GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar

@guardian.co.tt

In light of the pre­vail­ing eco­nom­ic chal­lenges, gov­ern­ment min­istries and state en­ter­pris­es in T&T are im­ple­ment­ing mea­sures to curb non-es­sen­tial spend­ing dur­ing the fes­tive sea­son.

Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath, this ini­tia­tive forms part of a broad­er ef­fort to ex­er­cise fis­cal dis­ci­pline and en­sure pru­dent use of pub­lic re­sources.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that sev­er­al min­istries and state en­ti­ties have opt­ed to scale back or com­plete­ly can­cel tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas func­tions this year as a cost-sav­ing mea­sure.

When con­tact­ed for clar­i­fi­ca­tion yes­ter­day, Padarath em­pha­sised that these de­ci­sions re­flect the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pri­ori­tis­ing es­sen­tial ser­vices and re­duc­ing dis­cre­tionary ex­pens­es amid the cur­rent fi­nan­cial cli­mate.

“This is not a de­mand or an in­struc­tion from the Gov­ern­ment per se, but rather in­di­vid­ual min­is­ters are be­ing guid­ed by the cur­rent eco­nom­ic cli­mate that the coun­try is fac­ing, to­geth­er with a man­date to curb ex­ces­sive un­nec­es­sary spend­ing, and there­fore some of us have tak­en the de­ci­sion to curb. So, it is not a sit­u­a­tion of not hav­ing Christ­mas par­ties and so on, but rather to curb some of the ex­ces­sive ex­pen­di­ture,” the min­is­ter ex­plained.

Padarath not­ed that un­der pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tions, hol­i­day cel­e­bra­tions of­ten in­volved lav­ish par­ties and sig­nif­i­cant costs, in­clud­ing al­co­hol con­sump­tion and high-pro­file en­ter­tain­ment.

In con­trast, the cur­rent ap­proach seeks to re­align pri­or­i­ties by fo­cus­ing on em­ploy­ee wel­fare, he said.

“I can tell you for mine, I can’t speak for the in­di­vid­ual min­is­ters as they re­view what would have oc­curred un­der the last ad­min­is­tra­tion in terms of Christ­mas par­ties and ex­ces­sive spend­ing. What I’ve sought to do is fo­cus more on the em­ploy­ees of the min­istry and state en­ter­pris­es in terms of pro­vid­ing food sup­port et cetera, rather than hav­ing ex­ces­sive par­ties with al­co­hol con­sump­tion and that sort of a thing.

“My own min­istry had their Christ­mas event on Fri­day and while sev­er­al artistes and so on would have been there, what I’ve sought to do is utilise the artistes who fall un­der the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties to per­form at some of these func­tions, so there is no cost to the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties.

I think it is sort of re­align­ing, look­ing for a space in which you can show ap­pre­ci­a­tion to your em­ploy­ees with cut­ting out the ex­ces­sive un­nec­es­sary spend­ing in some of that re­gard.”

The min­is­ter stressed that this ap­proach re­flects a broad­er ef­fort to show ap­pre­ci­a­tion to staff while main­tain­ing fis­cal pru­dence.

He not­ed that dis­cus­sions with his col­leagues re­vealed a shared in­ten­tion to re­think tra­di­tion­al Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tions—shift­ing away from ex­trav­a­gant, short-lived events to­ward ini­tia­tives that pro­vide more mean­ing­ful sup­port, such as food as­sis­tance and oth­er re­sources that ben­e­fit em­ploy­ees be­yond a sin­gle evening.