DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

For­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Vas­ant Bharath, has ex­pressed shock over what he calls “deep de­cep­tion” by the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) ad­min­is­tra­tion re­gard­ing the true fi­nan­cial state of Caribbean Air­lines (CAL).

He was com­ment­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s rev­e­la­tion on Thurs­day that CAL has a $260 mil­lion loan which has been rolled over mul­ti­ple times with­out a sin­gle pay­ment be­ing made.

He called the sit­u­a­tion a fail­ure in fi­nan­cial man­age­ment and a ne­glect of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to the pub­lic.

“A $260 mil­lion loan, re­peat­ed­ly rolled over with­out a sin­gle cent re­paid, is not mere­ly poor fi­nan­cial plan­ning—it is a dere­lic­tion of fidu­cia­ry du­ty. Worse yet, the de­lib­er­ate mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the air­line’s eco­nom­ic health to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go amounts to a be­tray­al of pub­lic trust.

“As a for­mer min­is­ter of gov­ern­ment with di­rect re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the over­sight of CAL, I am ap­palled by the depths of de­cep­tion that have now come to light. For too long, it ap­pears, the for­mer board of Caribbean Air­lines paint­ed a false pic­ture of pros­per­i­ty and progress, while con­ceal­ing a grow­ing fi­nan­cial cri­sis from the pub­lic,” Bharath said.

Bharath point­ed to fig­ures pre­vi­ous­ly dis­closed by for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, re­veal­ing that CAL’s op­er­at­ing prof­it plum­met­ed by 51 per cent in 2024, com­pared to earn­ings of US$24.7 mil­lion in 2023. That drop fol­lows ear­li­er re­port­ed loss­es of US$36.7 mil­lion in 2022.

He fur­ther ac­cused Im­bert of be­ing more con­cerned with spin­ning a nar­ra­tive than with stew­ard­ship.

How­ev­er, dur­ing his tenure, then-fi­nance min­is­ter Im­bert con­sis­tent­ly main­tained that CAL re­ceived sub­stan­tial gov­ern­ment sup­port in ser­vic­ing its debt. In 2024, the then cab­i­net ap­proved a $205 mil­lion debt write-off for CAL, clear­ing its out­stand­ing bal­ance with the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AATT).

Im­bert, when con­tact­ed, did not wish to re­spond.

Nev­er­the­less, Bharath called for greater ac­count­abil­i­ty at the air­line and praised the Prime Min­is­ter for her “de­ci­sive ac­tion” which he said re­flects a com­mit­ment to good gov­er­nance, trans­paren­cy, and re­spon­si­ble lead­er­ship.

“We must nev­er again al­low in­sti­tu­tions of na­tion­al im­por­tance to be­come play­grounds for po­lit­i­cal de­cep­tion and fi­nan­cial reck­less­ness. The era of emp­ty pro­pa­gan­da must end, and the work of na­tion-build­ing—root­ed in hon­esty and ac­count­abil­i­ty—must take prece­dence.”

Guardian Me­dia reached out to the Prime Min­is­ter, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo, and ex­ec­u­tives at CAL for com­ment on the sta­tus of the loan but there were no re­spons­es up to late yes­ter­day evening.