The space usually reserved for the laughter and frolic of young children in Gall Hill, Christ Church became a mourning ground for residents as the worrying spate of violent killings continued today.

[caption id="attachment_292123" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Police officers on the scene of today’s stabbing death in Gall Hill, Christ Church. Inset Edward “Chucky” Chase, Barbados’ 19th murder victim for 2019.[/caption]

Thirty-four-year old Edward Chase, alias Chucky fell victim to a brutal knife attack during an altercation with another young man, who is reportedly well known to members of the community.

Chase’s body lay lifeless just outside the community playground as loud sporadic wailing signaled that another community was in mourning.

Police spokesman, Michael Blackman confirmed that officers from the Oistins Police Station received reports of a stabbing just before midday and arrived to find Chase’s body lying in a pool of blood.

At the scene were his mother, Stacey Leacock and his older sister, Cheryl Leacock who was in no emotional condition to speak. However, Roslyn Wilkinson, a senior in the community said over the last 18 years, the deceased had become as close to her as a son. Sitting under a black flag meters away from the young man’s corpse, Wilkinson spoke with a heavy heart.

[caption id="attachment_292122" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Roslyn Wilkinson said the deceased, who was like a son to her was trying to turn his life around.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_292121" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A senior police officer consoling a relative at the scene of today’s murder.[/caption]

“The tears just would not come, I want them to come, but the tears just would not come. Knowing him for over 18 years, he would come to me as a mother and I looked to him as a son,” she said.

She told Barbados TODAY that in his younger days, Chase had developed some bad habits, which landed him in prison almost a decade ago but had since started to turn his life around. Wilkinson added that her ‘adopted son’ occupied his time with gardening and maintenance to make money.

“After I got into his life, he settled down and he worked. I sat on his step every afternoon and we would talk,” she said, adding that it had been eight years since he last got into trouble.

“I don’t know what happened today, but I was inside and I heard him quarrelling. I said to him, ‘Chucky why are you quarreling’ and he said that the young ladies over there said that he is smoking dope.

“Moments later a young lady came and said ‘Roslyn come quickly, because Chucky and this boy are fighting,” she revealed.

“I would have intervened because all of us are neighbors and it never would have happened. But I could not get there as fast as I wanted to and when I got there, it was already done. My daughter who is a student nurse tried to revive him, but he was already gone,” she said, while shaking her head in sorrow.

Wilkinson said she had posted bail for the young man in the past, but continuously warned him to stay clear of trouble.

“I begged him, ‘please, do not get yourself into trouble, because I am not coming back to sign bail for you. Next time, you will loss’ way in prison,’ and he promised me he would try his best not to get into trouble.”

Another observer who described himself as friend of the deceased told Barbados TODAY: “I was out there sitting down when a neighbor told me that my friend just died and when I came out here I saw blood just pouring out of him.”

He added that the incident would have a stifling effect on efforts by members of the community to help change the neighborhood for the better.

“Through the years, living in this community I’ve seen a lot of violence, but it was cooling down of late. This is the first major thing in three or four years. These kinds of things will only make Gall Hill ‘hot’ again. Honestly we’re tired of this kind of thing,” he added.

Two women at the scene expressed disgust at the scourge of violence taking over the country and pleaded with government to help fix the problem.

“We’re crying out saying we’re going to help the youth, but it seems nothing is being done. What are we going to do? Mia [Mottley] we don’t just want talk, we need some action.

“I wouldn’t say there’s much violence in this community. We have a lot of people on the blocks and stuff, but we try to live as one. Everybody knows each other; we try to speak to the young people as much as we can,” she said.

Barbados TODAY understands a young man is assisting police with their investigations and the lawmen are asking those with information about the matter to speak up.

Aside from his family on the island, Chase leaves to mourn an older brother who is currently serving as a soldier in the United States. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

The post Killing No. 19 appeared first on Barbados Today.

Nurses at the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic were off the job today, complaining that their current security arrangements are far from adequate, amid a recent spate of violent incidents at the Jemmotts Lane, St Michael medical facility.

The nurses are also insisting that they will remain off the job until Government post police officers at the polyclinic to protect workers. Most of the operations at the clinic came to a halt, with only the dispensary services being unaffected. However prenatal and other general services were suspended, as the healthcare workers met with their bargaining agents, the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), Unity Workers’ Union (UWU) and the Barbados Nurses’ Association (BNA).

Following the meeting, which began at 10 a.m. and wrapped up just after midday, head of the UWU Senator Caswell Franklyn told Barbados TODAY that the Ministry of Health has been brought up to speed on the nurses’ stance and the ball was now in their court.

“We the unions came to a common position that the nurses will not work at that polyclinic unless there is police presence. The nurses are in mortal fear for their lives and this is no exaggeration. They cannot work in these conditions anymore.

“We spoke to the Acting Permanent Secretary [in the Ministry of Health], who agreed to speak to the Minister of Health and get back to us. Our position is that they better hurry up because we have instructed the nurses not to go back to work unless there is a police presence,” said Franklyn, who made it clear that a single police officer will not do. Industrial Relations Officer of the NUPW, Christian Rock, confirmed Franklyn’s account of the meeting.

The outspoken trade unionist and Opposition Senator stressed, “When there is violence in a community, the police put an outpost there. So, the least they can do is to put a couple of officers at the polyclinic to protect the lives of the people working there. It is only fair that the nurses and staff there who serve the community so well, be made to feel safe.”

Today’s action came in the wake of three recent attacks on patients at the facility. On Tuesday evening, a person entered the clinic and attempted to attack a patient with a chair. Two weeks ago, a man wielding a knife assaulted another patient and earlier this month a female patient was struck in her head with a rock by a man.

