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What is government hiding re:Clearwater Bay and Paradise Beach sale

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The news broke last week that the contentious Paradise Beach property – where millions of tax dollars were pocketed by local politicians, lawyers and other players over the years – is in the process of being sold to Pendry. Senior Minister William Duguid was quoted as saying he would leave, “details surrounding the purchasing agreement for the Prime Minister to speak on, he stressed that the project would be good for the economy“. Hopefully Barbadians will not have to wait as long as Prime Minister Mottley has promised a statement about Savvy on the Bay.

How many times have taxpayers been kept in the dark about these murky transactions by a government promising transparency? Why should details of the purchase agreement be hidden from taxpayers especially given the controversy that has shrouded the project for more than a decade? In the 2020 Auditor General report concerns about a government owned company incorporated under the name Clearwater Bay given its role in the Paradise project was highlighted.

The treatment of the investment in Clearwater Company needs to be further explained. The investment in this Government-owned company was recorded at a value of $124 million investment in prior years. It represented an investment by Clearwater in the Four Seasons Hotel project. The value of this investment remained unchanged on the books of Government for several years even though the property on which the investment was based was significantly impaired…

In the 2018-2019 financial year, the entire investment was written off. It has not been clearly established what was the basis for the entire write-off of the investment. It was also not clear what was the nature of the investment relationship Clearwater had with the hotel owners. The investment and subsequent write-off could not, therefore, be verified by the auditors.

2020 Auditor General Report

The BU document –Paradise Clearwater 88 Ltd Conveyance documents sale to Pharliciple Inc shows the lands at Paradise being sold to a company called Pharliciple Incorporated by Clearwater Bay Limited and Paradise 88 Limited in 2014. The annouced sale of Paradise lands should be analyzed against the findings of Auditor General Leigh Trotman. If the lands were sold and ostensibly money received from a buyer, why was there need for the investment to be written off based on the Auditor General’s findings? Help us to understand someone!

BU family member NorthernObserver has been relentless in his pursuit of information about the role of Clearwater Bay in what has become a murky transaction. Prime Minister Mottley, Avinash Persaud and others have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from what has been a government owned white elephant.

They are purchasing the land from Government” ….this is the news!!!
So WHO now owns the land… Clearwater Bay Limited (CBL)?
That the buyer is placing a deposit and then paying the balance over time is irrelevant to the real question, HOW MUCH are they paying? The taxpayers of Barbados paid (at least) BDD$124M for this property. Anyway the PM will, according to Duguid, be addressing the matter.

“most of the money was spent settling debts and paying creditors”. This is FALSE. The Act/Bill creating CBL gave the intended destination for the monies/loans being guaranteed by the GoB. BUT CBL NEVER provided a Report on EXACTLY WHERE the money was spent. While “most” had specific intended recipients, other significant amounts related to the “re-start”. (which never happened). WHERE were ALL these sums spent/loaned? (Remember the GoB was guaranteeing LOANS)

So some ideas of questions to be asked after the PM’s Big Works address. Journalists must be careful not to get caught in the wonder of the new plan, whose intent is to mask the past.

  • Who currently owns the land and how did they get ownership? Did they pay anything?
  • WHEN will Annual Reports for CBL be available?
  • WHAT is the property being sold for ($$)?

Since the Barbados Parliament website has been time limited, meaning the 2011 legislation bringing CBL into existence is no longer there, the Blogmaster may wish to reproduce his copy. [the Bill is on parliament’s website] – https://www.barbadosparliament.com/htmlarea/uploaded/File/Bills/2011/Bill%20Clearwater%20Bay%20Limited%20(Guarantee%20of%20Loan)%202011.pdf

Source: NorthernObserver

The blogmaster adds voice to NorthernObserver by asking traditional media to as relevant questions instead of giving airtime to PR statements crafted to manipulate public opinion. In other words, do you damn job!

The average Barbadian has never heard of Clearwater Bay or Pharliciple Inc and this is the root of our problem. We have a democratically elected government exhibiting dictatorship tendencies made worse by a disengaged citizenry.

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15 responses to “What is government hiding re:Clearwater Bay and Paradise Beach sale”

  1. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    @ David, please allow me to insert a post from the Native Son.

    I have always been consistent in my argument that the role of Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance – the two most important positions in government – should never be carried out by the same person.

    Who ever said that the era of Rasputin and Romanov was history.

    https://bajan.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/notes-from-a-native-son-four-seasons-the-end/

  2. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Cuba.

    https://nationnews.com/2024/10/20/much-of-cuba-still-without-power-as-hurricane-oscar-approaches/

  3. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “Prime Minister Mottley, Avinash Persaud and others have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars from what has been a government owned white elephant”.

