Welcomes publication of FINSAC archives

The Jamaica Labour Party (LJP) says it welcomes the publication of the FINSAC archives as a demonstration of openness and transparency.

It says the archives are a stark reminder that “irregular and highly improper” multi-million dollar deals “similar to those arrived at between the former PNP administration and politically connected persons, including a financial institution which was owned and operated Mark Gokding and Peter Bunting, should never be allowed to reoccur”.

“The FINSAC era, which was characterised by a high interest-rate policy of the former PNP administration, resulted in the Jamaican economy being brought to its knees and many businesses ravaged. The FINSAC era saw the national debt skyrocket and wiped out the investments and savings of thousands of hardworking Jamaicans, including entrepreneurs,” party spokesman Marlon Morgan says.

Having regard to the contents of the FINSAC Commission of Inquiry archives, the Jamaica Labour Party recalls the findings of the then Office of the Contractor General (OCG), when that anti-corruption body investigated alleged sweetheart deals and private placements involving the former PNP administration and the financial institution owned and operated by Mark Golding and Peter Bunting.

Morgan recalls that the deals were inked during a period when thousands of Jamaicans suffered and grappled with the ravages of the FINSAC debacle over which the PNP presided, and at a time when many families were reeling from the loss of loved ones who “committed suicide due to the pressures brought on them by the PNP’s destructive policies”.

The OCG had described as “irregular and highly improper” a multi-million dollar transaction involving Bunting and Golding’s company and the PNP administration. The anti-corruption agency also went on to note how the deal was facilitated and said it was concerned about use of “a corruption enabling device which can be utilized by unscrupulous Public Officials to direct contracts to connected individuals.”

Morgan says the PNP should be held accountable for their policies which set back the Jamaican economy by almost thirty years.

“The Jamaica Labour Party is confident that the current administration has done the work to strengthen our financial institutions, sustain macroeconomic stability, secure the platform to further accelerate and push toward economic growth. It is extremely important that as a country, Jamaica learns from the missteps of the past, and not allow a repeat of destructive PNP policies, as we saw during the mid to late 1990s,” Morgan says.