Imbert: Govt re-purposing loans to pay salaries

Colm Imbert -

Former Finance Minister and MP for Diego Martin North Colm Imbert claims the government froze a number of government loans meant for state enterprises, placed it in the government’s bank account, and will be using that to pay salaries for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Imbert was speaking at the People’s National Movement (PNM) public meeting at the Morvant Central Community Centre, Ciprani Street, Morvant.

In his over 20-minute address, Imbert said the former PNM-led government had accessed a number of loans to fund a number of projects such as Palo Seco Agricultural Enterprises’ serviced building lots for former Petrotrin workers in south Trinidad worth $200 million.

“Former Caroni workers got land. It was to give former Petrotrin workers land. That was what that loan was about,” Imbert said.

He listed a number of other loans such as one for the Land Settlement Agency for its housing and village improvement programme.

He described this as an innovative programme which would have seen shacks rebuilt, free of charge, into concrete structures. That loan was worth $150 million.

He added there was even a loan for Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) worth $350 million which also included a loan to do critical pipeline and pump-replacement projects.

There was also a loan for the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), he added.

“All of these loans had a purpose. The purpose was to pay off bills owed to contractors and continue critical government programmes,” he said.

The Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led government froze the loans, he said.

Imbert said he was not surprised by claims made earlier by San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation chairman Richard Walcott that the corporation was not given money for goods and services.

“They take all those loans, $1.3 billion in total,” he said.

Reading from a note, Imbert said, “Based on current liquidity levels, the government of Trinidad and Tobago’s ability to easily or readily access funds on the domestic market has been severely constrained.

“That is technical language for: the banks ain’t want to lend them no money.”

Imbert said the government took the $1.3 billion meant for school and housing construction as well as road paving and placed it in the government’s bank account to deal with a critical shortfall of money for the remaining two months of the year.

“Let me break this down for you, if the banks don’t want to lend them any money, what is causing that? Is it that the banks have no confidence in them?

“If you have all these financing arrangements for all these state enterprises that are critically needed…how are they paying that?”

He said the government was going to try to use this money to try to pay salaries in August and September.

This told him that the government has no money, he said.