Government needs to make hard decisions, says ICAB Vice President
Tuesday November 01 2011 | 10:13 AM

Government has serious decisions to make and they need to communicate with the country more concerning the severity of what we face and the decisions that need to be taken, whether popular or unpopular. 

These comments were made by David Simpson, Vice President of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Barbados (ICAB) yesterday at the ICAB headquarters in Hastings.

“Both parties need to come together for Barbados, whether win or lose. There are issues the country needs to confront and not end up like some of our counterparts in Europe seriously considering their country’s future existence,” Simpson said.

“We are at that point where we have the opportunity to take those steps and make things better going forward, even if in the next 12 to 24 months there are still challenges,” according to the Accountant.
The Vice President said that as the recession continues a lot of things will become more important in taxpayers’ minds with one of them bring how money is being used when it is scare for individuals on a daily basis. 

According to him, “the issue of accountability and ensuring that institutions report their financial performance is integral because many institutions are behind in their reporting but they are still accessing finance from Government on an annual basis”.

To this end, Simpson said the question that has to be asked is on what basis the institutions are still getting financing, “when no one can judge their performance in relation to what is being transfers and subsidies being provided to them”.

In context of overall public sector reform Government has to seriously look at some of these institutions becoming more autonomous in terms of their revenue generation. The public may not want to hear that the Transport board or UWI it is time to pay a bit more of the cost. The reality is that as we go forward the way we use to operate at a governmental level, private sector and an individual level as to change drastically.

Even in education we need to look at how and where Government is placing its money, the last budget the minister spoke about looking at the amount of time people are taking to exit university”.
According to him, “There are serious decisions Government has to take in the short term in terms of determining where we go economically and financially”. 

He also said that while forensic auditing brings the notion of wrong doings, and which is not always the case, many organisation do need a forensic audit which is the audit that will analyse your performance.
He said, “It takes us back to productivity . I believe what our competitors have been able to do is maximise their outputs based on the level of inputs going into the operation that is what we as a country or lacking to some extent”. 

He added, “I welcome forensic audits especially those that will look at the overall performance and effectiveness of institutions. I don’t think we have widespread wrong doings in these institutions but we need to focus on performance and 
productivity going forward”.

He suggested, “The public needs to keep pressuring Government and ensuring these things get done because when there is any short fall in finance in Government, one of the prime means of fulfilling it is to tax citizens of the country to raise extra revenue”.