A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled to return to the island this week to continue negotiations.
This was disclosed by Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley during an address on Saturday at the 77th annual delegation conference of the Barbados Workers Union. She told delegates her administration is faced with a “tall order” as it “work out how we are going to transform our Government and transform our nation.”
Political cosmetology
Charging that the country had been engaged in “political cosmetology,” she detailed the financial mess of state-owned enterprises.
“We have been engaged in a form of political cosmetology . . . what we therefore have to do and what we have done is insist that we must confront the true cost of Government. You cannot go forward if we do not understand the true cost of what Government has become in this country.”
Not business as usual
The Prime Minister, who is also Finance Minister said it would not be business as usual and the Government had moved to get out of the BDS$100 million contracts for the construction of new desalination plants that were signed by the former Democratic Labor Party Government prior to the general election.
“I have signaled that all parties must come back to the table to re-negotiate in interest of this nation . . . We have managed to get other parties to walk away from the contractual obligations of Berth Six at the Port and from the construction of a $500 million shipping agreement which we cannot and could not afford.”
Mottley also admitted that Government had heavy arrears, which amounted to $1.9 million and gave the assurance that her Government would clear its debts.
“The Government over the next four years will clear all the arrears of third parties through negotiations, settlements and staggered payments over the four-year period.
“The people of Barbados must never have a reputation of having a Government again that has not paid its bills to them or to third party institutions,” she stated.
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