(BBC) The Antigua and Barbuda government has agreed to cut its wage bill by 20% over the next two years, under a proposed agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
It is part of a series of tough measures designed to help haul the country out of a severe cash crisis.
Other measures to be introduced by the Baldwin Spencer administration are a reduction of the public service over five to seven years, and the outsourcing of some government services.
A statement from the Ministry of Finance said Friday that the government plans to finalise arrangements for a US $30 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank.
This sounds a painful solution to an ongoing fiscal problem. If the A&B Government reviewed and revised it’s over bureaucratic and inefficient Customs Service (Main revenue provider) these salary cuts for poorly paid civil servants could be avoided. The A&B Customs Service (& the Police service) is still based in the 1950s with a hierarchal, politicised and intransigent management. If modern reforms were introduced and a major change in the personnel at the ‘top’ within the service, Customs net revenues (and Income Tax) could be increased by over 30% thus avoiding the penalties from the IMF.