Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley says his ministry is working feverishly to have contractor Al Barrack paid the more than $70 million owed to him.
Lashley has given the assurance that Government is not sitting back on the issue and every effort was made to have the matter resolved.“In fact, the late Prime Minister [David Thompson] had offered him the [Government] building in Warrens and he had said no. It is not that this Government was sitting back. At least we made an offer,” he said.
Barrack earlier this month gave Government an ultimatum, demanding to be paid what he was owed by the end of February, or Government would face more court action as the matter had been dragging on for too long.
In 2006, he was awarded the National Housing Corporation’s building on Country Road by the law courts after suing Government for what then was a $34 million debt for completion of the Warrens Office Complex.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Democratic Labour Party St Andrew constituency branch meeting at St Silas School on Sunday, Lashley said Government was currently negotiating with Barrack and his legal team to settle the debt.
“The Cabinet of Barbados instructed my ministry some . . . two months ago to go ahead and have the matter settled. We have to respect the rule of the law. There was a judgment and we have to satisfy the judgment,” he noted.
“That is the position. I am not going to ignore the court’s judgment. That is why we have been working feverishly to come to a position,” Lashley said. (ROG)
