Grenadians urged to accept sacrifices to rebuild economy – Mitchell

Peter Richards

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Friday July 4, 2014, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell Thursday urged support for a proposal seeking to reduce the debt owed to the National Insurance Scheme under the same terms and conditions being proposed to international creditors.

Mitchell, speaking to reporters here, said that while his administration is fully aware of the important role of the NIS the request for the haircut must be put in the context of the island seeking assistance to deal with its debt burden, “…we have also understood in the process of going forward with our structural adjustment programme and asking everyone regionally and internationally to help us and provide some haircut that we must in fact ask our own (to do the same).

“The question therefore is how do we go forward. So we will be working with the NIS…and the workers and unions and all concerned to ensure that nothing is done to reduce the capacity of the NIS to meet its fundamental responsibilities,” he said.

The Technical and Allied Workers Union (TAWU) has already said it would not support the government after Communications and Works Minister Gregory Bowen confirmed that the Mitchell administration would seek the haircut as part of debt restructuring initiative.

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The amount of money owed to the NIS has not been disclosed but it represents workers’ contributions the government has failed to pay over the years.

“Our union understands the fiscal difficulties faced by the State and the challenges that confront the country but the debt to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) cannot be equated to the debt to the commercial banks or other financial institutions,” TAWU said in a statement, adding that workers were already making great sacrifices by the payment of increased taxation as family income continues to fall and the unemployment rate continues to rise.

TAWU described the NIS as “sacred territory” and called on the called on the Grenada Trades Union Council (GTUC) “to resolutely resist all attempts to cut Government indebtedness to the NIS and this must be clearly understood by all”.

However, the business sector representative in the Senate Christopher De Allie believes that government is taking the right approach because it will be unfair to ask international creditors for a haircut and not local lenders.

“There is need to have equity with all lenders,” De Allie said.

Mitchell told reporters that the decision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a US$21.9 million structural adjustment programme for the island last week, would help in the payment of outstanding arrears to many creditors.

The government announced Thursday that the World Bank had already approved US$15 million for Grenada and Mitchell said “this is further evidence of the confidence of the international community in Grenada’s policies, especially as regarding the homegrown programme”.

He said one of the conditions for the funds to Grenada is that “we must pay some of the suppliers of services to our country which over the last two, three years have not been paid so a lot of business in the country have provided services to the government over the past two or three years and have not been paid”.

Mitchell said that some of these businesses have had to use overdraft facilities which are very expensive and “therefore we have to meet our responsibility.

“In doing so that will be a big plus for us because it will release some disposal income in the country as a whole and help businesses and others to take additional initiatives and expand economic opportunities in the country.

“So we will be paying off some of the local debt and some of our regional organisations like the Supreme Court of the OECS, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, the OECS Secretariat and a number of regional and international institutions that we have reneged on our responsibilities…”

Mitchell, who is attending the annual summit of the CARICOM leaders here, said his administration would also be establishing a number of programmes involving the private sector and the trade union including a housing programme to “’aid the development of house repair programme in the country and soft loans for people to expand their homes.

“In some cases looking at building low income houses for people…and there are many other programmes including small business development,” he told reporters.

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Grenadians urged to accept sacrifices to rebuild economy – Mitchell

