General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, Dennis Depeiza, says government must reveal how it will tackle foreign debt, while President Edwin O’Neal listens attentively.
Government is again being questioned on how it intends to address this island’s foreign debt situation.
General Secretary of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, Dennis Depeiza, stated that while the recent review of the International Monetary Fund team showed government had met all indicative targets for the end of June under the Extended Fund Facility, concerns continued to grow as to how government intends on tackling the foreign debt situation.
He said with the working class already bearing the brunt of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation pro-gramme, it is vital the island generated revenue growth to prevent labour taking another hit.
“We don’t want to find ourselves in a position where labour feels another blow and takes a serious part of the burden. We know it has to be shared, but we still want to know how you are going to proceed, because part of that is if you don’t start to generate some level of revenue or growth in the country, we are going to go round in a circle,” he argued.
Speaking to the media yesterday at CTUSAB’s Garrison offices, he said, “We treat one problem, but we have created another so we are conscious of this as a part of our development and although we recognise that we are happy to see that we are able to satisfy one end, we now have to turn our attention and do so very proactively and what we need to do to ensure that we can go forward having a cushion and not to have some serious impact that could put a toll on the already burdened society that is carrying a lot of weight at this time,” Depeiza stressed.
Meanwhile, President Edwin O’Neal said ‘the devil is in the details’, and noted it was understood that government was getting close to reaching a settlement with the international creditors.
“If this is so then it behooves government to begin their conversation with the people of Barbados as to what those details are for the satisfying of the external debt,” he added.
(JMB)