FOLLOWING his retirement as the chief executive officer of Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce last month, championing the causes of the voiceless within the business community is still at the forefront of Gabriel Faria’s thinking.
That is why he has formed a group called Caribbean Advocacy, to help navigate some of the issues experienced by small and medium size enterprises, across the region.
Faria’s last day as CEO of the T&T Chamber, where he spent more than five years, was January 31. He has since been replaced by Ian De Souza.
The Chamber in a release last week paid tribute to Faria, saying his conviction has always been that “a strong private sector is the foundation of a prosperous and equitable T&T.”
The Chamber said Faria’s tenure witnessed intensified advocacy efforts with the T&T Government, policymakers and legislators, to which he brought his own unique style to negotiating for changes in business facilitation and in the ease of doing business.
In a candid interview with Express Business last week, the chief executive officer of Caribbean Advocacy said he saw great need to still represent businesses, especially for the hundreds of legitimate small firms.
“I have decided I cannot be an unresponsible leader and therefore will keep these matters active until they are resolved and my other regional retired counterparts agreed to form this advocacy group.”
Faria said the membership and directors of the group will be kept privately as there is a fear they can be victimized, when they speak out on various issues affecting the community.
“I’m doing this strictly on a voluntary basis, not doing it for profit. This is my way of being a responsible citizen and there are many other heads who would like to contribute within the region to help the various sectors become successful,” he said.
Faria, who has worked at CEO level at companies such as Angostura and Guardian Media, noted that Caribbean Advocacy has not yet been registered as the mechanics are still being worked out.
“It’s multi-country so we are working out the best solutions for it. It’s going to be a network and not a formal business entity. One prerequisite for companies to join is that they must be registered for tax and employees must be registered for NIS. We want to encourage people to comply.”
Questioned on how this new entity would be funded, he said they are hoping to get advocacy group sponsors to fund it, because the work that it would do is voluntary and is designed to give back to society.
“We will not be competing with any chambers or other Caribbean groups as they represent larger businesses. We do not want people to become a member of this group because they are a part of another association. The reason this was formed is because many businesses do not have representation and we need to give a voice to the people who do not have the financial resources to do so,” he remarked.
Need for transparency
Faria highlighted that there is a need for robust ongoing advocacy on transparency in Government.
“Campaign finance and procurement regulation are just two areas which the government has been avoiding dealing with and so much more. This does not hold the persons we elect to the highest standards.”
An issue that he advocated for while chamber’s CEO was VAT refunds for business owners, which still has not yet been settled.
“When I raised this in 2017, more than one minister said it was not true, but in 2019 they admitted that over $6.2 billion was owed in overdue refunds. The last we heard was that $3.7 billion was paid in 2020, but we were promised that overdue VAT refunds will be paid and that the regime would be made current going forward.
“Then there are tax refunds and amounts owed to suppliers. There is also the matter of interest owed on the VAT refunds, which by my calculation is $744 million annually (12 per cent) and if the average of the overdue refunds is three years that means by law the government owes roughly an additional $2.1 billion in interest. When will that be paid?”
He indicated that the government is living beyond its means by not paying monies legally owed to businesses and citizens for years while some businesses are grinding to a halt because they don’t have the cash to fund their operations.
“The final option may be for the businesses owed to take “a representative action” to collect the funds owed to them. In fact, I was told by a leader in Government in front of another person ‘Sue me nah’,” Faria chuckled.
Another area which is having a debilitating impact on businesses, he said, is the significant delays in the clearance of shipments via air or sea freight. This is adding to the cost of imports and reducing the competitiveness of all businesses in the country.
Faria said this must be addressed as these types of actions slow down the economy.
“We speak about the ease of doing business, but we must get it right. At the end of the day we want to attract investors, not scare them away. To this day foreign exchange continues to be a problem and many businesses have complained that they are not even receiving half of what is needed to clear their goods.”
He said a column written by Terrence Farrell in 2011, entitled “Our unresponsible elites” resonated with him.
The column stated: “The unresponsible person either really does not know or understand what his responsibility is, or if he does know what it is, does not know how to discharge that responsibility in the given circumstances.”
“We need leaders comprised of persons who will ask at every turn ‘What does responsibility require of me in this situation?’- and then take principled action through to its consequences, whatever those may be, and whatever the personal cost,” the column outlined.
Outstanding negotiations
He said there are too many unsettled wage negotiations or payments due for negotiations that have been agreed but not paid.
“In some instances, this goes back as much as nine years. How many billions of dollars is this liability that is not being accounted for?”
Faria recommends that the Government have an obligation to provide clear metrics to evaluate the promises they have made and the obligations they have through a performance report which should be published quarterly.
He said some of the areas in the performance report are:
-The aged balances broken down by month showing the amounts paid towards for each area: Vat refunds, Tax refunds, amounts owed to suppliers.
-The mean, median and longest time taken to clear shipments in each area.
-A listing of all outstanding labour agreements, the potential financial cost and the quarterly settlements and payments.
Bio
Gabriel Faria was born in Scarborough Tobago where his family owned a guest house.
He then moved to Trinidad and lived on Besson St, (behind the bridge) where his parents had a café/grocery.
“We kept the property in Tobago and up to now I have up to maintained a home in Tobago,” he said.
Faria went to Bethlehem Boys’ RC School, then Queen’s Royal College. After working for seven years, he went to University to complete his Masters in Business Administration.
