ABUJA: Workers at the Customs and Excise Department, who have been protesting against the planned merger of their department with the Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA), may get their wish after all.
Asked today what happens in the event that the majority of the 300-plus Customs workers do not sign on to BRA, Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler admitted that “it would not be the most ideal situation” to have the Government’s largest revenue arm operating outside of the BRA umbrella. However, he said the Freundel Stuart administration could be forced to maintain the status quo.
“Any appointed worker who says, ‘no, I am not interested in going’, you cannot force them to go,” conceded Sinckler.
Pressed further by Barbados TODAY on the issue, the Minister of Finance could not give a precise threshold, but said, “I would imagine that for the thing to be functional, you would want to have a fairly decent number of persons agreeing to go. I don’t think it would make sense working with 20 per cent, or 30 per cent, or even 40 per cent [of the current staff complement at Customs].
“I think, given the specialty of the area, you would want a decent percentage of workers agreeing to transition,” he added, while further acknowledging that the jury was still out on the integration of Customs into BRA.
However, Sinckler insisted that it was not a case of the tail wagging the dog, saying, “we afforded that respect and opportunity to all other legacy agencies that did transitions.
“I believe they did it with the hospital, I know they did it with the FSC [Financial Services Commission] for sure. I know they did it with VAT [the Value Added Tax Division] and Inland Revenue that transitioned to the BRA last year, so I don’t think you could have given those other public officers the opportunity to make a choice and not give the workers at Customs the same privilege.
