ANY FUTURE BOLT – Build Operate Lease and Transfer – arrangements that Government signs will be designed to bring economic benefits
to the country.

Minister of Transport, Works and International Transport John Boyce told the House of Assembly yesterday during debate on the 2008-2009 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure that BOLT arrangements were supposed to generate savings and not additional costs.

"The BOLTS that they [Opposition] arranged, as I said before, were about bring drinks somebody will pay,"he said.

The Christ Church South MP said he has been confronted with a number of issues "very similar in character" to those St Philip West MP Dr David Estwick spoke about on Monday in relation to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

He charged that the Barbados Labour Party administration was "out of touch" with what was happening in the country, the corridors
of Government and in the ministries.

"They were so consumed with their own business they were not paying attention to the things that make a difference. They were
not paying attention to what was happening in the engine room of Government," Boyce asserted.

He told the Lower Chamber Government had "encountered a situation which can be only properly described as 'functional dilapidation'.

"How could officers in the public service be expected to operate with any efficiency or be effective in such an environment?" he asked.

"I am saying to you, we could save this country many thousands, and maybe millions of dollars, and we intend to save the country thousands and maybe millions of dollars, by looking after the small things and carrying out the timely corrections that will preserve those buildings which are still structurally sound and can be brought to effective use by the public servants," the minister stated.

Boyce said Government wanted "to avoid as much as possible the kinds of catastrophes we saw demonstrated from that side", by the Opposition Barbados Labour Party. (DS)