Shaw: I"ll rebuild JLP, if elected leader

BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com

CHRISTIANA, Manchester — Audley Shaw has said that should he become leader of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), rebuilding the base of the party, which he suggests has been suffering neglect, would be high on his agenda.Shaw told his North East Manchester constituency delegates and hardcore supporters at a “consultation” late Wednesday, that workers and “foot soldiers” at the community level and leaders at the local level such as constituency and divisional caretakers needed special attention.Shaw said that those who had lost contests in the parliamentary elections of December 2011 as well as the local government elections in early 2012 had been ignored by the Andrew Holness-led JLP hierarchy.“Forty-two caretakers lost election in 2011, what have we done for them since we lost the elections?” asked Shaw.“We have lost all of the parish councils in the last parish council election; what are we doing for the councillor (divisional) caretakers? They are like lost sheep without a shepherd, they need assistance, they need mobilisation, they need encouragement,” he said.Wednesday night’s meeting at Holmwood Technical High School was described by Shaw as the first of several “consultations” to determine whether he will challenge Holness for leadership of the 70-year-old JLP later this year.His audience included chairman of the JLP’s Area Three, Winston Maragh, former member of parliament for North West Clarendon Michael Stern, as well as several divisional councillors and divisional caretakers, who all endorsed his candidacy.As part of the drive to build the community base of the party, Shaw said he would dedicate himself to the restoration of the party’s branch structure, which is the equivalent of the PNP’s group structure.“Jamaica Labour Party use to have a thing called branches, remember?” Shaw asked.“Branches are little gatherings in communities, all across Jamaica, where the MP can come, councillor can come and you sit down and you talk about policies, programmes…,” Shaw explained.Shaw, a long-standing deputy leader of the JLP and a member of parliament for 20 years, said the JLP needed more young people and women playing active roles in the party.“It is too male-dominated, we need more women candidates at all levels, parish council and constituency level, we need to include more women and more young people,” he said.Those selected for representation, he added, needed to be trained, as too often candidates selected ahead of elections were thrown off at the deep end to “sink or swim”.Linked to reorganisation of the party’s base, has to be reform of financing within the organisation, Shaw added.“We are talking about campaign finance reform for the country… but I am putting it to you that we need to have finance reform within the political party as well because it is not fair that one constituency can have all the resources they want… but the other one over there so, no money is there to run that constituency…,” he said.Shaw told his constituency faithful that his decision to “consult” on a challenge to Holness followed months of being “inundated… by people from all walks of life… from Morant Point to Negril Point, delegates, friends, observers, business people, academics, people say to me ‘wha happen Audley? are you a coward?’”He recalled that on two previous occasions when presented with the opportunity to contest the leadership he had backed away. Firstly, following the exit of Edward Seaga in 2005 and again in 2011 when a hopelessly embattled Bruce Golding resigned as party leader and prime minister.Shaw said that in 2005 “I looked around and I say ‘No, mek Bruce (Golding) gwaan’ because I said … although he had bucked his toe and formed another party and then come back, he had racked up a long history in the Labour Party as general secretary, as chairman, as minister. I say: ‘you buck you toe but gwaan’ and then in 2011 came time for change again, the majority of the members of parliament at the time felt that we should try someone else (Holness). And mi sey ‘gwaan’ because at all times … I have always put my party first and I have always put my country first”.He said the country now was in dire need of leadership, with the ruling PNP — which he described as “a wrecking crew” — failing in its stewardship which, he claimed, the PNP had consistently done on every occasion it had taken political power since the 1970s.Always, he said, the JLP had been the party to “save” the country following PNP failures. However, he said, to do that yet again the JLP must first win political power and having done so, couldn’t afford to be a one-term government.Shaw noted what he described as “hysteria” in sections of the JLP because of his proposed challenge.“We have heard unfortunate comments that have been made about me, which, if I had not indicated an interest at this time, those comments would never come and I have had to say … tone it down. I have had to tell them because somebody has to exercise leadership,” said Shaw.He said he was consulting with his colleague parliamentarians and would continue to do so, but stressed that “I am not asking any member of parliament to declare any support for me now. The time will come when you have an opportunity if you so desire…”Shaw ended his presentation by reading from his late father’s Bible, the first verse of Psalms 27: “The lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?…”Earlier, delegates from the floor and platform speakers expressed their “love” for Holness but said the JLP needed a “strong leader” like Shaw to combat the PNP.“We want a strong leader to match with PNP,” said delegate Wilbert ‘Gramps’ Bailey.Councillor Cherry Brown of the Grove Town Division claimed Holness was no match for PNP president and prime minister Portia Simpson Miller. “I love Andrew, but I notice everybody can rule him…,” she said. “Portia tell him fi call election, him call it…,” she said.According to Maragh: “I love Andrew Holness, but me love the Labour Party more…”Arguing that a “new direction is required”, Stern urged Labourites not to be “afraid of democracy”. If the challenge was managed properly by the party it would redound to the good of the party. It would even lead to a more united party, he said.

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Shaw: I"ll rebuild JLP, if elected leader