St. George’s, December 7, 2012 – Government’s sale of state properties and the divestment of some assets have been made official. For months, Finance Minister Nazim Burke has been evasive on the issue.
But now the government’s top public officer, Gemma Bain-Thomas, has confirmed that the administration of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas wants to sell the Drill Yard – a former ministry of works site – and other properties to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
NIS is a statutory corporation established in the 1980s by the former People’s Revolutionary Government.
“The important thing to note is that these things are being transferred to another state entity,’’ cabinet secretary Bain-Thomas said in reference to government’s arrangement with the NIS.
In a recent radio interview, Burke would only say that “we are in business with the NIS. The NIS is in business with us”.
Burke argued that it would not be right “to come on the air and speak about an investor’s portfolio. If you wish to find out from the NIS what they are doing and what they are investing ….these are matters that the investor is best suited to speak on”.
However, one media outfit – Caribupdate News – said it had obtained a document dated November 23 that listed properties government planned on selling to the NIS.
Then, at a December 3 public meeting of his New National Party, opposition leader Keith Mitchell said he also had a copy of the list of properties for sale.
Former Prime Minister Mitchell also claimed that the government “took 14 more million dollars from the National Insurance Scheme’’ to pay the November salaries of public workers.
Government, which is expected to call general elections within months, is seeking to raise some EC$100 million for recurrent expenditure and capital projects.
Bain-Thomas said that in the last two month, government had sold its shares in the Grenada Breweries Limited (GBL) and in LIME, the telecommunications company.
She said $4.35 million of government’s $11 million shares in LIME were sold, but did not give a dollar figure for the GBL transaction.
She disclosed that the properties up for sale included the former electoral office building on Woolwich Road; a site in Morne Jaloux that once housed a television station; and the former St. James hotel in St. George’s.
MP Peter David, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, has described the government’s action as conducting business behind the backs of the Grenadian people.
“What is upsetting about the way this sale apparently is being conducted is that it is being done behind the backs of the people. The government must come to the people to discuss the way forward,’’ said David, MP for the Town of St. George.
“The government must not be allowed to sell the people’s assets without discussing it in parliament. We do not know how much these assets are being sold for; we’ve not been told the background to the sale of these assets.’’
Like a majority of the country’s 15 MP, David wants parliament, which was prorogued in September, to be reconvened.
Parliament, he said, is the “ultimate manifestation of the people’s voice’’.
“The 15 of us in parliament represent the people of Grenada. Reopen the parliament so that a discussion can take place,’’ David demanded.
“The government seems to be worried, in my view, about its own survival rather than the survival of the Grenadian people.’’
David, who resigned from government in April, is a former general secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress and is serving his second consecutive parliament term.
He intends to run for a third term.
“I am not a member of a party now. For now, my role going forward is to continue to advocate for the people of the Town of St. George and also to advocate on behalf of the people of all of Grenada,’’ David said.
