When will the buck stop with Burke?

The Grenada Minister of Finance had a point when he was interviewed by Lew Smith when he said that there is “no silver bullet” that can fix the ills of the economy.

Any politician whoever comes to say “vote for me” and all your troubles will be over the next day, should be immediately dismissed.

That said – I have begun going over statistics from since independence – and just on the bare evidence – looking through the reign of every Minister of Finance – it appears that statistically, the current Minister is the worst since independence in 1974.

I am sure there can be counter arguments, some subjective, that can argue that outside of the raw local statistics, one has to cater for external factors that would have influenced those.

And so given that reality, it might be a debate that will never have an agreed conclusion.

What bothered me – more than the statistics – and after having listened Minister Burke being interviewed by Lew Smith on Wednesday, is the refusal of the Minister to take responsibility for anything that has happened under his watch.

Even the half-baked apology for the late payment of salaries was compounded by a series of conjunctions.

His act on Wednesday was the best impersonation of “it wasn’t me” since Shaggy was caught with his pants down.

Now, let’s not sweep it under the carpet – Burke was dealt a difficult hand coming in.

By the time he took office, the economy was in decline, the fiscal position was precarious and the economic world outside hostile.

But he has never acted as if there was a state of economic emergency.

And that’s where bad turned into worse.

And as Lew rightly commented on his show – forget the silver bullet – how about trying a bronze bullet?

The Minister has set his own self up to fail. The problem with that, however, is that an entire nation is failing with him.

When he shot himself in the foot, it left the entire nation crippled.

He has never attracted the right people around him to give him the policy guidance that any Minister will need at anytime – even more so in the worst of time.

At some point, Burke needs to answer what ever happened to the National Economic Council that was recommended and signed off on by the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, on advice, had given the go ahead for the setting up of such committee – and people like Richard Duncan and Ambrose Phillip and a few others were identified.

These people would have provided, as true Grenadian patriots – free advice in a structured way to the Ministry of Finance.

It was the Prime Minister’s declared wish. It just never happened.

And it was not a case of there being no money. It was going to be a voluntary committee.

Minister Burke has not hired any economist since he took office, and has marginalized everyone of the others he met there.

The only person he has hired of significance is Chris De Riggs.

Now Chris, an old sparring partner of mine, has many talents. But we have one thing in common – whatever strengths we have -- economics is not one of them.

I would have thought that as a student of Bernard Coard – Burke would have learnt his best traits.

As Minister of Finance back in the early 1980s, Coard had seven Island Scholars working with him including Grenada's IMF world renowned expert, Dr. Davidson Boodoo. He also had a Professor of Economic Planning, Clairmont Kirton of Jamaica. Former President of Chile, Salvador Allende's Chief Economic advisor, Professor Edward Bernstein also did a six month consultancy during the period.

It is that kind of “bronze bullet” Burke needed to hire – but has consistently resisted to his detriment -- and that of the nation.

Additionally, there have been constant complaints privately and not-so-privately from business people – both local and foreign – about how hostile the Minister and his aides have been to them; the “take-it-or-leave it” approaches at so called “consultations”, of showing up late to meetings with no apologies and with a rush to leave.

The problem with the way this current government has been structured is that the Ministry of Finance has been both a government and a law onto itself – and not even the Prime Minister’s wishes are always carried out.

Where I fault the Prime Minister is that there have never been consequences.

I remember the Sewang One World Affair – and how the Prime Minister was hung out to dry.

Then, there is the current case of the late payments of salaries.

When I interviewed the Prime Minister on it, I genuinely felt pained for him. No leader deserved to be put in this position.

Forget -- as bad as that is -- public servants not being informed about the problem.

How about informing the Prime Minister?

No matter what we think of him – and I had my fair share of criticism – Tillman Thomas is the Prime Minister. The least we can do is respect that.

In the midst of all of the salary payment problems, the Minister hops and goes abroad – and leaves the Prime Minister to do the apologizing.

Sewang anybody? So once again, the PM is left to hang out to dry.

If running the Ministry of Finance was boxing, then we would have had a good man in place.

This current one is an expert at bobbing and weaving – and getting out of the way.

During the 2012 budget, when the figures did not add up; he said no problem. He doesn’t have to tell us the plan, but trust him.

Now on the borrowing to pay salaries, he again says he don’t have to tell us.

It’s bad enough to leave the Prime Minister to hang out to dry.

But, an entire nation man?

The truth don’t destabilize

As old President Ronald Reagan will say: “There you go again…”

In this case, it is Grenada’s Minister of Finance Nazim Burke.

Below is what he said September 12, 2012 in an exchange with Lew Smith, blaming everybody and everything except his stewardship for Grenada’s economic mess.

After blaming the world recession, the debt, NNP (long gone for four years), colleagues (I suspect he means the likes of Peter David and Joe Gilbert) “speaking out of turn..” he then went on to blame “certain journalistic forces” in the country for the country’s lack of investments and other economic ills.

