(Barbados Nation) Sweet deals have come to an end.
This is the promise of Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley who said Government was in the process of renegotiating public contracts which she described as expensive and untendered.
In her Budget Address in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mottley focused primarily on the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) and the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) where the largest of such contracts existed.
“These negotiations alone are expected to yield annual savings of about B$25 million, of which two thirds have already been agreed,” she said.
“The Ministry of Finance has negotiated on behalf of the SSA a significant reduction of contractual negotiations for the lease of the new Sanitation Headquarters at Vaucluse. These amount to savings of approximately $21 million over the next 20 years. Despite these savings achieved by the Ministry of Finance, the building still requires significant retrofitting, including the replacement of the tiles, the installation of partitions in order to make it habitable,” she added.
Mottley said going forward, Government would be trying to renegotiate other “one-sided contracts” entered into by the previous Government.
“We will also enforce public sector wide procurement rules and create and train a college of negotiators to ensure such sweet deals are never provided again,” Mottley added.
