What is going on at the Ministry of Health?
Where is the
guidance? Are senior management too
lazy to develop maintenance schedules and vermin control protocols for
healthcare facilities? Does the Minister
of Health understand that rodents and vermin running around in a health care
facility places patients at risk for all kinds of communicable diseases and the
possibility of death? The Minister of Health needs to put his gun back in his
holster and take up a flashlight so he can see the mess that is going on in
Dominica’s healthcare facilities.
Is the Prime Minister basing his statement of Dominica's excellent performance on GDP per Capita?
Dominica ‘s
economy was so low that any uptick becomes a boom. Dominica is not doing
better. In fact, Dominica is doing worse than many islands! Did the Prime
Minister look at the GDP per Capita of either St. Kitts and Nevis or Antigua and Barbuda?
These islands have double the GDP per Capita of Dominica. Moreover, many Dominicans have
migrated to both Eastern Caribbean countries to find work over the past 15
years and, the migration continues. The
only country in the ECCU with a marginally lower GDP per Capita is St. Vincent and the
Grenadines. Incidentally, St Vincent has
no Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) Program.
Just imagine, if they had all the millions of dollars brought in by a
CBI program! Dominica has an Administration of waste and frivolity. They spend millions with only monuments to
show for it.
How many people are still working in agriculture? Farmers cannot access their farms. Just take a look at the deplorable condition of the feeder roads! How about an organized employment program for the young people of Dominica? The National Employment Program, better known as NEP, is a Social Assistance Program that is not sustainable. Why is it that the NEP now supports over 2000 persons? What skills are those young people acquiring? If Dominica is doing so well, what has happened to the manufacturing sector? It is not growing.
Many
Dominicans have migrated to seek work in the neighboring islands. Why are there so little jobs in the
manufacturing sector? There are no Agro -processing Industries in an island
with great agricultural potential!!
Mr. Skerrit is surely not referring to Freedom!
Dominicans
are constantly fighting to protect their rights to Democracy. Dominicans struggle to get information about
the affairs of Government. Information
is vague, with very little details, even in a Budget Address. The Audit of Public
Account for 2013 was posted in 2016? Why did this report take 3 years to be
generated? What about Financial years 2014, 2015 and 2016?
The right to
protest is especially being eroded in Dominica.
Did the Skerrit-dominated Labor Party Administration note that when
Barbadians held a tax protest on July 24, 2017 that there were no police
personnel in sight. Compare that to Dominica.
Such a protest would have been met with police personnel dressed in riot
gear and heavily armed with weapons as if they were fighting a war. The Skerrit-dominated Labor Party
Administration appears to have a problem with freedom of expression that is guaranteed under the
constitution.
So, before Mr.
Skerrit takes a victory lap, he should read the IMF's Article IV report, of March
2017 which came out after the IMF's visit to Dominica. The IMF found that the
fiscal outlook for Dominica had deteriorated even with all that high inflow of
CBI money. Mr. Skerrit should also read the IMF's regional Economic Outlook for
the Western Hemisphere. The long-term projections for Dominica does not look great.
Instead of driving around with armed security details at state expense, he
should try accessing a farm where no feeder roads exist. If Dominica is doing so
well, why are ministers and fervent Labor Party supporters looking for health care in
other countries? Why is the island
importing products that it previously produced? Why are Dominicans constantly
seeking employment in other countries?
If you don’t admit
there’s a problem then there’s no need to fix anything.
