The National Insurance Board keeps pumping money into the Apes Hill development project. So far the NIS has invested BDS$25.4 MILLION DOLLARS in what can fairly be described as a highly speculative development project. The NIS Directors led by Chairman of the Board Dr. Justin Robinson (who coincidentally sits on the controversial Central Bank Board) must be aware that by continuing to pump public funds into a struggling and speculative private real estate project could compromise our important social security fund. It is well documented the NIS and the Central Bank have been soaking up government domestic debt as a means to fund a struggling economy.
How easy it is to be a ‘Developer’ like the Sir Cows and Maloneys in Barbados especially when you can keep withdrawing from the the NIS ATM.
Read full Document – Request for funding from Apes Hill Development for additional funding
292 responses to “NIS Dumps 21 Million Dollars in Apes Hill Development”
David,
I know it is fashionable to blame individuals, but should we not be blaming the minister, who is ultimately accountable; the chairman of the NIS, Justin Robinson, and members of the investment committee; and the person(s) who carried out the due diligence?
In any case, this is not an investment, but a loan. Is the NIS authorised to make commercial loans to private businesses without the approval of parliament?
@Walter
Know this is a busy time for you but an opinion on this matter given your expertise would be valued.
Bajan…if they are all selfish, they wont, if they dont, because of people’s distrust of the present government, Mia will hold the next government, all because the new parties just want to say they won a government individually without seeing the reality of the present situation which is with a united front, they will be taken more seriously, ……..or they will just carry on the same 50 year old crap…more of them same…and repeat.
Tron… ya right, another disgusting racist system is the indian caste system.
LOL @ Tron
….such a bad surface that lots of red flashlights start to blink on your dashboard when you outpace some silver Mercedes with MP plate and a fat Wabenzi in it.
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First, you didn’t have to let us all know that you have a fancy ABS system in you big ride….
Second, you have now explained why these politicians like their Mercedes…. and BMWs
….WaBENZis must have big rides….
@ Hal
Boss, do you understand that these statutory boards are just a bunch of the Minister’s lackies.. whose roles are to find out what the boss wants done …and get with it? And this goes for all the traditional big names that are tossed about….They are not hired to think.
Remember the CLICO Boards?
Big names fuh so…. and all they did was enjoy the ride, and accept the free land and other bribes….. and then claim ignorance of all that transpired under their watch…..and moved on to other victims.
@ David
Why is there not an automatic, ‘exit-audit’ conducted on all ministers and senior government (and other) officials on demitting office?
Would this not provide a sound base for their successors, provide incentives to leave a sound legacy, catch illegal deeds at an earlier stage, signal a seriousness about integrity?
….or is it, as Bushie suspects, that VERY FEW of us would be comfortable having one done on us when we debit our roles….?
Bushie,
Clico was a private company, NIS is public.
@Bush Tea
What will you be auditing against? The PS controls the purse strings. It would be a nice to have though.
Hal…there is no difference in Barbados, even the government ministers believe they are private sector employees and not public servants, serving the public, serving the majority population…and they all act like it, why do you think there is so much corruption and money missing from both treasury and NIS.
@ David
What will you be auditing against?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are you SERIOUS?
Just like the Auditor General does annually:
– against the Pubic Service regulations, budget and Board directives.
But also…
– against generally accepted accounting standards;
– against the LAW of the land;
– against the Companies Act and the bylaws of whatever organisation…
– against public morals and ethical standards….
@ Hal
What is a ‘Private Company’ that takes deposits from the public, handles pension funds, gratuities, loans etc???
It is …more ‘public’ and regulated than even government agencies.
….except of course in brassbados where a “chicken shit analyser” was appointed to oversee regulation of insurance companies – using Pacha’s mantra of giving every brass bowl a chance to shine… 🙂
@Bush Tea
Surely you do not need Caswell to enlighten you that the financial rules of government govern civil servants/public servants?