    The PM in her role as a lawyer was known to work for certain related entities, and as such would have been paid for work done. Mr Persaud also worked on the project. The precise amount of their remuneration is unknown to me. Whether they had outstanding accounts which were settled via the loans guaranteed by Clearwater Bay is similarly unknown.

    What we do know, is in the Act laid before Parliament to guarantee loans, it was PROJECTED that some USD$4,560,000 was to be applied in four separate Tranches “toward the general and business expenses of the Borrower group”. That USD $5,000,000 was “to be applied toward certain costs related to the resumption of construction and certain hotel redesign costs”. And that USD$8,388,000 was to be applied to the partial discharge of other certain existing unsecured indebtedness due and owing by the Parent Company and other members of the Borrower group”.

    The big question then, and now, is why were the taxpayers of Barbados paying debts (guaranteeing), both secured and unsecured, incurred by the developers? Including nearly BDD$10 million toward general and business expenses of this same Group. And another BDD$10 million towards resumption costs, when the project NEVER resumed?

    Even worse, we have no idea EXACTLY how these monies were ACTUALLY spent. All we know is the PROJECTED loan total, and that required to GUARANTEE the defaulted loans was BDD$120 million. Even the Auditor General has no idea how these monies were spent. Nothing for his office to audit!!! WHY? Clearwater Bay never submitted accounts which could be audited. And the Board of Directors of Clearwater Bay were SIX SENIOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, that we know of.

    And for those who expect the records to have vanished, ANSA MERCHANT Bank disbursed the funds. They have to know to whom they disbursed and how much. And who approved each disbursement.

  4. Hoadie Avatar
    Hoadie

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/12/18/state-enterprises-still-lax-on-financial-reporting/
    December 2020
    “It is a month shy of two years [now nearly 6 years] since the Public Finance Management Act has been passed in Parliament, but several state agencies are yet to present up-to-date financial statements, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn has told Barbados TODAY.

    But in giving an assurance that this and other objectives under the law were not lost on Government, Straughn reported that outstanding financial reporting of Government agencies will soon be presented”

    How many have been presented since December 2020.
    And note the Minister’s words, ‘under the law’. They know it’s the law.
    And the PM has the gall at her party’s annual conference to say something about ACCOUNTABILITY as being her first Beacon. Accountability, like Charity, begins at home. Begin displaying accountability and possibly the people will follow.

    You know you have a top class politician, when they can take, what some may contend is a major primary weakness, and throw it upon the people, as though they are a good example of compliance.

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    beaches.

    https://barbados.org/barbados-webcams.htm#google_vignette

  6. John Avatar
    John

    What is government hiding re:Clearwater Bay and Paradise Beach sale?

    Sixty plus years of fraud and theft dating from the days of EWB, the Father of Independence..

    That’s two to three generations, long time apparently his children are having to pay.

    EWB saw Paradise Beach Club, coveted it and used stole it using the law and lawyers.

    Exodus 20:17
    King James Version
    17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

    Still got another generation or two to resolve ….. unless the last part of the Bible comes into play and then the end will be quick!!

    Exodus 34:7
    King James Version
    7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    fool

  8. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    No Western government believes or ever believed that the wards of the state, as based in Blacks Law and the Uniform Commercial Code, have any right to what is done in their names.

    Modern day slaves, all!

    Cite, the whistle blower who just leaked two ‘above top secret’ documents, documents not even shared with all the members of the Five Eyes – USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – all White countries.

    What a connection with the settler-colonial war in West Asia which some idiots still believe to be about religion. They never explain how 20 percent of Palestinians are Christians within this fiction.

    These documents suggest the battle plan being made to attack Iran and aims to avoid WW3. Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson and other former intelligence types have concluded that the documents are genuine. Weeee accept their judgements.

    Certainly, the whistleblower has taken a leaf from the book of the late Daniel Ellsberg, a whistleblower himself around the war on Vietnam, who suggest that unlike him, disclosure are best made before starts.

    The criminal Zionist state which for decades has been in breach of American law relating to the supply of military materiel to a non-declared nuclear weapons state.

    A state, and the leaked documents, which remove the strategic ambiguity which Israel and America have always hid under as the fiction to avoid public disclosures and legal consequences.

    Therefore to expect Mia Mottley to not follow her masters, masters most here have never shown any committed to developing even the semblance of an anti-imperial, anti-colonial towards.

    As empire plunges to another military defeat and the total destruction of its aircraft carrier in West Asia, the so-called Israel, no one here will be in the least bit interested in the equities which the Russian Federation and China bring to the side of the Islamic Republic.

    The world hangs in the balance of total destruction on the alter of Whiteness and a presumed god given right for the most criminal amongst us to continue to commit genocide.