Franklyn noted that the unarmed security guards stationed at the clinic were powerless to prevent the acts of violence.

“This is the third time for the month that persons ran through the clinic fighting. One man had a knife, another time a man had a chair. When they couldn’t get their way, they called in troops from outside. Yesterday’s incident started around 4:40 and came to a head around 6 p.m. The guard was trying his best to calm the situation but to no avail until he finally called the police. Even when the police came the people were threatening the police. One of the nurses had to pick up a four-year-old child and run. Other nurses had to run for cover,” Franklyn lamented.

Barbados TODAY made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Minister of Health Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic for comment.

The post Off the job appeared first on Barbados Today.

An education system, rooted in the colonial era, is in urgent need of comprehensive reform to fit modern times and give all children a fair break regardless of their abilities, the Prime Minister suggested tonight.

While giving her maiden Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals in the House of Assembly, the Prime Minister raised the possibility that a middle school could replace the common entrance examination at age 11-plus.

She expressed concern at the fact that “too many children leave school without certification, and too many children are leaving school because they have become superannuated. We have to pause and get our education system right.”

Mottley said she was confident that despite the current health challenges of Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw, she was willing to have an extensive conversation with the children of Barbados on what they can do to make every school an excellent one.

The Prime Minister did not go as far as indicating that the Common Entrance Examination would ultimately be abolished, given a “very conservative” population.

But she alluded to an education system that had remained largely unchanged since the creation of the Education Department and the passage of the Education Act of 1944 which introduced the most significant reforms in education since Emancipation more than a hundred years before.

She told the House: “I believe this Parliament can come and design a better system not based on colonial reform in the 1940s. While the Common Entrance does give people a fair chance at secondary education, it puts too much pressure on a lot of our children, and discards too many on the sidelines when they do not make the grade.”

She suggested: “We need to look and see whether we can set up a middle school that will take children in first and second form and help them to decide which subjects they like, such as sciences, languages, commerce, auto mechanics, carpentry and the like, so they can choose the areas in which they want to specialise.”

The Prime Minister said Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, Colin Jordan, the MP for St. Peter, will work towards ensuring greater employment opportunities for children after leaving school.

She said: “The Member for St. Peter is now starting a First Jobs initiative, and we want to work with the unions on this, as they have a role to play in training good workers as well as teaching them about their rights. We must also get back to training artisans like joiners, plumbers, mechanics and masons as we did in the past by providing them with more opportunities for apprenticeships.”

On that score, she added: “The National Training Levy will continue to go to the National Training Board and the Barbados Vocational Training Board, and money that was devoted to the unemployment benefit fund will now be divided 50 per cent to unemployment benefit and 50 per cent to the training levy.

“We must also ensure we no longer have a situation where five, six or seven years after finishing school, there are young people who have never had a job or undergone any kind of training. So we are considering the appointment of a national training coordinator, who will be working along with the private sector and trade unions.”

But the Prime Minister stated that the process of taking Barbados to a higher level may become more difficult given the decline in the population in recent years.

She announced that Government was going to make life somewhat easier for both male and female workers with children: “We have set up a National Population Commission to address this in the long term, but for now, we must influence more women to come back into the workforce after having children, so within the next two years we want to set up day care facilities on our industrial estates and bigger office buildings.

“These centres will allow young women to stay at work and have their children looked after. We have also deemed it critical to introduce paternity leave to this country to bring a sense of balance.”

Echoing late Prime Minister David Thompson’s “Families First” initiative, she noted that strong families were the bedrock of Barbados for many years and strong family structures in which people learned to love themselves defined who they are as a people. “If we save families, families save their own, and this country has to do things differently,” she told the House.

The post ‘Comprehensive education reform’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

Stakeholders in the public transport sector have responded with cautious optimism to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcement of a $1.50 increase in bus fares which will take effect by the middle of next month.

Representatives of both owners and operators spoke very briefly with Barbados TODAY following the announcement and revealed that while the increase came as no surprise, they are not entirely convinced that the changes would result in substantial improvement to the sector’s financial viability.

President of the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO), Morris Lee said he believed the budgetary measures were intended to ensure “some level of stability for a more vibrant Transport Board operation” but revealed that for PSV operators, other factors needed to be taken into account.

“The fuel tax has taken a significant toll on the operation and therefore an increase in bus fare would cushion what has been lost already,” said Lee.

He added that PSV owners would need more time to analyse the impact of the changes on its customers.

“It takes a year for a proper analysis to be done of bus fare. People react to fares by carpooling and walking short distances as opposed to catching the bus. They may decide to travel only when necessary, so a true assessment of the increase in bus fare cannot really be had until the end of this year or early next year.

“It’s not a question of straight mathematics because people will obviously react in terms of the affordability of bus fare to suit their budget.”

During her lengthy budget speech, Prime Minister Mottley indicated that after meetings with private and public sector transport operators, government determined that the current situation was “untenable.” Consequently, Mottley announced that from April 15 this year, bus fare would be increase to $3.50.

“Diesel gone up, insurance gone up, tyres gone up, wages gone up and all kinds of items gone up and the government of Barbados is having to find 43 and 45 million in a good year, sometimes more in a bad year, to subsidize the Transport Board,” she said of the increase. 

To the owners and operators of PSV’s, Mottley warned: “Our interest is not only in an affordable transport sector, but in a reliable and orderly transport sector.”

Fabian Wharton, president of the recently formed PSV Workers’ Association representing drivers and conductors, said he first needed to meet with the association’s board before making an extended statement, but expressed measured optimism. 

