Dawn Ritch, Contributor
THE CLUELESS Ph.D. in charge of the Ministry of Finance admits to illegally issuing nearly $20 billion of guarantees. Then he had the audacity to send not even the financial secretary, but the deputy financial secretary to report to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
Breaching the Financial Administration and Audit Act seems to have been an everyday occurrence for the past 13 years in Dr. Omar Davies' ministry. We can be sure that this $20 billion is just the start of the story, which is sure to be long like a shaggy dog's tail.
The morning after the admission, this newspaper ran a headline 'Unbelievable!'. It also said that the government official reporting the matter was "unperturbed".
The PAC chairman Audley Shaw, said in this special sitting, "We were not aware that in addition to deferred financing, you now had a creature called letters of undertaking and comfort letters." He said this without a trace of sarcasm or irony. It is amazing to think that Shaw has chaired this committee for so many years, and yet remained unaware.
The former Opposition leader Edward Seaga, said last week that we are due for another financial meltdown. I can't imagine why this realisation took him so long either. It makes one wonder how they both managed to occupy themselves in the House these past thirteen years. Were they in collusion not to have seen, or were they in the pocket of the government?
The deputy financial secretary told the House, "The wording, which is now used in these letters of undertaking, which previous to this were comfort letters has now assumed some significance in the way of giving a guarantee." This is the greatest gobbledegook ever uttered, and perfect for representing the minister of finance to the nation.
MORALLY BINDING
Regardless of what any of these letters are called, whether legally binding or not, they are all morally binding on the government for payment. A govern-ment can't be a little weasel here, and a big weasel over there on its word. The responsibility of sovereignty and a national flag cannot be shirked. So playing around with words in the House of Parliament can't change that, nor can it lessen the amount of liabilities faced. It's like being slightly pregnant.
The minister of finance is running out of control and during all this time Her Majesty's loyal Opposition has not applied the brakes, as is their constitutional role and obligation. Over the past month, the new Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader, Bruce Golding, has only had words to say about his parliamentary seat, and how soon he might or might not get it. Oppo-sition Leader, Dr. Ken Baugh, has also been noticeably silent.
The whole island is tumbling down around them, and they only want to address the Caribbean Court of Justice, CARICOM Single Market and Economy and resume the Vale Royal talks with the prime minister. The Opposition is content to spend a lifetime tweaking this piece of legislation and that one, recommending more legislation in fact, and yet they don't even know how to bark like a dog. Are they muzzled? It seems that talk show host Wilmot Perkins and my column 'Missing the real issues' have finally shamed them into asking some questions about these matters.
There are no issues more important to a country than its fiscal probity and public order.
The government official deputising on the former was almost truculent in the PAC sitting.
He said the ministry hadn't been asked to report on all the government's outstanding guarantees and undertakings. This forced the PAC chairman to consult Hansard of the previous week and prove the official wrong. What a mess!
Among the public entities said to have received letters of undertaking was the Development Bank of Jamaica, which got the lion's share, or $4.2 billion. Although I shouldn't be interested, I can't help but wonder what the money was for. The country's private and public pension funds built Highway 2000, on which we must now pay tolls and love progress. But what was the $4.2 billion for?
CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
And what about the $15.82 billion worth of public bonds and the US$176.9 million that was raised, but never found their way into the Consolidated Fund in 2004 as is constitutionally required. Neither the Ministry of Finance nor the Bank of Jamaica has supplied the information to the auditor general so that the proceeds can be verified.
That too is guaranteed because it was raised in the government's name from depositors.
Then there's Air Jamaica, and God knows what else. Dr. Davies needs to continue to count up these sums of money as a matter of utmost urgency and in the national interest. Tax payers have a right to know their liabilities, even if nobody asked their permission through Parliament to create them.
Then there's the simmering squabble going on between the Financial Services Commission and the Jamaica Stock Exchange. It concerns which of the two public authorities is accountable to the nation for the unforeseen collapse of Dyoll. And what sanctions if any exist for insider trading, and who should bail it out if any, and with what authority were its Jamaican insurance policies sold by private tender to a third party? Neither entity seems much perturbed either, even though they are mumbling and bumbling along in good standard English to the detriment of those not in-the-know.
There is no hand on the tiller, no captain on the bridge. When the Finance Ministry itself admits to breaking the law, where can it end?
