UBP calls for wage cuts, five-year plan to reduce debt

That was the message from shadow finance minister Bob Richards yesterday as he warned Bermuda was ‘on the cusp of a national economic emergency’.

He accepted he had made the same claim on several previous occasions but insisted people were now starting to feel the effects.

“I haven’t just been a prophet of doom and gloom. I’ve been right.”

Mr. Richards admitted a pay cut for Ministers would be a largely symbolic gesture. But he said it would show signal a commitment to “shared sacrifice”.

He offered few concrete examples of where genuine cuts could be made, saying he was saving that for his Budget Reply on February 18.

“We would not have been in this situation if I had been minister, don’t forget that,” he added.

He said Government needed a strong budget to redress a litany of problems — many of which were of its own making.

“In the budget debate I aim to show that some of our competition are starting to come out of this recession but our structural problems are holding us back.

“We have to fix them in this more competitive, more dangerous world.”

He said a pay-freeze would be necessary for civil servants as well as a decrease in numbers through ‘attrition’. But he said the UBP was not suggesting job cuts.

He believes savings can also be made through greater efficiency and less reliance on consultants.

Mr. Richards, who called a press conference yesterday in the run up to next month’s budget, said Bermudians wanted to see a budget that would grow jobs, increase income and restore confidence.

He said Premier and Finance Minister Paula Cox should show real reductions in order to meet her $150million cutback target — not cosmetic cuts to “future spending”.

He also called for Government to present a five-year-plan to reduce the national debt and stimulate the economy by paying its bills within a month, hiring small businesses for Government projects and fast tracking the planning process.