Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

Chapter 5: Some Notable Developments 175 ground-breaking ceremony in March 1981, drew reference to the close proximity of the construction site to St. Michael’s Cathedral, claiming that there was “... no visual harmony between the two shrines of worship, the one ancient and the other modern.” As the building started to take shape, the protests against it intensified. In February 1983, Opposition Leader Errol Barrow said that the building could not add to the country’s productivity and was neither socially desirable nor economically justifiable. He felt that “... it may add to the vanity of some of its occupants and the Ministry of Finance ...” and would hang like an albatross around the necks of the taxpayers. Around the same time, the weekly column of the BWU proclaimed that the erection of the building was not in the best interest of Barbados and that “the $60 million that is being spent on real estate for the Central Bank at this time is not a proposal to stimulate the economy of Barbados.” In November 1983 a prominent engineer wrote a piece criticising the estimated costs and thereafter, in a series of weekly articles, systematically took issue with several aspects of the construction, including the number of expatriates working on the site. 89 The controversy over the building continued unabated into 1984. In March, Errol Barrow took issue with Prime Minister Adams’ claim that the construction costs did not impose a burden on taxpayers, pointing out that the associated loan repayments by the Bank would reduce the amount of profits it could contribute to the Consolidated Fund. Barrow felt that there was greater need for a new Supreme Court and that the Central Bank could have bought an existing building in Bridgetown. The following month the BWU described expenditure on the Bank as “financial madness” and in May a cleric referred to the building as a “towering monstrosity”. So pervasive was the debate that The New York Times of June 9, 1984, carried an item headlined, perhaps with some tongue in cheek, “All Barbados is abuzz over 10-storey skyscraper”, in which it stated that the Central Bank project had “... stirred a cacophonous debate that threatens to rival the clanking noises of construction.” During the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the building on October 28, 1985 there was relative calm; as soon as she left the island another controversy engulfed the Bank - this time over the importation of chairs for the Board Room. The Bank was accused of being extravagant and