Barbados’ consul general in Toronto Leroy McClean, has accused some people in the Ministry of Agriculture of not pulling their weight.He said yesterday that the ministry’s problems include non-performance by officers and deliberate efforts to frustrate Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn.McClean made the charges while delivering the weekly lecture at the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) Belleville, St Michael headquarters.In the lecture focussing on exploiting Barbados’ potential in areas such as sugar cane, Sea Island Cotton and black belly sheep, McClean said people in the ministry should have to give an account of their stewardship, just like politicians.“The Ministry of Agriculture in Barbados has more qualified people than any other entity,” he said.“There are more people with PhDs and Masters degrees in the Ministry of Agriculture than anywhere else, probably in the Caribbean. But there is so much inertia in the Ministry of Agriculture that it is unbelievable.“And I feel very sorry for Senator Benn because he has a groupof people up there who are doing nothing and have no intention of doing anything.” According to McClean: “If you want to do any work in the Ministry of Agriculture, you are seen as an anomaly.“There is nothing happening in there and you have people in the Ministry of Agriculture, whether they be in livestock or in crop production, who should be asked to give account of their stewardship.” He charged that “some of them have a deliberate agenda to frustrate the minister”.
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