“Jewellery and cars seized as Dutch trigger multi-country tax raids”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39452778
@ Hal
This type of stupidity is nothing new. It has happened in all areas of corporate life in our country, where the rich business class elites, believe they have a divine right to make money and not take risk. This also happened in agriculture, tourism and to some degree manufacturing. The blackmail is to threaten successive governments with lay offs and unemployment. What we have is the classical colonial/slave economy without the physical slave and we simply do not want to call it for what it is. Note that they will pretend that they can’t find a paultry 21million from within their own resources but can buy yachts and enjoy their real estate and other investments and expensive hobbies. Note how the national watchmen can take aim at the black political class but NEVER at the corporate elites because they want the parties of their choice financed , by the same corporate elites, in order to extend their political dominance.
Look at TripAdvisor:
“the new clubhouse was fantastic with great changing rooms”
” facilities inside are very plush and enjoyable to use”
“The new club house is well underway and looks magnificent.”
P L U S H !
Golf is the new sugar and taxpayer the new slave.
@ David
Surely you do not need Caswell to enlighten you that the financial rules of government govern civil servants/public servants?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The point being…?
@Hal Austin
The NIS has been one of my pet issues for a while.
Back in 2015 when Ansa & Ambev were battling over Banks Holdings, Dr JR would occasionally post on BU. A blogger (Due Diligence if I recall) asked why the NIS Annual Reports were several years in arrears. Dr JR explained they had accounting issues, which were being rectified, and hopefully the reports would be available soon.
We never saw one. And in 2016, the old NIS website which had a tab for “Annual Reports” was replaced by a newer website which removed that tab, replacing it with “Investments”.
As you noted the term is a bit of a misnomer, because it includes ALL uses of NIS funds.
It was well known, and admitted, the GoB was “borrowing money from the NIS”, mostly we were led to believe by the NIS increasing its purchases of Government issued paper. Yet without an annual report, we have no idea what the composition of the not-easily-identified categories, such as loans/real estate/equities. Nor do we know how all the government instruments they possess are being serviced.
Other comments have been made to the effect, the NIS has been paying out more than it has been taking in for a few years.
The NIS will be the surprise package, the day the GoB changes.
The governance setup as we know it audits/measures the pubic servant and not the politician.
William,
A company such as COW’s should be able to go to the banks and shadow banks to raise that money; even more, he has the assets to secure a loan. Something is not right, apart from the collective ignorance of the government.
This brings us back to Arthur’s disastrous management of the national finances. He alone has done more to damage our financial system than any single individual.
What makes matters worse – and \I have given the Mutual as an example – in Barbados we usually go off on a tangent and ignore the fundamentals. COW Williams is not the problem, but the badly managed NIS, and in particular the chairman and the minister.
I remember before his unfortunate death having an email conversation with David Thompson and telling him that he was using the NIS as a piggy bank. He protested vehemently. We now have the clear evidence. Barbados is in a sorry state.
https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/03/31/vote-us-out/
Inniss would say anything at this time to be reelected when as minister of business he should be telling us why Cow, Bizzy, Maloney, Bjerkham etc have been allowed to impede the progress of black entrepreneurs by being given, under his watch millions of tax dollars and NIS pension fund money with nothing to show that the people as a whole benefited. ….just as the other government also did for years, he should know the people plan to vote them out for impeding their progress….and bisines people of the minority class who have impeded the peoples progress for decades because of their self serving greed should not be given taxpayer’s money or pensioners money to default on those loans,….stupid government ministers cause this.
“Vote us out!
Inniss says politicians who impede progress should go
Added by Neville Clarke on March 31, 2017.
Saved under Local News
0
Politicians who get in the way of progress should be made to pay the price at the polling booth, suggests one of the country’s most garrulous political leaders.
Similarly, anyone in the public service or the business community who are “blockers to progress” should be sidelined, Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development Donville Inniss has said.
“[Barbados must cut out the] red tape, paper shuffling [and] indecisiveness, and penalize the blockers to progress or get them out of the system, politicians included, any present or future,” Inniss said today in an address at the Spark Global Business Caribbean seminar at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, Aquatic Gap, St Michael.”
