COOL IT!

by TREVOR YEARWOOD

BUILDING CONTRACTOR Al Barrack will get his money from Government, but exactly when remains unclear.

"He will definitely be paid," Prime Minister David Thompson told the DAILY NATION yesterday.

"There has never been an occasion when the Government of Barbados has had an obligation that it has not eventually paid."

He said Government was "trying to find the resources" to pay the contractor the millions of dollars it owes "against a background of a severe economic crisis" across the world which has adversely impacted Barbados.

Barrack has been in a militant mood, threatening to seize Government property because of the non-payment of a more than $60 million debt triggered by an arbitration award over his role in constructing the Government's office complex in Warrens, St Michael.

Thompson said that paying Barrack had never been an issue with his Government, which inherited the debt when the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) left office in January, 2008.

"From the time I came to office, despite the fact that Government had a recommendation to appeal the National Housing Corporation arbitration, I said both to the lawyers and to the others that we need to bring this matter to an end and, just as foreigners have come here and, despite objections, been paid for the work which has been done, Mr Barrack should be paid," he said.

"I asked them to pursue a settlement and I said that if we can come to an agreement that is reasonable and fair in the circumstances, that Government would seek to find the resources to pay him."

Thompson took the position that if the matter went on appeal "or if the process was prolonged", it simply would cost Government more "and the taxpayers of this country at the end of the day will suffer".

Some headway had been made, with Barrack being paid "a small amount" some months ago as an act of good faith, Thompson reported.

Thompson appealed to Barrack to be reasonable.

"I believe that he needs to cool his passion and cool his temper and direct his anger at the people who put him in the position which he is in and not at the Democratic Labour Party, which is trying to solve this problem," the Prime Minister said.