“Any increase for our sector is welcome, but at the same time we have to wait and see what the impact is on our ridership. Like any other financial measure, we have to adapt a wait-and-see approach and see how the increase affects our businesses in the future.” said Wharton.

The post PSV operators optimistic appeared first on Barbados Today.

Significant progress has been made in the restructuring of state-owned island carrier, LIAT, Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared today, as she broke her silence on talks on its future.

But Mottley said the time had come for hard decisions to be made to ensure LIAT became a sustainable venture for all of its shareholders, including the Barbados Government, the airline’s largest shareowner.

Mottley said in the House of Assembly: “The open secret is that if a loss-making route gets cut, calls used to be made, pressure got put on the airline and management and the route reappeared. There are flights that LIAT has in recent months that had two and three, passengers, one passenger. That cannot continue.

“We believe that the time has come for us to take commercial decisions, while at the same time protecting the integrity of transport within the sub-region.”

As a result, she said Government had suggested there be a minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) to make it profitable to continue to service certain routes.

Implementation of the MRG is expected to affect flights and schedules as underperforming routes are dropped unless subsidised by the destination’s government.

The Prime Minister explained: “If the route is unsustainable commercially, if it drops below a certain load factor but you need that route to continue for all kinds of reasons, then pay for it anytime it falls before the load factor. But if you don’t pay for it, or it is not competitive or it is not earning, it has to go.

“I am happy to say that most Governments are beginning to move in this direction and to accept the model of the MRG as a serious model.”

She said the shareholder governments were also in the process of having discussions with LIAT employees, aircraft owners, the lessors and financiers in a bid to make the airline sustainable.

Mottley said: “We are not yet at the point where we want to be, but I can report substantive progress is being made. There will be hiccups, but the bottom line is that we feel LIAT as a brand is a credible brand and even if it works with other private operators on a code share in some instances, or if it has to sell two or three planes, that we can see our way forward so long as we make commercial decisions in a timely manner.

“It may mean that the structure of the board has to change, it may mean that other practices within LIAT may have to change, it may mean that sacrifices will have to be made by everybody, but we feel it is worth fighting for because we need to maintain transport within the sub-region.”

The post LIAT restructuring in the air: Mottley appeared first on Barbados Today.

Government’s plans for round-the-clock primary health care at polyclinics has been rejected by an Opposition senator whose trade union represents nurses.

General Secretary of the Unity Workers’ Union (UWU), Senator Caswell Franklyn, called on Ministry of Health and Wellness to abandon the plan, arguing it had not thoroughly examined security considerations for the health care providers.

After three violent incidents this month at one of two clinics in a trial programme, nurses at the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic walked off the job today.

The nurses complained that the polyclinic, which recently had its closing time extended from 4:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., was now beset by violence.

Franklyn argued: “If you can’t adequately secure a facility that opens until 10 p.m., I don’t see how they could assure workers that they would be safe when they switch to 24-hour. These workers are in conditions now where it is even violent during the day.

“So, what is going to happen when it is in the wee hours of the morning and everybody in their bed but the nurses and criminals who want to kill each other?”

In an attempt to fulfil one of its core campaign promises, the labour party government announced that 24-hour health care service would be introduced at two of the island’s polyclinics on June 1. Government was later forced to suspend this start date, citing logistical reasons.

According to the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the initiative is aimed at cutting down wait times at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department by offering them round-the-clock care at alternative venues.

Services offered will include urgent care, which  treats illnesses and injuries that require immediate care but are not life-threatening, as well as routine care, which may include follow-up care for chronic conditions and health checks.

But as the nurses protested, Senator Franklyn told Barbados TODAY that when Government is eventually ready to start this initiative, they must first convince him that his members will be safe.

He said: “Before I can sign off on this with my nurses, [Government] has to show how they are going to keep them safe. Trust me on that. As it stands at the moment, at the Winston Scott polyclinic, workers are fearing for their lives because of violence. So, I will be crazy to let them sink themselves further in a dangerous situation.”

At the Winston Scott polyclinic there have been three recent attacks on patients this month alone. On Tuesday evening, an assailant entered the clinic and attempted to beat a patient with a chair. Two weeks ago, a knife-wielding man accosted another patient. And earlier this month, a man struck a female patient in the head with a rock.

The unarmed Government security guards stationed at the clinic were said powerless to prevent the acts of violence.

The post 24-hour clinics a security risks – Franklyn appeared first on Barbados Today.

Almost eight out of ten CLICO life insurance policyholders are to be paid out by Government for their investments and claims in the collapsed insurance company, the Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced tonight.

She outlined in the Budget speech a payment plan for the 8,944 policyholders.

An additional 1,394 policyholders, or 12 per cent of the company’s portfolio, are to receive at least half of their claims in cash.

Saying it was time to “bring an end to the CLICO debacle” which stretched through the ten-year term of the Democratic Labour Party Government, Mottley said the conglomerate’s collapse in 2009 had saddled Government with a $500 million burden.

The proposed payment plan would help Government save $315 million in interest payments alone, she said.

And while she acknowledged that Government would be unable to repay all policyholders the entire amounts owed to them, the Prime Minister said an effort was being made to ensure that these individuals received at least some of those monies.

She disclosed that two weeks ago, Cabinet approved the winding up of Resolution Life, the court-sanctioned successor of CLICO.

Mottley said: “It is now time to bring to an end this sordid chapter...we still can’t work magic, but we can start to bring order.