There has been a “rumour” on the island for some time the Construction arm of the COW group is owed money by the GoB.
There is every reason why a business needs to borrow, and none why the loan provider should be the NIS.
Or is that loan, a peace offering over monies owed elsewhere?
Hal
There are thousands of Bajans who would dispute your contention that Thompson’s death was unfortunate.For whom?Equally,there are those who would agree,nay argue and vehemently too, that Tom’s passing was most unfortunate for Barbados.One a con man,the other sheer brilliance and totally patriotic.Mistuh Speakuh suh,make it a documunt of the House!
@ David
The governance setup as we know it audits/measures the pubic servant and not the politician.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
You mean is SHOULD audit /measure the public servant.
It doesn’t even do that.
That is exactly Bushie’s point.
Why should it not be mandatory that ALL holders of PUBLIC office be audited for conformity to the rules, for integrity and transparency within six months of demitting office?
The damn Americans even reserve the right to conduct such audits (Investigations and hearings under sworn testimony) DURING their tenure.
We are nothing short of brass bowls…… and the hopeless resignation that is typified by Vincent constantly, and sometimes by yourself, is the root cause of our hopeless attitude.
Shiite man!
We cannot even get a damn news reporter to ask a single coherent question to an official that does not sound like a pet dog begging for a belly rub.
Gabriel,
Any premature death is unfortunate.
By the way, who invited the former governor of the Ireland central bank who covered the cost? Did he stay at Sandy Lane?
Thompson’s death was timely, unfortunate are the years he was allowed to victimize people because they trusted him and knew no better.
Bushie
We have always agreed that our system of governance has been found wanting and needs changing.
…what you call defeatist is reality.
…..the last hope we had of a politician changing the system was DT who like Trump told us all we wanted to hear but unlike Trump never enacted any and since the revelations of his involvement in a number of things since his death one can only conclude that such was never his intention.
….I have said all that to say that like Bernard I know will allow natural evolution of the situation to take place as the political class will not/cannot deliver what we need to save this country.
NorthernBloomfield
You propping up Sir Cow seriously. You don’t realize how where time you turn around COW and BIZZY owed millions by the Government? NIS loan money to Apes Hill because of the absence of similarly stupid people in the commercial banks in Barbados. His brother, (the one every PM without fail have refused make a SIR) is not a DIRECTOR on the Board of Tepublic Bank of Trinidad?
@OwnArea
propping up what?
https://www.republictt.com/about/board-directors
which director?
https://republicbarbados.com/about/executive-team
Check the non-executive directors.
NortherBloomfield
Ralph S. DeC. Williams was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2005.
You didn’t know or you just trying to ignore the potential conflict consider the money Republic Bank throw away in Apes Hill?
https://republicbarbados.com/about/republic-bank-barbados-limited
Frustrated
Don’t mind NortherBloomfield, he trying hard camouflage the conflict. You know that him and his brother believe the people in Barbados don’t know what roles they played in the sale of BNB to Republic and what shareholding and benefits they got in exchange. PARASITES.
It is a closed shop cartel.
To these people, it does not matter if they sell off Bajan assets, thereby disenfranchising locals from ownership status (and returning us to serfdom), since they ALWAYS bribe themselves into positions of privilege in the now-foreign-owned entities during the process.
They also get to insulate themselves from blame – since they can always hide behind the foreign owners -even though they remain the local agents of extortion.
It is always the same….
BNB
Bartel
Banks
BS&T
BL&P
…look at the Boards ….and recall who were the caretakers of the local assets prior to the give-aways….
Then look back at their ‘positions taken’ when the scams were being executed….
Instead of our government dealing with these traitors, we had idiots joining the bandwagon in looking to dispose of public assets too…
PEOPLE WHO OWN NOTHING ARE SERFS……
THEY ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS.
‘Ownership’ is a REFLECTION of a life of purposeful living. Social development is therefore a process that should be characterised by INCREASING ownership – not because of greed, but as a result of a positive, constructive, and productive approach to life.
