The Constipated State of Our Finances

Do you remember, when we were young, our elders warning us not to “push your head where your body can’t pass?”  I think that caveat should be part of the oath taken by ministers of government as a protection for the people they’re supposed to serve.

I say this because of the situation in which the ordinary citizen and resident now find themselves: a situation so contradictory that it would be funny were it not so painful. 

On Tuesday we witnessed yet another short-circuited expression of the power of the people after protesting Public Works employees took to the streets, demanding what they are owed. If we are to believe what we heard, some workers are yet to be paid for overtime work dating back to 2014, while the new hires supposedly have not received a salary since they were taken on.

On the face of it – especially since this issue was forcefully brought up two weeks ago with the blocking of streets downtown – the workers’ cause is a just one.  But in response to being personally called out to support that cause, I had to pose some questions to the caller and will repeat them here:

First: Why did the protesters back off and then back down?  Why, when in pursuit of what is legitimately theirs, they finally got the attention of the man who not only legally controls the national cheque book but is the de facto controller of the Ministry of Works – the prime minister who told the Parliament he was not aware of their protest two weeks before.

Having been schooled by the Barbuda representative that day, the prime minister/finance minister had two whole weeks in which to research and correct – as did the de jure minister of works, who is adept at looking over fences and drawing conclusions. 

So why was the situation not resolved, as the Senate president claimed it was, last week, when she disallowed the Opposition’s question about it?

More questions: Why were the angry, disappointed, broke protesters so desperate to believe that a permanent secretary (PS) who owes her present position to the “favour” of the prime minister would, or even could ( to paraphrase him), “eff” up his plans to pay them? 

And why was the prime minister, in this particular instance, so vicious in throwing this PS under the bus, after having been so protective of the one in the seat when Vehicle-gate was exposed?  What has changed: Is it a matter of skeletons vs no skeletons?

I continue to be amazed – although I should not, given the bewitching spell over this place – that the victims in the Works Department  would turn so rabidly against the other victims – the civil servants who are only carrying out the orders of the ministers.  

All of a sudden, the minister who has not paid them in 12 years and the other who clearly has not supported their cause have become the heroes of this story, while their servants have been branded the villains, accused of being Opposition supporters and saboteurs. Well, well, well… . 

Can these Public Works employees remember the speed with which the minister of finance commandeered $50,000 as a reward for information on the damage of APUA materials at Old Road (after the spiteful destruction of the Opposition leader’s tent)?  Do the workers believe the prime minister routed that money through a permanent secretary?  

Further, do they believe that any PS is responsible for the current delay in payment of July salaries and government pensions – even after Carnival was officially launched last weekend?  Was a PS responsible for the late payment of Social Security pensions, too?

But to get back to the beginning: This is not a matter of there not being any money to pay. Rather, according to the Customs & Excise Division, there are record-breaking amounts of it.  But Ministry of Finance insiders have confirmed that first dibs on the Treasury have been assigned to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and its related construction projects; not to public-sector workers!!

… Which is where I strongly suspect the Cabinet’s head has gotten stuck, and the body – civil servants, contractors, the road network, the crime-fighting apparatus, the water-supply operations – now cannot pass.

Now, I’m all for ambition, and I understand there are some folks who want to impress total strangers; but I don’t think either should come at the expense of the police officers whom we expect to find and arrest the shooters; the Treasury employees who wanted to take their kids to Junior Carnival; the pensioner needing to buy eye drops; or the contractor wanting to service his equipment. I don’t think King Charles would approve of that.

We know that hosting this CHOGM is choking the Treasury. We strongly suspect that CIP income is down.  And, in the face of the US’ disapproval of the Browne Administration and its withdrawal of sponsorship of CHOGM, we wonder which “friendly government ” is daring to pick up the slack and underwrite this expensive attempt to prove that “we bigger dan dem.”

So far, it looks like it’s the Works employees, the public servants, and the pensioners who are carrying the load.