“The Government will offer the liquidator (Financial Services Commission) enough cash that will enable it to pay a maximum of $20,000 to life insurance policyholders of ResLife. This would allow 8, 944 persons, or 77 per cent of the company’s portfolio to be paid out in full.

“In addition, a further 1,394 persons who will receive at least 50 per cent of what they were owed. There is then another 697 people, or six per cent, who the $20 000 would at least represent 20 per cent of what they were owed. So in truth and in fact, 95 per cent of the people will get a significant sum if not all of what they were owed when we pay out this $20 000.”

But the Prime Minister said while there were a few people who are owed more than that amount, Government did not have the cash to make those payments right now.

In those cases, she said, Government is to issue them with Series B 15-year bonds to allow the FSC to eventually provide payment in full for their life insurance policies.

“We can do no better because we simply do not have it,” Mottley explained.

But the news was disappointing for holders of the controversial, high-yield, high-risk Executive Flexible Premium Annuities (EFPAs).

Mottley said they would be paid back their principle in special 15-year bonds, but only at an interest rate of 0.25 per cent over the 15-year duration.

The Prime Minister said: “For those who bought the fanciful and high-yielding EFPAs, an instrument that sounded too good to be true, we’re not leaving you at the side of the road and we will provide the FSC with a special 15-year bond to cover your original principle.

“The accrued interest that was previously proposed by the last Government, I regret we cannot afford it . . . . You are at least going to receive your principle if not your interest, but might I remind the people of Barbados that you received nothing effectively the last 10 years.”

But Mottley said Government still had to resolve issues surrounding CLICO’s Eastern Caribbean claims and investment instruments, totalling $49 million. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb

The post End to CLICO debacle appeared first on Barbados Today.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley tonight made the grim admission that the current level of gun-related crime is “bad”.

But she gave the assurance that Government is doing everything in its power to arrest escalating gun crime which she acknowledged is of greatest concern to Barbadians.

Mottley said in Parliament: “It is a scourge we will not ignore or we will not tolerate and we have already begun taking steps to counter it,” Prime Minister Mia Mottley said this evening in Parliament during the Budgetary Proposals 2019.

“We will do all in our power because many of the people who are getting themselves in trouble are between the ages of 15 and 25.

“We know this problem is as deep as it is broad and there is no single or no magical solution. We have to both boost law enforcement and deal with our society at one and the same time.”

Government has set a goal of trying to “save” over 600 families over the next five years, the Prime Minister said.

She declared: “Parish by parish by parish, we must set ourselves the mission over the next five years of saving at least 30 families per parish with the exception of the more populous ones like St Michael, St Philip, St James and Christ Church, where we must save at least 100 families.

“Because if we can do that in the next five years I tell you this will be a better country for us to live in.”

She said Government had turned its attention to helping young people, particularly those who left school before completing their studies or had been expelled.

The Prime Minister announced that she has asked the Minister of Education to prepare a list of all the students who have been sent out of school at 15 and just turning 16, when compulsory schooling ends.

Mottley said: “We cannot leave them out there to flounder. These are our children, these are our sons, these are our daughters and we have to find ways of correcting them if they are going down the wrong path. We have to give them the hope that tomorrow can be a better day.”

Mottley revealed that she had also asked the social service agencies to be given a list of those youngsters who may need help.

The Prime Minister contended that those young people who limed on the block still understood there was a need for order.

Mottley declared: “If they understand order among themselves, you mean we can’t make them understand order in the country too?

“Barbados must be a safe place for all
of us.”

Mottley said police would also be given the best resources to help in the fight against crime, including the use of aerial surveillance tools.

The post Gun crime ‘bad’, PM admits appeared first on Barbados Today.

Barbadians will be able to open foreign currency bank accounts here from July, as the Mia Mottley administration begins to loosen nearly five decades of foreign exchange controls.

The promise was first made last October.

Delivering her maiden Budget presentation in Parliament on Wednesday, Mottley argued that the 1970s-era foreign exchange controls were initially designed to regulate the flow of foreign exchange to ensure sufficient reserves to defend the exchange rate.

But, she said, with the advent of greater trade and globalisation, a consensus emerged that exchange controls, if not managed and administered well, could create distortions and can disrupt economic efficiency and growth.

Pointing out that several countries have been successful in relaxing their controls, Mottley boasted that Barbados’ international reserves were now close to the targeted 15 weeks, adding that Barbados’ exchange control regime has been cited by international competitiveness surveys as one of the critical impediments to doing international business.

The Prime Minister said: “Our efforts to cut bureaucracy and boost competitiveness will strengthen our reserves further. The switch from direct taxes to indirect taxes will support work and discourage imports, boosting our reserves.”

She also pointed to a number of planned investments that she said would also bring in foreign exchange in the short and medium term.

Mottley announced: “The time is now ripe for us to begin a gradual relaxation of exchange controls.

“Effective July 1 this year, we will allow all Barbadians to open foreign currency denominated bank accounts, to hold foreign currency they have earned here or abroad.”

She said the Central Bank would be gradual in the relaxation of the controls, and targeted in its approach: “We will focus first on those areas that boost investor confidence, lead to increased capital inflows, and better support economic growth by, for instance, allowing savings to be channeled to their most productive use.”

She also said there would be a reduction of the surrender requirement of 70 per cent of foreign exchange brought into Barbados.

“And the central bank will move it down I believe, to 50 per cent.”

The relaxation means that the central bank would allow foreign currency proceeds from the sale of assets to be repatriated in foreign currency or kept locally in a foreign currency account.

But these proceeds will not be subject to the capital appreciation policy, said the Minister of Finance.