If you find yourself having to SELL OFF assets therefore, it is a sign that you are on the WRONG PATH …and need to change the idiots in the lead.
Why you think business people who know better are not speaking out about the woeful economic policies of the DLP government? You know why, cause these PARASITES are will to see the economy collapse if it means they pick up some of the cash generating assets of the GOB. SIMPLE.
Morning families
How are you guys today? Hope everyone is doing fine under the DLP Govt. as many of you are doing including MIA AMOR MOTTLEY!!!!!!!
The corrupt Barbados Labour Party is fighting tooth and nail to form the next Govt. of Barbados.
According to them the country is poor , pitiful, and an inch away from disaster. Yet this is not stopping them from wanting to get their grubby hands on something that is no good namely BARBADOS. They ought to be ashamed.
Ever so often one comes across some one who reminds one of the vindictive, spitefulness of the Barbados Labour Party. On page 9 of the Sun Classifieds is the Funeral notice of CECIL EVERTON AURELIUS SMITH former Headmaster of the Lodge School. The brother of Sleepy Smith. This is the man who the Barbados Labour Party tried to remove from his post of Headmaster of the Lodge simply because he was the brother of Sleepy Smith of the Democratic Labour Party. There was a very protracted legal case which he finally won in spite of the Barbados Labour Party operatives throwing everything at him including the kitchen sink.
And this is the same party who wants to form the Govt. in Barbados so that they can give reign to this kind of viciousness anew.
By the way
Did any of you guys watch the former governor of the Central Bank of Ireland Patrick Honohan on TV the other night?
I bet you wished that he would go away, he made too much sense.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Ireland Patrick Honohan has stated that a home grown solution to our economic challenges is the best way to go? such as what is being pursued by the present Govt.
And devaluation? Out of the question unless we want to wind up like Jamaica. So those calling for devaluation and going to the IMF are not our friends, whether inside Barbados or outside Barbados.
It is almost 40 years that the Jamaicans have a standby relationship with the IMF and cant get out of it.
Carson…and you needed a white man to say that to convince the voters, how much taxpayer’s money yall had to pay him, it does not mstter anyway, yall will still be kicked out, any government can do the same thing yall ain’t unique.
The WHITE MAN was needed to convince the Barbados Labour Party members and supporters.
Not us.
We are doing what needs to be done and getting cuss for it. A-La-Erskine Sandiford.
Carson
Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan is to step down at the end of the year after six years in office, The Irish Times has confirmed.
Prof Honohan (65) is expected to outline his retirement plans at the launch of the Central Bank’s annual report on Friday morning.
The former Trinity College professor, who has held the post since 2009, was brought in to manage the State’s financial sector at the height of the crash.
His tenure as the head of the bank was not due to end until September 2016.
The Central Bank declined to comment.
However, sources said there is no particular reason for Prof Honohan’s decision, noting that he will have served most of his seven-year term by the end of 2015.
Prof Honohan was an outspoken critic of the government when he was appointed by the then minister for finance Brian Lenihan in September 2009.
He previously held the post of Professor of International Financial Economics and Development in Trinity, having spent almost a decade before that at the World Bank as senior advisor on financial sector policy.
Seen as a safe pair of hands and a straight talker, he was tasked with restoring confidence in the State’s banks and economy, and rescuing the Central Bank’s own reputation which had been tarnished by the collapse of the banking sector.
He took command only months after the government had been forced to nationalise Anglo, an admission that the infamous bank guarantee had spectacularly backfired. In July 2010, the Minister for Finance created the Review Group on State Assets and Liabilities, led by Patrick Honohan and UCD economist Colm McCarthy, to advise it on the future of commercial semi-States. Mr. Honohan was an outspoken supporter of the full privatisation of the Dublin Airport Authority, Dublin Ports, Bord Gais, Irish Rail, Dublin Bus and Irish Aviation Authority.
Under his watch, the Government effectively nationalised four of the State’s main lenders as it struggled to deal with the hole left on balance sheets from the property crash – a recapitalisation that cost the taxpayer €64 billion.
