for all to see, even if online, contending that the ability to shop around is what households, which are experiencing economic strain require.
“Things were very bad before COVID and they have gotten worse since COVID and if I may say so, consumers are the largest group any country has, but consumers are badly disadvantaged. The Government has in place the way to know how each supermarket charges for each item and they can allow consumers to have this information. As far as I am aware the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs still collects that information, so I do not understand why it is not being passed on to the general public, because knowing the prices of these items would show up any discrepancies that exist,” he said.
The BarCRO head is contending that consumers must be able to look at the prices charged by the various supermarkets and make informed decisions about where to spend their hard earned money.