During her presentation, Mottley also announced that her administration is to increase the annual limit on personal travel facilities from $7,500 to $20,000.

Other limits will also rise, she said.

“We will cap the foreign exchange fee at $100,000 so it does not become an impediment to doing business in Barbados,” she added, while insisting that the current reserve position and the macro-economic background now permit the liberalisation.

Prime Minister Mottley declared: “Our desire to do so, is driven by our genuine goal of being a global hub for business between Africa and the Americas, between Asia and the Caribbean. We will follow developments closely, and when the time is right, we will look to further relaxation. We are on our way.”

The post Budget 2019: Grip to loosen on Forex appeared first on Barbados Today.

Within the next four months taxpayers are to begin receiving income tax refunds owed to them from as far back as 2011, Prime Minister Mia Mottley said this evening in Parliament during her Budgetary Proposals.

She announced: “Starting the first of July, individuals who are owed personal income tax refunds for the years 2011 to 2016 will receive up to $1,000 in cash.

“That will repay approximately 63,000 Barbadian households in full.”

She said that 74 per cent of the 85,000 households which are owed will receive the majority of the monies owed to them by Government.

Mottley said while the undertaking would cost Government $39 million, it would assist in meeting its debt reduction targets.

The Prime Minister said companies which were owed VAT refunds or corporate income tax refunds for the similar period would receive up to $10,000 in cash.

She said: This will repay in full, 1,700 companies in Barbados or 71 per cent of the companies to whom we owe refunds. This one off payment will cost us $10 million.

“The remaining balances that will not be settled at this point in time will be covered in 42 equal monthly installments beginning from May 1 of this year, unless of course cash becomes available sooner and we can advance the payments as we have done in these instances.”

Mottley said that in total, the non-reimbursement of overpayments of VAT and corporation taxes between 2011 to 2016 had reached a staggering $166 million. But, she vowed that Government would also repay that.

Mottley said pensioners were also set to receive some monies as part of the country’s domestic debt restructuring.

She declared: “Remember the first lump sum they got $20,000 and we said that they would receive a second payment of $30,000. For those who had bonds that were up to $50,000, they will now receive that second lump sum of $30,000 each on March 29. Promise made, promise kept.”

The post Tax refunds ‘coming’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

White Oak Consulting is simply the best. Better than all the rest.

And that, according to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, is why Government took the decision to hire the internationally-acclaimed firm to help in the country’s debt restructuring exercise.

Declaring that “there was nothing to hide”, the Prime Minister said it was simply a case of hiring the best in the business.

There had been widespread speculation following the revelation that White Oak was being paid US $85 000 per month in consultancy fees, leading to both Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley and leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Verla DePeiza to call for more details of the contract to be made public.

“There is nothing to hide...you cannot do domestic debt restructuring of $9 billion and foreign debt restructuring of another $2.5 billion without getting people who are experienced, who know how to do it. They are the best...even in cricket you want the best possible team,” Mottley maintained as she delivered the Budgetary Proposals for 2019 in Parliament this evening.

“We didn’t start doing this as a party now. When I was Attorney General and we ran into problems with Trinidad and Tobago we went and got the best lawyers in the world, not in the Caribbean, and we got the best arbitrators in the world…”

PM Mottley said apart from the retainer being paid to White Oak, they were being paid a success fee of 0.45 per cent.

She said this meant that the company was being paid 45 cents out of every $100 Government saved.

“The sad thing is that it is not what they cost us, it is what they have saved us as a nation. Small conversations belong to small nations, this nation is not a small nation,” the Prime Minister insisted.

Additionally, she said White Oak had also helped Government to formulate a repayment plan for CLICO policyholders.

Mottley alluded to the fact that lawyers hired by the former DLP had charged Government between 30 to 40 per cent, while “doing nothing for this country”.

The post Nothing to hide in consultants deal appeared first on Barbados Today.

Six more years of fiscal medicine are what Barbadians can expect before the economy can recover fully, the Prime Minister has warned, less than six months into an International Monetary Fund austerity programme.

Using a range of metaphors as she presented her maiden budget speech since the Labour Party swept to power in May last year, Mottley appealed to citizens to “stay the course” to allow “antibiotics” to work effectively.

She told the House of Assembly: “The economy is no different to when you have an infection or you have to go on a course of antibiotics. You start to feel better after three or four days and you say the temperature down . . . . ‘I really ain’t feeling the pain as intense as I feeling it [before]; the fever going and I feel I could stop taking the antibiotics? The Member for St Philip North would tell us that we mad,’” she declared, adding that one cannot stop taking the medicine in the middle of the course because the underlying symptoms still exist.

But using a “hard drink” as an analogy for harsher fiscal measures, she ruled out the imposition of any such programme between now and the targeted period of recovery in 2025.

“And God forbid, you certainly can’t drink a hard drink, cause you really then don’t want the antibiotics to work,” the Prime Minister cautioned.

She then likened the country to a diabetic who cannot afford to stop taking medication for fear of going into “renal failure”.

The Prime Minister said: “The kidneys break down. The very time they should have stayed the course on the medication, they stopped taking it.”

She went on to urge Barbadians to “hold tight” because it would not be much longer before restoration and transformation come.

Mottley told the House: “Take the medicine. Stay the course. All will be well, but you have to stay the course. And that is my simple, simple, simple message to Barbadians this evening,” Mottley suggested, adding that a lost decade cannot be recovered in 10 months or in five years.

However she promised: “We are going to try for seven. And if we make it in seven and we recover what we lost in seven, we would be feeling almost like Usain Bolt. But we can’t do it over night . . . and we knew it; we saw the signs breaking down upon us…institutions imploding; no integrity of data . . . that is perhaps the hardest thing my Government has now to face.”

