I AM CONCERNED with two aspects of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) efforts to collaborate with private waste haulers.
Firstly, the arrangement seems to be ad hoc. When the Public Utilities Board (PUB) existed, I called for all essential services (public or private sector) to be brought under the control of the PUB. The Barbados Water Authority, SSA, Transport Board, Barbados Light & Power, Barbados Telephone Company and so on would all have been included.
They should have been included whatever their state of readiness – naked or clothed.
All monopolies or oligopolies tend to function with the same objectives – the use of their power to exploit their markets in the interest of the monopolies and oligopolies. Also there is a tendency to inefficiency because of the lack of effective competition.
I called at that time for Barbados to be divided into three or four zones with SSA responsible for one zone, and the other zones, based on a competitive process, contracted out to private sector entities or even to the SSA (if it could compete).
Secondly, I am concerned at the lack of information about the arrangements.
A Brass Tacks female caller, who is a retired teacher, when discussing the extremely generous concessions given to Sandals, observed that Barbados has a “Jean and Dinah” economy. You can get it all for nothing (check Sparrow’s calypso of the late 1950s and early 1960s).
Did the SSA get a good or bad financial deal from the private waste haulers?
Finally, in those days (and today), I called for the enactment of essential services legislation for Barbados.
– NICHOLAS HEADLEY
