Too fast, says Opposition Leader

Opposition Leader, Bishop Joseph Atherley, has raised concern about the National Payment System Bill and how quickly it was brought to Parliament.

He was speaking yesterday in the House of Assembly as they debated that piece of legislation as well as the Bills of Exchange (Amendment) Bill. He said while according to Minister

in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn, the Bill was the subject of discussion for the last two years with the financial community in Barbados, and it no doubt was discussed at the level of the Cabinet, the public knows little about what it entails. This, he said, is unfortunate as the Bill has

implications not only for the financial community in this country, but for the Barbados economy as a whole and Barbadians in general. Therefore, he maintained that it needed to be further ventilated.

“My view is notwithstanding what measure of time the Cabinet was afforded to scrutinise it. It seems to me a little bit rushed to the Parliament and through the Parliament of Barbados. It is an important piece of legislation which would impact upon the economic culture in Barbados, which will impact not only economic, but social life in Barbados. The fact that, to me, it is rushed here fairly hastily is something which I am not fully comfortable, and certainly not happy,” he stated.

Atherley said that as far as he is aware, the Bill was not given any form of scrutiny in the public arena, despite the fact that it will affect every citizen.

“We sit for two years with people in the banking system and other elements of the financial community for two years. We discuss it with them, we expose our Cabinet colleagues somewhat to it, I imagine, and then we rush it to and through Parliament, and we do not give the public of Barbados courtesy of a little time to scrutinise the Bill,” he lamented.

The Opposition Leader maintained that this was not a good move in terms of governance on the Administration’s part. He went further, charging that it is not the first time the Government has been guilty of not sharing information as they should. In fact, Atherley lamented that such was happening repeatedly. The Leader of the Opposition’s comments came as he said that another Bill that was up for debate had only been brought to the House of Assembly yesterday morning.

“I do not know that it is the best way to govern. I do not know that in this instance it is a necessary way to govern. We have had other pieces of legislation come here with haste, Mr. Speaker, and we have acknowledged in that instance, or in those instances, the need for haste and we’ve co-operated with the Government in those instances, especially when pressure has been brought to bear upon the Government, by international institutions seeking to have Barbados make corrective measures to its legislative architecture to cover their concerns and to respond to their concerns. But I do not know that there needs to be this kind of a rush on this one, such that the public is not allowed a view of this, a time to think upon it, to applaud it, to critique it or whatever. But that is too often the pattern which we witness with respect to how the Government performs on the matter of building legislative platforms in Barbados, in these days,” he stated. (JRT)