Barbados: Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley reiterated the government’s intention to improve the quality of life for the rural population by ensuring that services are transported to them and not the other way around.
And with that in mind, PM Mottley announced that the post office and police station in St. Andrew is going to be refurbished; work will be done on the bridge at Bruce Vale and $230 million will be spent on improving the road infrastructure in the Scottish district.
She commented today as she delivered a speech at the reopening of the St. Andrew Outpatient Clinic in Belleplaine. The Prime Minister said, “We also agreed that the post office which has been closed for repairs should be renovated.
“We are also committed to refurbishing the police station as a police station and recognizing that the way we provide services within the police force will change through the use of technology and the nature of the use of the various structures that the power will be used, including those focused on specialist services, and not just the geographical distribution of the deployment of officers.”
As for the bridge at Bruce Vale, she announced that work would begin in two weeks with the construction of a temporary bridge that would be in place until the permanent structure was completed.
Mottley told officials and residents, including Attorney General Dale Marshall, and Health and Wellness Minister Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffrey Bostic that the project for road rehabilitation in the Scottish district was important at the moment , while noting that Barbados’ economy has lost $ 2 billion. in economic activity in recent years.
“All of us who depend on tourism and travel have literally been hit by a tsunami of economic destruction. It is therefore necessary for us as a government to acknowledge that the private economy is worst affected in these circumstances. And that’s why the Government is the only entity that has the ability to stand up and fill the space, has the perimeter to stop things. And that is why the government’s program for capital works is important,” she said.
Mottley said some of the roads to be completed in Phase One are: White Hill; Andromeda and Bath; Highway Z – Andromeda to Gaggs Hill; Highway 3 – Gaggs Hill to Bonwell; Sugar Hill, Ermy Bourne Highway, Shorey Village; Mose Onder; Hillaby; Bloomsbury, St. Thomas; and Carrington Village, St. Thomas.
She noted that work is currently underway on the road in Dark Hole and that there was a team of 24 people building gabions to stop landslides in the county of Scotland.
During her speech, she also addressed the recent public debate on what legal procurement is. “The drafters of our laws recognize that there will be times in the affairs of a country when emergency procurement and specialized procurement are critical.”
“If the loss of $ 2 billion and the absence of economic activity and the absence of sufficient publicly owned enterprises, as opposed to private enterprises, are on the condition that we know it is, then the only institution that can provide relief bring the people of this nation is the government of Barbados,” she insisted.
The prime minister argued that if the necessary support is not provided now, people will fall through the cracks.
“This country must recognize that if we do not solve our problems here and now, there will not be many people here and now. And it is against this background that the drafters of our laws, not this government, those who have gone before, and this government have repeated it in the new Public Finance Management Act, which in fact increases the obligations,” she explained.
The Prime Minister has announced that she is reviewing the fiscal framework in the medium term which will be laid in parliament in six weeks.
