Political parties select different colours to allow the public to identify their party and Candidates.  This well-established practise in Barbados avoids confusion.  The party colours of the three political parties that received the most votes in the last general election were: red for the BLP, blue for the DLP, and green for Solutions Barbados.

We have been asked to comment on Atherley’s party, PPfDD, selecting the colour of Solutions Barbados, rather than choose their own separate colour.  Our comments follow.

Solutions Barbados do not think that Atherley and PPfDD have done anything illegal.  They have a right to select any colour they wish, including red and blue.  However, while their action may be legal, it is highly unethical.  It is also highly deceptive since their action can only confuse the public when they are trying to identify candidates.

Their actions are particularly disturbing since they claim to be morally and ethically superior to the BLP and DLP.  If they were a party of rebels, then this type of unethical behaviour would be expected.  But they claim to be a party of God, with several pastors among them who know that doing what is ethical, is more important that satisfying a legal standard.  They have started very badly.

According to Atherley, the PPfDD formed about seven months ago.  Why did they not spend that time creating a separate identity?  Why attempt to deceive the public, while prominently claiming God as a supporter?  They must know that God is not the author of confusion, so why are they trying to confuse the public?

The Bible describes satan as a deceiver, and the god of this world.  The PPfDD are invited to confirm which god they are serving, by either repenting, or stubbornly continuing with their deception.  They should know that their unethical behaviour is entirely consistent with that of the other fellow.

Grenville Phillips II is President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

Solutions Barbados recently held their Annual General Meeting.  All Executive positions are for one-year terms, and Grenville Phillips II was re-elected to serve another term as President.

Politicians in all of the political parties, who participated in the last general election, know that politics is not only a very dirty game, but a cesspool of some of the worst types of behaviour.  The public gets a glimpse of how vile politics truly is, by the constant accusations of gross corruption that our Members of Parliament regularly accuse each other in our House of Assembly.

All politicians constantly face two main temptations, and the public always pays a very high price if politicians surrender to them.  Solutions Barbados Candidates are also aware of the significant harm to their professional reputations and their families if they fail in this manner.  Therefore, we have taken drastic steps to protect the public and our families, by willingly restraining ourselves.

The first temptation is accepting bribes, and politicians facing severe financial challenges are most vulnerable.  Politicians who cannot afford their mortgage payments are extremely vulnerable to accepting bribes.

To address the bribery temptation, all Solutions Barbados Candidates willingly sign a binding contract, to go bankrupt if they accept bribes.  Each Candidate’s contract is terminated at the end of each election cycle if the Candidate is not elected.  Once terminated, the contract may be renewed.

Of the 28 Solutions Barbados Candidates in the 2018 General Election, 17 chose to protect the public by renewing their contracts.  Of those who chose not to, approximately half found the cesspool of politics to dirty to continue, while the remainder chose to continue their quest with other parties, but unrestrained by our contract.

The second temptation is far more sinister – and permanent.  It is the corrupting influence of power.  British politician, Lord Acton, observably wrote over a century ago, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

From our last general election experience, it appears to be the craving for power that can corrupt previously decent people very quickly and very easily.  It also corrupts them stealthily, so that persons are unaware of how far they have fallen.  It is this craving for power that led Judas to deceptively betray Jesus.  Deception and betrayal are the two obvious symptoms of persons corrupted by craving power.

To address the corrupting influence of craving power, Solutions Barbados Candidates have deliberately chosen not to become career politicians.  We offer ourselves to the public for two simple reasons.  The first is to bring relief to Barbadians who have had enough of the gross mismanagement and political corruption that both established parties regularly accuse the other.  The second is to actively help all Barbadians to prosper.

If voters have had enough of what they have been forced to tolerate from both established parties, and want prosperity for their households, then they are welcome to support Solutions Barbados candidates – for their own benefit.  Our economic growth plan, which was independently favourably assessed, and which the Prime Minister promised would be allowed to contend (a broken promise), can still be used to bring prosperity to Barbadian households without austerity.