NAZIM BURKE: “The internal challenges inside of the party and the government (have) had a negative effect throughout the Caribbean. It was projected by certain journalistic forces in the country; it was projected by certain media houses that Grenada is a mess.

Grenadian journalists and media people pushing that line throughout the Caribbean to ensure that they discredit the government, but in the process of doing that, investors in the Caribbean are saying Grenada is not a place to put my money at the moment. Not realizing that they hurting the country. Not realizing that they are shooting themselves in the foot.

LEW SMITH: Are they speaking the truth?

NAZIM BURKE: They may be speaking the truth but……

MY TAKE NOW: … but what Mr Burke?

Sir, in defense of the “journalistic forces” of which I am a proud member, understand this:

Our job is not to be a bunch of nationalistic flag wavers. Our job is to ask hard questions, raise real queries and report harsh realities.

There is no “but” to the truth.

We are not the Government Information Service.

There will always be a natural tension between governance and what we do.

We had that tension when the New National Party was in office; we have it now with you and we will have it again with whoever replaces you (at which point you'd love us again, as you used to).

It is a discussion I remember I had about 12 years ago with Rawle Titus about what our role should be in terms of what others might see as a national agenda.

He was reporting at the time for the Caribbean News Agency – CANA – during the Keith Mitchell era.

And the government of the day had taken him to task for reporting to the region about a shortage of water at Grenada’s hotels in the south.

Their attitude was that he should not have done it because it will undermine the country’s tourism.

I remember telling him clearly – stand your ground and don’t let anybody intimidate you – your role is not to undermine, protect or promote tourism or any other thing.

You role is to roll with the facts – even when they are not so nice.

I went on to argue: It will be worse for Grenada’s tourism, if we never alert people there is a problem, they then come and find the problem, and then they begin to ask: so how come nobody warned us?

My argument went on: But when people know the facts – they might still take their chances – and there will be no hue and cry afterwards – because at least they were aware what they were getting into.

Recent history shows that when journalists abdicate that role and become some unashamed national flag wavers – it ends up – ultimately destabilizing the nation.

The US media forgot the truth about George Bush’s lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and waved a US nationalistic flag and urged on a nation into a trillion dollar war – that in the end destabilized the US economy.

Only if our US colleagues had put down their national flag – and wave the banner of hard questions and of telling the truth; America – and indeed the world would have been a better place today.

Maybe even the Grenada economy might be better off today.

One little advice Naz – institute better economic policies, find creative ways to expand the Grenadian economy, encourage more foreign investments, make sure public workers are paid on time.

When that happens, the truth will be on your side. And we will have to report on those good truths (whether we like it or not). And then there will be no buts.

There are many things that are destabilizing Grenada. The truth is not one of them.

No laughing matter

When did Finance Minister Nazim Burke know that paying public servants their salaries for August will be a problem?

And what did he do about it? And did he alert cabinet of the problem and briefed the Prime Minister ahead of the Grenadian leader's address to the nation on Tuesday, August 28?

How come on each occasion that salaries were not paid on time this year, Minister Burke found himself conveniently out of the country?

Isn't the fact of the non-payment of salaries enough for him to cancel any overseas visits, or promptly return home, even to at least show solidarity and concern with the situation?

And then there is that note from the Ministry of Finance -- belatedly -- about the inability to pay salaries for August. A note that is neither sensitive nor reassuring.

And in the circumstances, have the ministers and their hangers-on in receipt of their full salaries and all their perks on time? And hadn't some previously even got salary advances?

And even if the government finally gets the payments in next Tuesday, Wednesday or whenever -- exactly what is the fiscal and overall economic game plan for at least the short term?

And will those be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, where all the efforts of a paranoid administration is spent on cussing a former government that has been out of office for four years, or ministers and now former ones who have been fresh enough to question the economic direction of their own government?

I would say in any other serious government in CARICOM, the Minister of Finance would not have a job on Monday morning.

Not just merely because of this latest development -- for it is only the straw that should break the camel's back.

But the Finance Minister would be without a government job because of the overall economic management of the last few years; the extremely conservative nature in trying to deal with all the challenges; and the presentation of an unrealistic budget this year that he knew coming in was a package not worth the paper it was printed on.

Three months after the three months he had asked for, we are still awaiting his promised explanation of how the budget will be financed.

I am currently doing an economic feature on Grenada for regional TV, and I have had the opportunity to speak to a lot of business leaders in the last few months.

Maybe I am speaking to the wrong people -- but I have not met one that has any confidence in the economic policies (or lack of it) of this government, nor the stewardship of the Minister.

And yet Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has said that his man, Nazim Burke, is the best Finance Minister in the region.

It is a standard joke that is repeatedly thrown in my face anytime I visit the many capitals of this region.

And if the situation was not as serious as this, we would have all been laughing.