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FOREIGN POLICY
The message
of our founding father the Rt. Ex. Errol Barrow that "we
will be friends of all and satellites of none" still
ring in our ears and will continue to inform our foreign policy
initiatives.
We
will:
- Widen
Barbados' Honorary Consular representation abroad to ensure
a greater level of service to Barbadians living and traveling
abroad.
- Ensure
that Barbados' diplomatic and consular missions have the
capacity to facilitate and service Barbadians, and other
nationals in the development of trading and business services.
- Strengthen
relations with African and Asian countries.
- Maintain
and strengthen ties with Europe to promote trade, tourism
and cultural ties.
CARICOM
We
will:
- Work
with other CARICOM countries in negotiating trade pacts
with other hemispheric groupings.
- Remain
committed to the principles and goals of CARICOM and would
work to deepen the integration movement.
- Work
to complete the Caricom Single Market and Economy protocols,
bringing it to fruition within the time frame set out this
includes the movement of skilled and unskilled labour.
PUBLIC SERVICE POLICY
The Democratic
Labour Party values the contribution made to national development
by a very competent and committed public service.
We are
mindful of the uneasiness presently being expressed by public
servants to the new qualifications order and the many other
concerns that now occupy their attention.
We
will:
- Embark
on a massive training programme which would allow public
servants to upgrade their qualifications. We would allow
a grace period of seven years for the attainment of any
new qualifications.
- Strengthen
the Ministry of the Civil Service and the Personnel Administration
Division through computerization of records and provision
of additional staff.
- Eliminate
supersessions in the service by introducing a system that
brings fairness and transparency to recruitment, transfers
and promotion.
Restore full responsibility to the Public Service Commission
for: appointments, promotions, transfers and discipline
within the public Service.
Introduce a system of rewarding public servants for outstanding
service.
- Embark
on a programme to improve the working environment of all
public servants by instituting occupational health and safety
committees, shop steward councils and by providing modern
technology and modern equipment.
- For
the past decade Public Servants have suffered through structural
adjustment and the constraints of an incomes protocol. This
act of sacrifice saved Barbados from a devaluation of the
dollar. In recognition of this selfless act.
We
will:
- Allocate
$25 million to the Public Servants to be paid as a non-taxable
bonus.
Empowering
People-Good Governance
Our core
values of transparency and accountability will inform our
style of governance.
The present
BLP government appears to have abandoned the recommendations
of the Constitutional Reform Committee and its Manifesto pledge,
and has embarked on a policy of party paramountcy that threatens
to undermine democracy and the two party system of government.
We
will:
- Introduce
Integrity and Anti-corruption legislation that would require
Ministers of Government, Chairpersons of Statutory Boards
and Chairpersons of Private companies in which Government
has at least a 40% ownership, to disclose their assets to
an Integrity Commission set by the Governor General.
- Reconstitute
the Senate to provide broader participation and representation.
- Introduce
a system of elected councils to administer services at the
constituency level.
- Enact
Equal Opportunity legislation that will provide the citizen
with recourse in cases of discrimination on the basis of
race ethnicity, class and political affiliation.
- Amend
the standing orders of Parliament to allow for question
time of the Prime Minster on the floor of the House.
- Amend
the general orders to facilitate the participation of Public
Officers in elective politics.
- Review
the laws on defamation to give greater freedom to the Press
and the populace to hold public figures more accountable.
- Introduce
anti-trust legislation to discourage the formation of monopolies.
- Introduce
Freedom of Information legislation that would empower the
citizen's right to know, in keeping with our pledge of accountability.
- Expand
the categories under which the needy can access the legal
aid system, such as domestic violence and wrongful dismissal
cases.
- Construct
a new modern Judicial Centre as a matter of priority.
- Construct
a new District C Magistrate Court and fire station in St.
Philip to service the communities of the eastern parishes.
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