Prime Minister Godwin Friday says that his government wants to begin settling new debts to local suppliers within 28 days, even as it works to address the payables that form part of the EC$3.1 billion national debt.
“The amount is quite an eye-opener. But we knew that a lot of the businesses have been complaining publicly that they’re not getting paid,” the prime minister said on Boom FM on Christmas Eve, one day after disclosing that the national debt stands at EC$3.1 billion.
Friday, who became leader of the New Democratic Party in 2016, pointed out that the party has advocated since it was under the leadership of Arnhim Eustace (from October 2000 to November 2016) that the government should settle its debt to local businesses.
The prime minister said that by not settling local debt, the government is taking money out of the economy.
“… basically, you’re not paying the people, they can’t pay the staff, they can’t pay their suppliers. That holds everything back. All to do what? To serve the interest of government when government should be serving the interest of people.”
He said the NDP committed since 2020 that “that for most contracts — small contractors and so forth, not big contracts like the port or building the airport and so forth, where there’s so much complications in them, but for people who are providing service to government, ordinarily, you would pay within 28 days.
“That’s the plan. Because your electricity bill comes in every month. Your phone bill coming in every month, you have to pay your workers.
“So, the idea is that we pay similarly every month — 28 days, you have your work, you complete it, and so forth. It’s satisfactory, you get your money within 28 days, and that will get rid of a lot of this backlog.”
In the meantime, the government has to budget how it will pay people for the work that had been done before it came to office on Nov. 27, Friday said.
“You can’t ignore it. You can’t say that people are being unreasonable when they’re waiting for years to get paid.”
He said he did not have a definitive date for when the payables would be paid off.
“But what I would do is to say that now that I’m aware of the scale of the problem, we are going to set our minds to find ways — and if we have to, do it in increments and so forth — to make sure people get the money. We will get it done. People will get their money,” the prime minister said.
Friday said he knew from the way in which things were being run that government financing would be “difficult”.
“My job is to take the situation as it is and to work with what we have to make sure that those persons who are entitled, that they’re no longer be, essentially, made to carry the burden themselves,” the prime minister said.
“Government owes people money. We should pay them. All I’m asking people to do is to say, give me a little time to get this done. We recognise it as a problem, and we will address it.
“But going forward, we are going to ensure that this problem doesn’t continue because we will institute our policy of paying for regular contracts, ordinary work that people do within 28 days, so that the people can get their money and take care of their business,” Friday said.
I find it refreshing to finally hear a formal public acknowledgement from government of the local invoices the previous government left unpaid for far too long. If Friday can return the government to being a preferred trusted customer, as they should be, that will be a significant win.