Freeze any and all wage increases

It is very alarming how government agencies continue restructuring pay scales that would grant additional money to civil servants in the midstm of a deepening financial crisis. It is even more alarming to see the rather ultra-sense of indifference of current conditions versus facts and figures in the books. This is really scary!

Given the financial straits of the local government, the ultimate order of business for government managers must focus on two issues: 1). A reduction of work hours. 2). A reduction in manpower. The first alternative would save the local treasury some $600,000 per day or $4.8 million per pay period.

Let us discuss the first alternative and why it must be undertaken immediately. Revenue generation would turn for the worse beginning in April. It will continue to decrease and the well of bankruptcy will continue right into the end of this year. The constant slide of the tourism industry would drag down more tourism-related businesses, a negative turn that will translate into far less revenue for the local coffers.

Leadership must come to grips with this reality now and not until sad tidings is issued by the Department of Finance that the last collection fell way short of the anticipated revenues. In short, it’s time to begin implementing reduction in work hours from eight to seven. If conditions worsen, cut it down another notch to six hours per day. This alternative addresses current economic reality and places drone government workers on notice that the fadañgo attitude must go!

It would force these workers to head back to the family ranch to engage in what’s known as subsistence living. It should encourage some positive results by teaching an important lesson to one and all that each must learn to live in both good and bad times. It should teach public sector employees the value of the dollar and that the day of endless honeymoon is now a closed chapter in our developmental history.

The worse case scenario is the eventual termination of a portion of public sector (government) employees when dire reality places the local treasury on the table and asked that everybody takes a peep into that empty box. We sincerely hope that this day would never arrive. But it would finally come around if waste is allowed to go unheeded by government managers entrusted the responsibility to guard the public coffers. Revenue generation “as we know it” is history!