Perhaps his most famous intervention came in November 2010, when he went on RTÉ radio to declare a State bailout worth “tens of billions of euro” was imminent, in the face of repeated denials by the government of the day
Carson
Sounds like the Stuart & Sinckler getting advice on privatisation from one of the World leaders.
Carson Cadogan
Here is a theme for the next DLP manifesto:
Cartroads to Austerity & Privatization
Austerity is desirable and not always a bad thing..
Belt tightening is never a bad thing. It teaches people to learn to live within their means. How to not hang their hats higher than they can reach it. To pay for what they want and not to expect that every thing is free or ought to be free. It forces now generations to foot their fair share of the bill for what they want and not to pass along to future generations the cost of their over indulgences as we like to do here in Barbados. Hence every ten to fifteen years or so economic challenges in Barbados.
The DLP belt tightening is a self inflicted wound. The most deadly weapon in all of the world is incompetence.
Well I guess that is your way of looking at it. Not that you are correct.
I think you need a new leader. MIA AMOR MOTTLEY IS JUST NOT CUTTING IT.
Every year the Govt. has to pay $30million for a prison in St. Phillip. This is the prison which MIA AMOR MOTTLEY when she was Attorney General told Bajans it would cost $100million Bajan but somehow ending up making Bajans pay $700million Bajan. But don’t worry we are finding the payments every year. Some how we are to believe that she is the economic guru at nearly $1billion Bajan for a project.
When she was Min. of Education she started something called EDUTECH. Ended up costing Bajans in excess of $30million Bajan. Up to this day we have nothing to show for it.
As Min. of Economic affairs said that she was frustrated with the Private sector who were not pulling their weight. She proposed that Barbados become a manufacturing heavy weight in Garments and furniture. She was laughed at by the Private sector of Barbados. Even Prof. Howard said at the time that all she had were old fashion ideas. Where is the garment manufacturers and the furniture manufacturers?
Now we are to vote for her because she is a WOMAN!!!!!!
I think NOT.
Carson
Why are so consumed with the Leader of the Opposition, is cause she and the BLP was a major discussion was discussed at Cabinet? BLP is not going to beat the DLP, the people are going to vote wunna OUT and rightfully so.
Carson C Cadogan April 2, 2017 at 10:28 AM: “According to them the country is poor, pitiful, and an inch away from disaster.”
When I visited Apes Hill Plantation this weekend, I came across many slums in the bushes. I suppose, your voters who believe they live in a developed country.
Tron
Despite the poverty in the environs of Apes Hill that has not stop COW and Apes Hill from buying a brand spanking new shiny airplane. Was the NIS money for this expense:–
Compared to the average cost for all Private aircraft, which is US$541,600, the Hawker Beechcraft Beechcraft Baron G58 costs:
$453,400 more expensive (a 84% premium) or US$995,000 for the entry level plane.
You know what amuses me about you people?
The WHITE BAJANS are taking their money and investing it in their homeland Barbados.
Far too many BLCK BAJANS are simply parking their money at the banks. Not investing it in their homeland. But what they are doing is criticising the WHITE BAJANS who are willing to take risks with their money and see Barbados move forward.
The Govt. is investing money in viable projects to help the country and for you that is a problem. Meanwhile your money is catching rust in bank vaults.
You have no moral right to criticise people like CO Williams and Maloney. They should be given a medals.
When you take some of your money off the bank and do something useful with it then you can have a say.
Yeah…given medals for using you idiots…
Carson
You clearly do not know how white business people in Barbados operate, if you did you could not make that comment.
Can you shed any light on the two thousand, nine hundred (2,900) house lots given to Maloney on the eve (a matter of days) of the 2013 election? Not a blasted cent the man didn’t pay for them 2,900 house lots at Bushy Park.
TRON
You should be shame visiting Apes Hill Plantation, because left to you it would be nothing but a back woods. You just waiting for others to invest their money on projects and you just waltz in.
A real freeloader!!!!!
Not 29
Not 290
But 2,900