The Prime Minister also reported to the Lower Chamber that the foreign reserves had now increased from $400 million, when her administration came to office last May, to $1.1 billion as of today.

She said: “Over the past ten months we have pulled our dollar to safety. As of today, our reserves have risen from just over the $400 million that they were when we inherited them at the end of May last year, at its lowest point.

It was actually down to three hundred and change in March. But as of $400 million odd we inherited, today, our reserves stand at $1.1 billion.”

Mottley also noted that the target which the party’s manifesto set for raising the import cover to 15 weeks is to be achieved in the next few days.   

The Prime Minister also said that the Government was no longer financing its spending by asking the Central Bank of Barbados to buy its bonds with printed money.

“That Mr Speaker, has ended,” she declared.

The Prime Minister then turned her attention to “untendered” contracts and the outcome of renegotiating some of them.   

She revealed that Government will yield $25 million per year in savings with two-thirds of those savings already agreed to the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre (SBRC) deal.   

The Prime Minister disclosed that the contract with the Williams Industries subsidiary would now move from $24 million to $10 million in the next few years, resulting in a significant saving for the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA).   

She also reported that the SSA would save some $24 million in rent for the use of the Vaucluse headquarters building.   

Mottley told the House of Assembly that the negotiations on new debt terms with foreign creditors were almost complete. She did not elaborate.

The post Economic austerity ‘until 2025’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

The bread-and-butter tourism industry was told tonight it must share the nation’s burden of economic recovery, has been slapped with increases in their room rate levies, just five months after new taxes were introduced.

But Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mia Mottley has announced that since tourism industry had made a “strong case”, it would be spared the feared 15 per cent rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) on tourism come January 2020.

Instead, she said, the 7.5 per cent rate of VAT would be increased to 10 per cent come next year.

This measure should raise some $27 million in a full calendar year and just  $4.5 million in this fiscal year, the Finance Minister said.

Mottley said the decision to increase the VAT rate from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent was taken after it was recognised that the doubling of the rate would have adversely affected the competitiveness of the sector and its “packages in the international market”.

But in an effort to add some $15 million to Government’s revenue over the course of a year and make up any shortfall, Mottley said there would be an increase in the room rate levy by 75 per cent on the various types of accommodations, effective April 1.

This $15 million is in addition to the $47 million that was expected to be raked in from the October 1, 2018 rates.

Mottley told lawmakers: “the introduction of this levy was met with some skepticism by those in the industry. In fact, I think some of them curse very badly. They have now come back and realized this levy is effective and rather than abandoning the levy, the sector has agreed that we should seek to increase the fees on this levy.”

As such, the rate for an apartment, guesthouse, and hotel ‘B’ class would go from
$5 to $8.75 per bedroom per night, effective April 1.

Hotel ‘A’ class rooms will increase from $11 to $19.25 per night, while hotel luxury class will jump from $20 to $35 per bedroom per night.

In addition, the rate charged per bedroom per night on vacation rental properties and villas will increase from 2.5 per cent to 3.75 per cent, but where that amount exceeds $35 per night, the rate to be charged will be capped at $35 per bedroom per night.

From April 1, Villas would move from
being zero rated to exempt status under the VAT Act.

Mottley said: “This is intended to make sure that the sector carries its full share of taxation in this country by not receiving ongoing refunds from the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA).

“Similarly, that shift in exempt status should save the Government at least $5 million in refunds that it is currently paying back to the villa sector.”

Mottley announced that in an effort to “arrest this base-erosion” of the VAT collected by Government, the status of the other items in Schedule 1 of the VAT Act would be changed from being zero-rated to exempt under Schedule 2, effective April 1.

But she stressed that Government was not prepared to change the law to introduce VAT on education services, medical services, transport, financial services, fisheries, agriculture supplies, export of goods along with basic food items.

But Mottley said: “There are however, some items we will have to be able to review within the food system.

She explained that suppliers should not be getting VAT refunds for some items and they should not be passing on costs to consumers.

She said Government is to set up a working group within the Social Partnership to review those matters and would be required to report back within two months “so that there will be absolute clarity as to what should be the incidents of VAT on certain goods that are zero rated and exempt rather than the confusion that takes place now among suppliers”.

In addition to the additional revenue and savings, the move in other items not specifically addressed from zero rated to exempt will yield the Government net revenue of approximately $7 million over the course of a full year, said Mottley.

The post VAT to tick up for tourism industry appeared first on Barbados Today.

There is a possibility that the Jamaica-based Sandals Resorts International (SRI) could pull the plug on its highly publicized US$400 million Beaches project which has started at the old Almond property in St Peter.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the revelation on Wednesday night as she outlined several measures in her first major Budget speech in Parliament.

She said her administration has been in discussion with officials of SRI, operators of the Beaches brand, over the past two weeks as they sought changes to the sweeping concessions the hotel chain was granted by the former administration when it first entered Barbados in 2013.

However, a concerned Mottley admitted “We have reached a difficult moment in the negotiations that may result in the project being stalled or pulled.”

She said her administration had worked hard to make the sprawling Beaches project a reality, despite it not being in agreement with the “excessively generous concessions” the last government issued to Sandals.

It was in October last year that Prime Minister Mottley promised that her administration would ensure that all approvals were in place so the project could get off the ground by its planned January 2019 date.

Work was ongoing at the St Peter location, with the majority of the beach development near completion.