We are committed to offering ourselves to properly manage the public affairs of Barbados, whenever the next general election is called.  Unlike the last election when voters felt that they needed to vote against the DLP, this time, they can choose to actually vote for something good.

If voters have not yet had enough of the dirty political game by then, then we will accept their decision as final for us.  To continue to offer ourselves to an unwilling public after the next general election, is for us, to crave power.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

The public justification for using White Oak, was that the BLP thought that no Barbadian financial consultant was sufficiently competent to negotiate with our external creditors.  That was a shockingly unfair criticism of Barbadian financial services professionals.  Having read the White Oak contract, the list of services should be within the competence of any accounting firm experienced in liquidation or judicial management.

The BLP administration has now confirmed that White Oak also advised on the local debt.  Surely advising on our local debts is well within the competence of our local consultants.  If the Government thought that our local consultants lacked some experience, then they should have allowed them to participate in a joint-venture contractual arrangement.  However, even that was not allowed.

After the Government disqualified all Barbadian accountants and economists, by publicly questioning their competence, why was there no objection by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Barbados (ICAB), or the Barbados Economics Society (BES)?

Actually, there was a response.  However, instead of defending the reputations of their members, the BES gave a fawning and grossly misleading assessment of the BLP’s first year.  Why are these professional associations assuming that defaulting on our debt was our only option, when it was not?

Why are they not educating the public on the clear difference between debt restructuring and debt default?  No one is objecting to debt restructuring.  But for a country to default, when there is money available to pay creditors, is recklessly irresponsible and carelessly damaging to a country’s financial reputation.   Why are our local financial professionals unwilling to provide an honest analysis of the current administration’s options?

To find the answers to these types of questions, we need to be reminded of Solutions Barbados’ unique experience.  With the economic ruin of Barbados foreseen, Solutions Barbados designed an economic recovery and growth plan that provided approximately $1B in surplus during the first year, without increasing taxes, laying off persons, or requiring external funding.

It was to be done by facilitating the international competitiveness of Barbados.  The method included: removing the excessive wastage and inefficiency costs of public services by properly managing them; eliminating the corruption costs; depoliticising the public service by promoting public workers on merit alone; and reducing taxes.  Using the actual government expenditures and revenues, the plan gave the predicted surplus.   It was also independently favourably reviewed by a Chartered Accountant.

We appealed to the national associations of accountants, economists, bankers, and commerce to honestly evaluate our economic growth plan, and inform the public of their findings, but they would not.  The BLP then publicly stated that they would never share their economic plans with any of them, and they cowered, and then renewed their determination not to review ours.

When journalists become politically compromised, then political leaders know that they can say and do anything, and always be guaranteed fawning coverage.  When the media fails in this manner, professional associations must assume the role of educating the public.  When profession associations become politicised, then the public is left defenceless against the political wolves.

Professionals who mislead the public with politically biased advice, sell their professional integrity cheaply.  They may be repaid with invitations to parties for some free food.  Those who tell some woppers for their party may get appointed to a board or the Senate, but that is the most that they can ever hope for.

Political leaders know that politically compromised professionals who shield them from scrutiny, can never be trusted to give honest professional advice – ever.  They certainly cannot be trusted anywhere near any important contracts where unbiased advice is critical.  Tragically, after selling their integrity, those professionals cannot even qualify for a single ordinary crumb from White Oak’s table.

The current administration seems assured that they can publicly question the professional competence of Barbadian consultants, and be assured of their absolute loyalty.  Our financial consultants seem to possess a rare internal fortitude that allows them to be publicly slapped about with contempt, and then respond by pitiably grovelling for an affirming pat on the head from their slappers.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

What grade does the BLP deserve after their first year in Government?  Let us compare their achievements with those of the last DLP administration.

