Good advice, bad example

By G.A. Dwyer Astaphan

In his October 1st address to mark the beginning of Financial Information Month, Prime Minister Douglas had some advice for us.

He advised of “the importance of goal setting and financial planning” and of “instituting good financial habits and practices every single day”.

He advised that prudent money management must become a priority in our lives.

He advised us to “put an end to carefree spending”, because, he said, “budgeting all of your expenses and expenditure is vital to your level of success tomorrow”.

And he advised us not to “extend ourselves beyond our means”, as “reckless spending…can place tremendous pressure” on us.

All very good advice!

But let’s be honest. Financial planning, good financial habits, prudent money management and budgeting have not been a priority for him.

His carefree spending and mismanagement of public resources (“national debt, me arse”) have extended our country way beyond its means, plunging us all into a deep economic and fiscal quagmire.

So while on October 1st, 2010 he might have given good advice, the truth is that for the last fifteen years he has been setting a bad example.

Good advice, bad example!

And the evidence of his bad example is all around us. We’re feeling it. And we’re going to feel it worse, as he embarks on what might be an improbable quest to reduce our ‘humongous’ national debt and debt-to-GDP ratio to acceptable  levels by seeking to extract more and more money from pockets which are getting emptier and emptier. Worse yet in an economy three years in recession and showing, at best, insufficient signs of near-term recovery.

I wonder if the gentleman realizes that the people who he is telling not to be reckless with their money have precious little money to be reckless with anyway. Some have no money at all.
 
And their struggle will only get harder as they stagger and reel under the extra burden of the hastily introduced VAT (which, just weeks before it comes into effect, continues to cause great confusion and increasing anxiety) and the other taxes which he will be loading on their backs over the next nine months.

This will translate into even less money in people’s pockets, which means less spending, less economic activity, downsizing and closures, salary and wage reductions, less jobs, less money into Social Security, less social stability, less government revenue and, in the end, less chance of  reducing the national debt that is killing us.

Talk about squeezing blood out of stone! Only that this is worse, because he is squeezing the final drops of energy and goodwill out of the people of this country, punishing them, not because  of their own wrongdoing, but because of  his bad financial planning, imprudent money management and reckless spending of their money, and his crazed effort, now that the elections are behind him, to tax his way out of the crisis.

That is why his lecturing to the people of this country on October 1st,2010, telling them not to be reckless with the two pence ha’penny that he has left in their pockets sounds (pardon the analogy) almost like a rapist lecturing to a lady on the virtues of virginity after he has violated and deflowered her.

It comes across as arrogant, disingenuous, disrespectful, callous and cynical.

And truth be told, nobody wants, or needs, to hear a lecture on financial prudence and careful spending from Dr. Douglas. Maybe an apology, but definitely not a lecture.

In fact, his credibility and image have plunged so steeply over the last nine months that less and less people want to hear anything at all from him, other than his apology and his resignation announcement.

Unless he is willing to tell the people how many millions of their  dollars have been lost or spent as a result of: duty concessions on vehicles; Hotel Accommodation Tax deferrals (and where that money has gone); lands sold at concessionary prices; rents, taxes and utility rates not paid; his own globetrotting jaunts; contracts awarded without bids and bills of quantities for road works and other civil works; payments to lawyers and to people claiming against the government; payments to Henley & Partners from the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF), and if any of that money ended up in the hands of political consultants who worked for the Labour Party in the last elections; and so on.

The people want to hear about those things.

They want to see lists of personal net worth of all Members of Parliament, consultants and other high-level persons.

They also want to see a list of all persons owing rents, electricity and other debts to the taxpayers of this country in excess of $50,000.00, together with the amounts each owes, and for how long.

The people want to see every contract awarded for roads, other civil works and supplies and services (including legal services) in excess of $50,000.00, over the past fifteen years, so that they can get a sense of how much of their money has been spent in these areas.

They want to know exactly how much of their money has been spent, is being, and is to be spent with regard to La Vallee, Potato Bay and White Gate, and to whom the money is being paid.

They want  to hear about the bridge incident which cost a Vincentian man his life (was he legally employed at the time?), about  the Police Sickout, about the Sergeant  Benjamin killing, about failures at the Power Station, and about the performances and costs of the Ombudsman and the Privatization Unit.

They want to know why former sugar land which Robert Bradshaw had acquired for them is not being put to better use so as to increase and expand food production, and stimulate entrepreneurship and greater economic activity. It’s an utter disgrace that restaurants in The Fertile Isle of Liamuiga are not offering salads on their menus on Friday, October 8th, 2010, because “the ship didn’t come in”.

People want to know how home and apartment owners are to cope with the additional cost that VAT will bring to their rental situations. Likewise for construction and other contracts which will spill over past November 1st, and all contracts thereafter, because they will all attract VAT. And likewise for consumers who will have to bear the load of both the consumption tax and VAT for some time after November 1st until old inventories are cleared. Can Dr. Douglas assure their survival?
 
They want to know why it seems that only unhealthy foods are getting concessionary treatment under VAT, instead of all foods. Is somebody trying to kill them off with unhealthy food?

The people want to know if it is true that the Air & Sea Ports Authority, because of its badly thought out worker-termination strategy, lost all or most of its experienced forklift operators, and in its desperation, was pressed to hire inexperienced, uncertified, maybe even unlicensed operators.

And they now want to know whether, because of that situation, a young man, a breadwinner, lost his leg at the Sea Port this past week. Will he and his family be properly taken care of?

The people also want to get the full story, no cover-ups, with regard to the  alleged deal between a Nigerian woman and a local woman, both residents of Pond Pasture, regarding the sale of a St.Kitts & Nevis passport for EC$10,000.00.

How could the local woman undertake, as is alleged, to get a passport for the Nigerian woman? Was she (the local woman), by the way, a regular attendee at the office of the Ministry of National Security? If so, might that suggest something? Was it to be a real passport or a fake? Who would have signed the Citizenship Certificate, if one was going to be used? How would the application have been processed?

How can it be the end of the story if the local woman agrees to pay back the Nigerian woman the $9,540.00 that she had paid since May? Aren’t the police obligated to question both women, and other people, right to the very end so that nothing is left hidden or covered up? And to let the law take its course?

Also, what about the implications for the ‘no-visa’ entry privileges of Kittitians and Nevisians into Canada and the European Union countries, for our economic citizenship program, and for our citizens generally? Will the USA, Canada, the UK and other countries, as well as certain institutions, now have some questions for our government?

Is this a scam? And if so, how deep and wide is it? And if it is, what is the chance of it being covered up to protect criminals, at the expense of an entire nation?
 
These are some of the things that people want to hear, along, as I said, with his apology and his resignation announcement. Not a lecture on prudent financial practices or reckless spending from a bad example.