By Hartley Henry – Advocate Newspaper (25 September 2008)
Opposition Leader Mia Mottley has created the perfect opening for me to remind Barbadians of the incidents of bizarre spending that has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and unnecessary pain and stress.
Miss Mottley rushed to the media on Tuesday last, challenging the Prime Minister to provide specific evidence of the overseas accounts in which such monies were lodged. Her demand was that if Mr. Thompson could not provide the details he should abandon the issue. That is precisely what the opposition wants, but that is precisely what they will not get. This matter will not go away!
It is too painful an experience, for ministers of government to be brimming with ideas for the development of Barbados and not have the money to implement their programmes. It is too painful for parliamentary representatives to see scores of persons each week who are deserving of assistance but for whom resources are too slender to assist them in a meaningful way.
Miss Mottley would like the Prime Minister to stop talking about the missing money, but that will not happen because the examples are too glaring. As Mr. Thompson correctly pointed out, we are not talking here about a few thousand dollars. This is not insignificant fine change. This is mega-bucks. Take for example, the so-called Gems of Barbados project. Experts in the real estate and tourism development industry have reliably informed me that the Gems properties can today fetch no more than $45 million on the open market. $45 million in assets is what the people of Barbados have from the more than $225 million spending spree presided over by the previous administration.
Somebody must tell the people of Barbados how it is that close to a quarter of a billion dollars was spent on this most brilliant of investment ideas and today, less than 10 years later, collectively, the properties and enterprises, as going concerns, can fetch no more than one fifth of that amount. The question that must be asked is whether the $225 million that was spent was actually spent on those properties or whether the hotels depreciated in value so rapidly, in a country where all other real estate has appreciated to corresponding levels.
Why should the Prime Minister not want to know where that $180 million has gone? The Barbados National Oil Company has chalked up $180 million in debt through subsidisation of the price of petroleum products over the course of the last five years. Energy users in this country must consider the options that a Minister of Finance would have at this time of burgeoning oil prices, had he the luxury of an extra $180 million in the treasury.
Consider the assistance that could be given poultry producers at this time if the Prime Minister had access to an extra $180 million. For starters, he could absorb or subsidise increases in the price of feed, thus containing the price of chicken and other poultry products. A Prime Minister with $180 million to spare could immediately revamp the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, thus reducing waiting times and enhancing patient care. He could also issue contracts, to Barbadian contractors, for the repair and refurbishment of sick buildings, particularly those housing civil servants.
If that extra $180 million billed to the treasury of Barbados, in the name of the Gems project, did not go into those properties, as was originally assumed, then where did it go?
The last time this question was asked of the Barbados Labour Party, the leadership of that organisation considered it more advantageous to silence the inquiring mind, by inviting the individual to join the hive.
The people of this country have a right to know where the unaccounted for money has gone. Prime Minister Thompson will probably never trace a cent of this to any personal bank account, but the electorate of Barbados must never forget the level of deprivation it suffered as a result of the disappearance of this huge chunk of money.
Next week, the matter of the doubling of the cost of the new prison, the tripling of the cost of the expansion of the ABC highway and ghastly amounts paid for heavy duty vehicles and equipment will be examined. Bottom line this issue will not go away. I promise!!
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