The BLP administration continued the DLP’s poor practises of: giving corrupting no-bid contracts, increasing taxes, laying off public workers, making commuters wait hours for public transportation, and rejecting the international management standard that could have significantly improved the general poor management of public services.

The BLP has also continued the DLP practise of only listening to the economic advice of their most partisan supporters.  The BLP has addressed the sewerage problem which the DLP seemed incapable of doing; but they also defaulted on paying our foreign debt, something that the DLP, and no previous BLP administration, has ever done.

The DLP deservedly attracted the bad press, criticism, and public marches for their gross mismanagement of the economy and public services.  The BLP administration has not provided better management.  But their effective public relations exercises make it seem that they have.

The decision to default on our foreign debt is something that would have attracted near-riots if done by the last DLP administration.  Instead, such a failure has been met with understanding or applause.  Shockingly, rather than try to be discreet about this unprecedented failure, we are wiping our foreign creditors’ faces in it, as we boast about the amount of foreign reserves we have – by not paying them.

For the management of their business, the BLP administration deserves an A.  For their management of our business, they deserve, at best, the same grade that we would give the DLP for their gross mismanagement.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com

The Government has allowed an unusual amount of transparency with the White Oak contract.  The recent (12 May 2019) Financial Times article reported that White Oak would receive an “absurd” fee of US$27M.  I assumed that they meant US$2.7M since the calculations were done by Financial Times’ staff, and the error could have been missed by the editors.

Avinash Persaud responded to the Financial Times article, but surprisingly, he did not challenge the reported fee.  Rather, he claimed that Barbados got value for money.  Then Clyde Mascoll provided a similar endorsement, with the shocking claim that no Barbadian could have done the job.  Their uncritical and fawning endorsements of White Oak should demand an unbiased examination of this no-bid contract.

In their contract, White Oak specifically state that they are not providing any accounting or legal services.  They are mainly giving advice, for which they are to be paid a monthly retainer fee of US$85,000.  They also get a success fee of 0.45% on foreign debts that they can get cancelled or amended, and 0.40% on any local debt that they can get cancelled or amended.

The total Barbados debt was approximately BD$15B, with about $12B in local currency and $3B in foreign currency.  The BERT restructuring of the local currency debt resulted in a BD$2B reduction of our debt.  We were told that White Oak were working on the foreign currency debt.

If White Oak can save Barbados from paying 25% of the foreign currency debt after one year of negotiations, then they stand to earn a success fee of approximately US$1.7M plus a retainer of US$1M.  This total fee of US$2.7M led to my assumption that the decimal point was mistakenly omitted from the Financial Times’ article.

The only way that White Oak can earn anywhere near the reported US$27M, is if their success fee rate is applied to the total local currency debt, instead of just the amount that they can successfully negotiate to avoid us paying.  Clearly that could not be the intent, since success fees are normally applied to the amount that the consultant can save the client from paying.

If White Oak’s success fee rate is misinterpreted to be applied to the total debt, then White Oak can ludicrously get creditors of Barbados’ $15B debt to agree to a one-month delay of payment.  For that lunatic advice, White Oak can legally earn US$30M, and we would still have to pay the entire $15B of debt.  No political administration could be foolish enough to sign such an unfair contract.

The retainer is also badly arranged, since White Oak can simply make US$1M each year by doing absolutely nothing.  After approximately one year, they still have not completed renegotiating our foreign currency debt, which is what they were reportedly contracted to do.

This confusion could have been avoided if the Contractor General, who should be able to identify weaknesses in contracts before the Government signs them, had been appointed.  The BLP promised to address political corruption by appointing such a person, but has yet to do so.

The listed services that White Oak are contracted to provide, should be well within the competence of any accounting firm in Barbados experienced in liquidation or judicial management.  If such local accounting firms agree with Clyde Mascoll’s assessment of their competence, then they should be ashamed of themselves for their incompetence, cowardice, or both.

Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com