“For us not to have honoured a contractual arrangement made by a previous executive would have destroyed our reputation as a country that follows the rule of law. And that we accepted that we were bound by the terms of the agreement signed by the last administration with respect to the Sandals and with respect to the Order under the Duties Taxes and other Payments Act Chapter 67B,” she explained.

“In other words Sir, the damage to our government and our country to fulfill this obligation would be large but measureable, but if we failed to honour the obligation, the damage would be immeasurable and affect the integrity of our reputation as a place where the rule of law obtains or where business is conducted. So we agreed that we would honour it,” she said.

However, Mottley explained that Sandals “wants and continues to want even greater levels of assurances and guarantees” than they have already received through these agreements.

She explained that the company was seeking assurances and guarantees that the Government of Barbados would “indemnify them if any future Parliament at any stage in the next 40 years were ever to tax them for anything in the industry for any goods or services that others in the industry were paying taxes for”.

However, the Prime Minister made it clear that it would be unfair to the people of Barbados for her administration to honour such requests.

Insisting that she was running a country and not a company, Mottley, who said she was not prepared to negotiate in public, made it clear that there was no way her administration could play “fast and loose” with the future of Barbados.

“When we were elected last year, we promised that we would not make decisions that would compromise the stability of this country nor would we act in a manner that was capricious with respect to the stability of future generations. And in our judgment, a sovereign country cannot abandon its right to tax simply because none of us knows what lies in our future,” said Mottley.

Stating that Government had worked hard to make the Beaches project a reality in Barbados, Mottley said this was one request
she simply could not give in to, and she said she hoped the officials of Beaches would “come to view Barbados as an excellent partner”.

Mottley said Attorney General Dale Marshall would continue to meet with the lawyers of the hotel chain “but I have a duty to tell you that the project may be on stall or maybe on hold”.

“We welcome Sandals here and the jobs it has provided and everything it is doing in Barbados. We are certainly open for business, but it cannot be at any price. And in our current predicament in the middle of an IMF programme Mr Speaker, there is a limit even to what we can accept,” said Mottley.

In light of this, she said Government would establish a commission to review “once and for all”, the investment code and policies with respect to taxation and incentives, adding that a new framework was needed in order to remove the element of discretion “that is often the engine of corruption”.

The post Sandals’ ‘demands’ rejected appeared first on Barbados Today.

An increase in bus fare, new taxes on the gaming industry, and new rates of payment for water for commercial entities, are among the sweeping measures outlined in Government’s 2019 Budget, aimed at raking in more than $117 million per year.

In her more than five and a half hours major Budget presentation in Parliament on Wednesday, punctuated by a call for Barbadians to “stay the course”, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mia Mottley made no apologies for imposing a range of new measures, insisting that those who could afford to bear more of the burden should be made to do so while those who can’t should be protected.

“The future looks bright but we are not there yet,” she insisted.

“In some instances, it will require some relief and in some instances it will require additional revenue measures, so let us go. I am asking those who can afford to lift a little weight to let us lift it for a little while longer. But I am equally saying that there are some among us who need to be protected and who need some relief as we go forward because they cannot carry any more,” said Mottley.

The most far-reaching of the tax measures is the increase in bus fares, which went up by 75 per cent, to push bus fares from $2 to $3.50 from April 15.

Making a case for the increase, Mottley told her parliamentary colleagues that the Transport Board was in a very untenable position, with a deficit of about $45 million per year.

This situation, she said, demanded some increase in bus fare given that a fare hike had occurred once in the last 30 years and the hike was 50 cents.

The PM and Minister of Finance said the Transport Board would be announcing some weekly and monthly discounted packages and transfers in the coming days to help frequent commuters to better manage the fare increases.

There will be some legislative changes to the sector as well.

Perhaps the brunt of the burden this time around has been placed on property owners with those with residential properties valued over $450,000 and up to $850,000 attracting an increased rate of 0.7 per cent up from 0.45 per cent effective fiscal year 2019/2020.

Meanwhile, those properties with a value of over $850,000 will now pay a rate of one per cent, up from 0.75 per cent.

This means that the maximum amount of tax that can be collected on such a property now goes from $60,000 to $100,000.

Individuals whose property is valued at $150 000 and less will continue to be free of any land tax obligations. There will also be no increase in land tax rates for properties valued up to $450,000.

The rate on non-residential properties (commercial) goes from 0.7 per cent to 0.95 per cent.

Meanwhile, owners of vacant lots of over 4,000 square feet will have to pay a rate of one per cent, up from 0.8 per cent, in an effort to encourage persons to make productive use of non-utilized lots.

Owners of vacant lots of 4,000 square feet or under have been excluded from any increase in property tax.

The expected revenue from the changes to property tax rates is $61.9 million, with non-residential properties accounting for some $39 million of this collection.

“This is consistent with us asking those who can afford to pay more to do so,” said Mottley, adding that those companies being asked to pay were the same ones who would have benefitted from  lower corporation tax rates.

Meanwhile, commercial entities will see a change in the rate they pay for water above certain usage.

Effective May 1, the commercial rate will be $4.66 per cubic meter up to 40 cubic meters and then $7.78 per cubic meter for usage in excess of 40 cubic meters of water, with a monthly cap of 12,000 cubic meter, after which the rate reverts to $4.66 per cubic meter.

This tariff change is expected to result in a net revenue increase of $2.1 million per month for the Barbados Water Authority.

Meanwhile, Mottley has announced that effective May 1, there will be a 20 per cent withholding tax on winnings from lotteries and betting. Similarly, there will be a 17.5 per cent gambling tax on the net-drop of all gaming establishments.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister announced that gaming establishments have until January 1, 2021 to change out slot machines to auditable machines, adding that Government would collect three per cent of the monies owed for the period 2011 and 2018, over a four-year period.