  9. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Anti-colonial critique of ……

  10. Mark My Word Avatar
    Mark My Word

    Every RH cent that belongs to NIS from this dirty deal must be forfeited from bag handlers, lawyers, friends, politicians, family and who hand went in the jar.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @NO

    Maybe the question was posed to Greg Hill at his interview for the top job at the Caribbean Development Bank.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    The PM has asked Barbadians to be the voices of accountability. Ryan Straughn are you listening or busy eating up on the cocktail circuit while pocketing per diems from taxpayers.

  13. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    David
    No way. To date, Ansa itself did nothing wrong, that I am aware of.
    And Ryan is a Karaoke star, Give me hope Jo’anna.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Four Seasons dilemma

    THERE IS A SCHOOL OF THOUGHT that it might have been better if construction on the local Four Seasons Hotel had never begun, since all the 110-room, 35-villa property basically did from 2005 to 2006 was spoil one of the most scenic and community-centred beach spots on the island, destroy a green monkey habitat and become a massive eyesore over the last two decades.

    While regret is nothing more than wishing away the impossible, the reality in this country is that there are many Barbadians who do not want to hear about Four Seasons. It is a global brand but from a local perspective, its name is mired in ignominy, reminding only of wasted money that could have been spent on improving the lot of poor people; its massive structure a silent sentinel to failure.

    That the announcement of its attempted revival by a new buyer has triggered mainly negative comments on social media is hardly surprising, as many now watch, hawk-eyed, to see whether this or any future Government will inject taxpayers’ money into its lifeless body once again.

    Equally importantly, Barbadians still wonder whether a former Government investment of $80 million from the National Insurance Fund into Four Seasons can ever be recouped.

    After the early excitement about future jobs and the joy of gaining a luxury international brand that was touted to be a boon to this tourism-based economy, there was the alarming discovery of alleged illegal Chinese labourers on the site back in 2007, followed by dark clouds of financial doubt hovering over those 32 acres of prime beachfront land around 2008.

    It was an unfortunate time following the dawn of the global recession, which sent the prices of properties in the United States and other places spiralling, with the domino effect touching potential investors and others who had paid down small percentages on the local villas.

    By mid-2009, therefore, more than 20 villas remained unsold, construction came to a grinding halt and Four Seasons withdrew its brand a year later.

    The relatively new Democratic Labour Party administration, which had come to office in 2008, got involved and, in return for a 20 per cent stake in the property, agreed to guarantee an 18-month loan of US$60 million (BDS$120 million) to Paradise Beach Ltd from ANSA Merchant Bank. Paradise Beach Ltd defaulted on the loan, however, leaving Government to repay the outstanding amount, plus interest, of over $124 million.

    According to the 2016 Auditor General’s Report, that amount was eventually brought to book in the Treasury as an account receivable. Yet, the hotel itself has remained the albatross that it has always been. And while it is now being taken off Government’s hands by Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Barbadians are resoundingly recalling that after repeated attempts to revive it, nothing positive has occurred as yet, particularly for this country’s taxpayers.

    Whether Government will totally wash its hands of the project this time or gamble again with the prospect of an opportunity to boost its visitor numbers, particularly in the high-end market, is left to be seen. Can it become part of an investment wave of new tourism plants that appears to be cresting with the Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lord’s Castle, the multimillion-dollar Pierhead Development Project and the Hyatt Hotel fronting Carlisle Bay?

    The opportunities are certainly tempting for any cash-strapped government in this period of economic uncertainty.

    Furthermore, Pendry Hotels & Resorts has been advertising its first international location on Barbados’ “platinum coast” in St Peter, featuring 74 newly-designed beachfront guest rooms, a private marina, signature dining, spas and activities for children.

    Indeed, Pendry has an impressive record in luxury hotel development in Mexico and the United States. However, based on the saga of this particular property that has changed hands with limited success from Cunard to Sandals to Paradise and Clearwater, and then lurched from one controversy to another in recent years, the risk likely from Government’s involvement seems great, even if the current administration would have learnt important lessons from the past.

    The opportunities are certainly tempting for any cash-strapped government in this period of economic uncertainty.

    Source: Nation Editorial

  15. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    The author should explain the “limited success” of which they write. The demolition of the original Paradise Beach Hotel? The paying of debt incurred by the developer by the Barbadian taxpayer? The sale of the collateral lands received for which the Auditor General couldn’t find a cent? The current unfinished concrete monstrosity which itself will require demolition? The local contractors, including the PM law practice, who were paid compliments of local taxpayers, instead of recording an uncollectible receivable (loss)?

    It seems the true opportunity exists for a specialist demolition contractor. Who can recoup value without ladening the already limited landfills.

The blogmaster invites you to join and add value to the discussion.

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