Opposition Leader Mia Mottley wants to know why the fact that Barbados will not earn a loan from the World Bank unless it enters into an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement was hidden from the entire population until Thursday night.Mottley asked the question yesterday in response to the revelation by Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Senator Darcy Boyce, during a press conference in which he revealed Barbados was not getting a loan from the international body because it wanted the country to be part of an IMF programme.“Barbadians must ask why we are only now learning that the World Bank will not lend the country money unless we enter into an IMF programme,” the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) leader said yesterday. “We only learnt this by chance because of a question posed to Senator Boyce last night [Thursday] on the funding for the Government’s Medium Term Fiscal Strategy. What does this say about the World Bank’s view of our economy?” Mottley asked.According to Mottley, Government has, by its own actions, already abandoned its Medium Term Fiscal Strategy.“They have not secured the funding on which the plan was premised. The public is still waiting on Senator Boyce to make a clear statement on the economic issues affecting us all and to give clear direction on where the Government wants to take it,” Mottley noted. The BLP head added that Thursday night’s Press conference left Barbadians with more questions than answers.Regarding the controversial CLICO issue, Mottley claimed that the Barbados Government had no protection in place for policyholders and investors in CLICO since the life of the Oversight Committee ended six weeks ago. “For Senator Boyce to say that there is a Supervisor of Insurance in place is to ignore the fact that there was a supervisor in place when the committee was appointed. “We must remember that the only real official information the public has received on CLICO has come from the chairman of the committee. He has now been silenced,” the Opposition Leader claimed. Mottley believes that people who deposited their money will now be confused after listening to Boyce as to whether they will get back their money as the Prime Minister and the Governor of the Central Bank had promised.Concerning the economy, Mottley said that Boyce’s telling the country that debt went up by $2.5 billion in 14 years, but not saying it went up $1.8 billion in the past two years, was equivalent to pulling wool over people’s eyes, and downplayed the present mismanagement of the economy. She concluded that Senator’s Boyce’s presentation was an insult to the intelligence of all Barbadians, as he was “waffling, indecisive, testy, and even arrogant”. (BA)
