Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler says this country should hold on to Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr Delisle Worrell, especially since other countries would like to “grab him”.
Dr DeLisle Worrell
Speaking against the backdrop of criticisms levelled by former prime minister Owen Arthur and others over the renewal of Dr Worrell’s contract, Sinckler said the Governor was one of the best economists in this hemisphere and a man of value.
“I am not going to get into this. I think it is an unseemly debate. Dr Worrell is an outstanding Barbadian economist; one of the best economists in this hemisphere and certainly in the Caribbean and definitely in Barbados; and a lot of people who have had whatever dislikes for Dr Worrell, whatever old battles they want to carry out, they can make an apppointment with him and go somewhere quietly and do those things,” Sinckler advised.
He said as far as he was concerned as Minister of Finance, the Governor had performed manfully.
“Don’t forget that Dr Worrell was the person who largely was the main driver behind saving Barbados’ dollar in the early 1990s, designing that programme that became the IMF programme eventually that pulled Barbados out . . . . And now people give all the praise to Mr Sandiford [Sir Lloyd Erskine] and the team that put that [programme] together. Of course they didn’t have that view then. Similarly as they don’t have it now.”
He argued that Worrell was an outstanding public servant who had served at the national, regional and international level.
“And people of less value, people of less intelligence, people of less commitment and dedication to Barbados, I find . . . taking pot-shots at the Governor, and expecting that I as Minister of Finance . . . [am] going to join in that to cut off the Governor’s head because he said, ‘we are going to have economic growth’ – which is a forecast after all – and people have forecasts that don’t come true.”
He pointed out that the IMF had recently changed its global outlook and nobody called for the head of that institution’s president.
“So why should we pour cold water on such an outstanding Barbadian; and frankly, at the end of the day, the question is, who else in the circumstances has as vast a knowledge?”
Sinckler also expressed the view that based on Dr Worrell’s talent, “you are [not] just going to shunt it aside.
“I think it is unseemly and as a Minister of Finance, I am not going to get involved in that foolishness as far as I am concerned.”