JESSE RAMDEO

Se­nior Re­porter

For­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Diego Mar­tin North/East, Colm Im­bert, is claim­ing that Gov­ern­ment has di­vert­ed more than $1.3 bil­lion in loans orig­i­nal­ly ear­marked for key state agen­cies to pay salaries and meet short­falls in ex­pen­di­ture.

At a po­lit­i­cal meet­ing at the Mor­vant Cen­tral Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Tues­day night, the for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter ac­cused the gov­ern­ment of fi­nan­cial mis­man­age­ment.

The Diego Mar­tin North/East MP says he had ac­cess to a re­cent Cab­i­net Note seek­ing ap­proval for the trans­fer of 16 loans, val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly $1.3 bil­lion, to the fi­nance min­istry.

He as­serts the cur­rent fi­nance min­is­ter will use those funds to cov­er the gov­ern­ment’s fi­nan­cial needs for the re­main­der of the fis­cal year—in­clud­ing pay­ing pub­lic sec­tor salaries for Au­gust and Sep­tem­ber.

“What this Note is say­ing is that they can't bor­row mon­ey be­cause the banks don't want to give them any mon­ey,” the for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter claimed. “So, they take the whole $1.3 bil­lion—all the loans for school con­struc­tion, hous­ing, road paving—they take all and put it in­to the gov­ern­ment bank ac­count. You know what for? To deal with a crit­i­cal short­fall of mon­ey for the re­main­ing two months of the year.”

MP Im­bert al­so ques­tioned the cir­cum­stances that could have con­tributed to the res­ig­na­tion of First Cit­i­zens Group CEO, Karen Dar­basie.

“You re­al­ly have to won­der whether the de­par­ture—the forced de­par­ture—of the CEO of First Cit­i­zens Bank is be­cause she did not want to go over her lim­it,” the for­mer fi­nance min­is­ter said.

“She didn't want to breach the Cen­tral Bank reg­u­la­tions, and they were de­mand­ing that she give them bil­lions of dol­lars in mon­ey and she couldn't do it. She would have lost her job,” he said. “You have to won­der.”

In re­sponse, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo de­fend­ed the gov­ern­ment’s fis­cal man­age­ment and dis­missed Im­bert’s claims as “po­lit­i­cal mis­chief.”

He told Guardian Me­dia that cit­i­zens can ex­pect noth­ing pos­i­tive from the Op­po­si­tion, say­ing: “They are fight­ing every ini­tia­tive from the ad­min­is­tra­tion to tack­le crime and im­prove cit­i­zens’ lives.”