CARIBARENA Antigua & Barbuda

The Antigua and Barbuda government has dismissed suggestions that it is being forced to sell off state-agencies, such as the State Insurance Corporation (SIC), by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Finance and Economy Minister Harold Lovell said that the planned divestment of SIC forms part of the governing United Progress Party’s (UPP) platform commitment detailed in the 2009 election manifesto.

“Recently I’ve heard people saying that this is an IMF condition and this is something that the IMF is forcing us to do. I just want to make that absolutely clear, this is not an IMF condition. This is something that we sat down and we hammered out and we felt that this was the way to go,” Lovell said on the State-owned ABS television on Monday night.

Last weekend, leader of the main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP), Lester Bird, accused the Baldwin Spencer government of being “hell-bent on taxing the people and selling-off state enterprises”.

Bird, a former prime minister, said that the party would join with citizens to protest the policies of the government.

“The Labour Party holds the view that the UPP’s policies of high taxation and selling-off assets belonging to the people are wrong. The selling-off of State Insurance Corporation in a deal that started secretly months ago is especially troubling,” Bird said.

He said that the workers at SIC and their union are right to demand answers and assurances.

“They and the rest of the country are also right to reject the sham consultations that the UPP regime is now setting-up on this issue. It is evident that they have already done the deal, and like they do everything else, they will force it on the country,” he said.

Bird said that the UPP should not have engaged the IMF, especially since the administration was not given a mandate by the people to do so.

But Lovell told television viewers that the government regards the divestment programme “as a step which is consistent with the position that we put forward prior to the 2009 election and it is the platform on which were elected.

“Many times people will say that politicians make promises and don’t keep them. Well, here it is that we are going about keeping one of the promises and it wasn’t just a promise, it is the promise that is on the front of the manifesto.”

The Finance Minister said that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the finance arm of the World Bank will assist the government on the best way forward in the divestment programme.

“…they will look at the State Insurance Corporation, they will assess its profitability, they will look at it from all angles. At the same time their mandate is to provide the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda with a menu of strategic options. When they have provided us with the menu of strategic options…then the Cabinet will be in a position to say which one works best for Antigua and Barbuda.”

 

< Prev		Next >