On July 30, 2021 the ABLP Administration secretly borrowed $540 Million dollars using a 10 year bond. They neither announced the bond to the public nor debated it in Parliament. At 4% annual interest, this bond will cost the tax payers $216 million.
Despite the ABLP Administration’s receipt of this $540 million, the people of Antigua and Barbuda were left vulnerable and unprotected, with no relief, no back pay, no severance payments, no pay increases, no fuel subsidy, no protection from rising food prices and continued late pensions.
In the heart of the pandemic, governments across the OECS and the wider Caribbean cut fuel taxes, reduced import charges, controlled the prices of basic goods, increased direct support to those most in need and helped with utility bills. Antiguans and Barbudans got nothing.
The ABLP Administration MUST answer The People’s questions:
1. Why did the Government hide the loan from the public by refusing to announce or debate it in Parliament?
2. How was the $540 million spent?
3. Why are people still without meaningful relief, with government workers and Government contractors still waiting on moneys owed to them, after such massive borrowing?
4. Why is our main hospital still short of materials after such massive borrowing?
5. Why are pensioners and other beneficiaries still receiving late payments after such massive borrowing?
While we wonder what became of the previous borrowing, the ABLP administration is currently trying to borrow another $540 million dollars, using a new bond.
Is this a desperate attempt to mitigate their 26 failed projects and the corresponding loss of jobs and economic opportunities?
We The People demand answers and accountability!
