Edmond Campbell, News Coordinator

THE ASSOCIATION of FINSAC'd Entrepreneurs Limited has agreed with former finance minister, Dr Omar Davies that current finance minister Audley Shaw should not take part in a commission of enquiry into the operations of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC).

In a release yesterday, the association said: "In the interest of transparency we agree that Minister Shaw ought to recuse himself from participating in the inquiry, however, we do not view Minister Shaw disparagingly for his company having been FINSAC'd".

Shaw, responding to Davies' claim that he did not have the moral authority to oversee the proposed enquiry, said yesterday that as minister of finance and the public service he would "have no involvement in the conduct of the enquiry".

No conflict of interest

However, he argued that a conflict of interest could only arise in relation to any of the commissioners hearing the matter.

"Therefore, the call by Dr Davies for me to recuse myself from the process is redundant and is obviously motivated by pique," Shaw said in a release.

At a press conference on Thursday, Davies charged that four current Cabinet ministers, including Shaw, had their bad loans acquired by FINSAC because of their failure to service their debts.

Hitting back yesterday, Shaw accused his predecessor of attempting to "conceal his significant share of the blame for the collapse of the financial sector and the misery it has brought to many hardworking Jamaicans".

He said in the release: "So catastrophic were the consequences of his government's ruinous policies that Jamaicans of different economic strata and political persuasions were caught in its holocaust."

But speaking to The Gleaner yesterday, the finance minister sought to set the record straight, arguing that, "it wasn't a personal loan, to use Dr Davies' irresponsible language, it was a company of which I was a director".

In his release, Shaw said it was "churlish and self-serving" for Davies to target Cabinet ministers who might have been affected by FINSAC.

According to the finance minister, the Integrity Commission was informed of his indebtedness and was subsequently advised of the settlement.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com