“This will trigger, we believe, further economic growth by putting money into people’s pockets. We are shifting the burden of taxation away from taxing work and production, to taxing assets and consumption,” said Mottley, adding that the gaming industry has not paid any taxes since 2011 due to the argument that a “Standstill Arrangement” was reached with the government in relation to licence fees.

In relation to the tourism sector, Mottley said the increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate from 7.5 per cent to ten per cent effective January 2020 should raise some $27 million in a full calendar year and only $4.5 million in this fiscal year.

In addition, the increases in the room rate levies on the various types of accommodations should result in about $15 million reaching Government’s coffers, in addition to the $47 million the October 1, 2018 rates were expected to rake in.

On the bright side, however, the Prime Minister announced that with immediate effect, individuals earning between $18,001 and $25,000 per year would be entitled to a reverse tax credit of $1,300, essentially putting back an estimated $20 million into the hands of low-income Barbadian workers.

For those who earn $25,000 but below $35,000 per year, government will also be introducing a “Compensatory Income Credit (CIC)”.

Mottley said she was being very cautious with the revenues she expected to rake in from the new measures.

“We have been very conservative in the revenues that we are projecting to achieve from the taxes and measures that I have announced today because we are in the middle of an IMF (International Monetary Fund) programme. Let me underestimate and over collect so that we can come and make adjustments in the future,” said Mottley. marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

The post ‘Stay the course’ appeared first on Barbados Today.

Police are on the scene of a fatal shooting at Sheraton Mall.

(more details as they come to hand.)

The post Police investigate fatal shooting at Sheraton Mall appeared first on Barbados Today.

A man and a woman are currently assisting police with investigations into a fatal shooting at Sheraton Mall, Christ Church that occurred around 1:50 p.m.

According to police, the male victim, was standing just outside the entrance of KFC when a number of gunshots were heard.

This caused the crowd to scamper and moments after the victim was seen lying lifeless on the floor.

The ambulance was summoned but paramedics confirmed there was no sign of life.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477 or any Police Station.

The post Update: Fatal shooting at Sheraton Mall appeared first on Barbados Today.

Police have identified the male victim who was fatally shot at Sheraton Mall around 1:50 p.m.

He is Damian Trotman, 33, of Highland, near Foursquare, St Philip.

A man and a woman are currently assisting police with investigations into the incident.

The post Update: Police identify man fatally shot at Sheraton Mall appeared first on Barbados Today.

Fire officers are battling a blaze at Savannah Road, Bush Hall, St Michael.
A boat at a private property is on fire.

[video width="640" height="352" mp4="https://barbadostoday.bb/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/boat.mp4"][/video]

The post Boat on fire at Bush Hall, St Michael appeared first on Barbados Today.

With a score of murders barely three months into the year, with one of today occurring at the country’s most popular mall, tourism industry figures have told Barbados TODAY of deep concern over the impact of crime on the nation’s bread-and-butter trade.

Delivering the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association’s report for the first quarter of 2019, BHTA chief executive officer Senator Rudy Grant noted that while destination Barbados was still considered safe, the recent spate of murders needed to be urgently addressed.

Senator Grant told fellow hotel and tourism executives during the BHTA’s quarterly meeting at Hilton Hotel this morning: “The continuing serious crimes particularly those related to murder are of concern to the BHTA. While it is acknowledged that Barbados is still considered a safe destination, all actions must be undertaken to control the issue of serious crimes which in recent months are more frequent.”

He stressed that safety and security continue to be an important element of the island’s tourism brand.

The BHTA head said: “Barbados as a tourism destination is considered safe where visitors have the ability to comfortably explore our island and interact with Barbadians and are exposed to our warmth, friendliness and true Bajan hospitality. Escalating criminal activity can jeopardize and railroad all the gains which Barbados has made as a tourism destination. It is critical that all efforts are undertaken to ensure that Barbados continues to be safe for both locals and visitors.”

But Grant declared that the BHTA was not sitting by idly but instead doing what it could to help the police fight crime. He revealed several initiatives including surveillance technology and increased police presence, which he believes should beef up security in key tourist areas.

Senator Grant announced: “In January this year, the BHTA provided sponsorship for the purchase and installation of CCTV cameras on the west coast. This was a further commitment to assist the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) with equipment and was the continuation of similar sponsorship for the purchase and installation of cameras on the south coast and elsewhere.”

“There have been continued collaboration between the BHTA and the RBPF on other areas related to crime as well as safety and security. Specific collaboration has been undertaken on the south coast particularly in the areas of St. Lawrence Gap and Dover. Our members have reported increased police presence in this area.”

Barbados had already begun to feel the impact of crime on

tourism when, earlier this month, the US Bureau of Consular Affairs issued an advisory to urge citizens not to visit Crab Hill, Ivy, Nelson Street, Wellington Street or Maxwell Coast Road. A local entertainment establishment was also listed on the areas that should be avoided.

The notice went on to advise “increased caution” for the St Michael areas of Black Rock, Deacons, Carrington Village, Greenfields, New Orleans and The Pine.

The notice, which has caused quite a stir on social media, was dismissed by Attorney General Dale Marshall, as much ado about nothing.

The Attorney General explained that the US issues travel advisories for each country as a matter of course, and in fact Barbados still enjoys the the US Government’s lowest risk assessment. The advisory went viral on social media, prompting the Attorney General to seek to assure Barbadians that the country’s stellar safety record was not in jeopardy.

The post Tourism threat appeared first on Barbados Today.