FIRST let me say right away that producing a column every week is no hardship to me. I wish Dr. Omar Davies, Finance Minister, could say the same about the performance of his duties to the nation.
Dr. Davies accused me in a letter to the Editor, of being fascinated with him. He says it is "...impossible for me to do a column without (him) being the central figure," and pronounces himself fascinated and amused by this. I'm sorry to disappoint Dr. Davies, but my fascination is not with him personally, but with his actions in carrying out his constitutional role.
It is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance to protect the country's finances from reckless incursion and squander. Only Dr. Davies has that constitutional duty, and it is one that, in my opinion, he has repeatedly and shamefully neglected, and held himself unaccountable for doing so. Under his watch, he:
Failed in his fiduciary responsibility as Minister of Finance to protect the financial resources of the country by not providing proper supervision or conditionalities when funds were allocated to Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Industry and Technology. This resulted in the mismanagement of the Intech funds. To date there has been no comment from the Minister of Finance, but an additional $7 million is to be paid out to NetServ. Has Dr. Davies approved this additional expenditure?
Turned a blind eye to the colossal waste of poor people's money when Dr. Karl Blythe, Minister of Water and Housing, ignored the Cabinet's decision to go through the Contractor General. We are now being told by Audley Shaw that this resulted in cost over-runs and overpayment to their political contractors. This apparently caused massive increases in the cost of housing solutions for the poor, to be shared by already overburdened taxpayers.
Lied about no new taxes, then the offensive electricity tax was imposed which is a clear case of double-taxation, since this is already covered in land development cost and property taxes.
Tries to weasel out of his collective responsibility for the devaluation of the Jamaica dollar from $5.50. to $48.00 by suggesting it did not happen on his watch. Next he simultaneously points out that he is propping up the exchange rate at $48 to US$1, although he is doing so at the recent cost of borrowing at almost 13 per cent to build up his Net International Reserves some of which is earning less than 2 per cent in short-term United States Government paper. Nations go quickly bankrupt from housekeeping such as this.
Having encouraged the banking sector to invest in the development of the country Dr. Davies then introduced his high interest rate policy which made it impossible for borrowers to repay their debts. Now Dr. Davies has the nerve to criticise roundly those few banks which still remain, for being "risk averse", and urge them to start finding projects to invest in.
These are some of the things Dr. Davies describes as "figments of my imagination" and "comic relief". No doubt as fictitious and as funny as his taunts of Opposition Leader Edward Seaga and Opposition Spokesman on Finance, Audley Shaw, in Parliament about their FINSAC indebtedness. This he dares me prove, as though he forgets he was on television, large as life, for the entire country to see and hear.
Dr. Davies said in his letter that it was an irony that he has "resolutely opposed" publishing "a full list of those who had contributed to the (FINSAC) bad loans portfolio", although he had, he says, "various reasons" for opposing it. Could one of them have been avoiding publication of the write-offs and indebtedness of politicians?
He also stated "...it would be useful, if she, for a change would carry out some research to identify what percentage of the BoJ's bonds issued on the external capital markets are held by locals".
By that I take Dr. Davies to mean that he is fine about locals buying Jamaican Government debt externally, but no longer is he fine about them doing so internally. Why else would he have insulted the few remaining commercial banks for buying Government paper? He said they were lazy, and that he wasn't going to be a 'boops' for them any longer. Wait until he starts feeling the same way about the Bank of Jamaica bonds issued on the external capital markets, and otherwise known as more sovereign Jamaican debt.
Let the record show that Dr. Davies is the person who was Finance Minister in Jamaica where, since 1998, 90 per cent of the credit in the island goes to the public sector. He is the only one doing the borrowing, and now he is ridiculing the local banks for lending to him.
While the economy of the country is going to hell Dr. Davies sits idly basking in the flattery of his "friends" at the international lending agencies, without realising that for some, when a Finance Minister is called 'Houdini' it is not a compliment. He only surfaces from time to time to borrow more money to put us deeper in debt, or to criticise me for pointing out his shortcomings.
So who are we to blame for the desperate financial state of the country?
Who:
Caused the meltdown of the financial sector when, in my opinion, it could have been put right by a change in interest rate policy, and at a cost of a fraction of the FINSAC debt?
Gave Paulwell access to the Intech Fund without ensuring proper management and procedures to prevent waste and corruption?
Ignored Blythe's antics in the award and supervision of contracts under Operation PRIDE, resulting in the waste of billions of dollars of public funds?
Presided over the most massive devaluation of the Jamaican dollar in its history?
Drowned Jamaica in debt (now at 150 per cent of total output), then tells us that we will be repaying the debts he has run up for generations to come?
You, Dr. Davies and only you. So who am I to criticise and hold you responsible, Dr. Davies? Don't talk nonsense man, you had better learn to like it, because there is more to come.
