Leave Social Security money alone! That's what the Opposition said in a statement issued today. As we've been reporting, on Friday, after a direct request by the Prime Minister, the Board approved, with an 8 to 1 vote, to lend Sunshine Holdings Limited $10 million, a company registered at Michael Ashcroft's North Front Street Headquarters.
Today Opposition Leader Dean Barrow called on the Social Security Board of Directors to rescind the loan. He told us that government is using Social Security money to bail itself out.
Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
"We are calling on the Board to retract its approval, and we're calling on the government, in anyway case, not to proceed with the transaction. The BTL workers, for whom supposedly all this is being done, have themselves rejected the transaction and rejected the transaction in the clearest possible terms. What is happening, as I believe we all know, is that government needs the money to make a loan repayment abroad. The Social Security Board's lawyer has given his legal opinion that the transaction is not, and cannot be, in the best interest of SSB. We don't care what the Prime Minister said to the members of the SSB Board, we don't care how much of a problem the government has with its loan commitments abroad, this transaction has got to be retracted.
I can't understand why the Board did not simply say to the Prime Minister, 'but the urgency of the situation is an urgency of your creation, the entire mess that you are in abroad is a matter of your making, why on earth now should you ask us, supposedly in the national interest, to raid the workers' fund to bail you out.'"
Jules Vasquez,
How would you answer the criticism, which will no doubt be leveled by those sympathetic to Mr. Ashcroft, including those in government, that you all are just being difficult---this is the way of the world, there is no ulterior motive, this is a trust company which will hold the shares in trust for and on behalf of the workers, it is theirs, this is just the vehicle. What is the big deal? What is all the noise about?
Dean Barrow,
"Why is it then, I would respond, that the persons who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of this trust vehicle have rejected the vehicle, and have rejected the transaction."
