DEAR EDITOR:
The Antigua and Barbuda Government should privatize LIAT (1974) Ltd within Antigua and Barbuda and not seek a Caribbean partnership for LIAT. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.
The Antigua and Barbuda Government should get out of the airline business. The fact of the matter is that Governments are not good at running business, in particular airline business, and I think that Caribbean Governments should be no more than being facilitators of a future LIAT.
Giving the Barbados Government majority shareholding in LIAT was a big mistake. Let us not repeat that mistake.
LIAT is based in Antigua and Barbuda and mostly employs Antigua and Barbuda workers. I think LIAT can start small again and expand rapidly throughout the Caribbean, but the airline should be owned within the Antigua and Barbuda Private sector, and the Antigua and Barbuda Government should move quickly to engage the local Private Sector, and hand over LIAT with all its problems to the new owners.
A future LIAT should also be run by a Private Company and not go public until the appropriate time. A new LIAT will also have to move quickly to acquire ownership of real estate property – I mean own an office building – so that it can approach a local bank for financing, such as overdraft to carry it through the slow season, as required.
Caribbean Governments can then become facilitators by imposing reasonable landing fees and ticket taxes, if they really want to accommodate LIAT.
Once LIAT (1974) Ltd is being privatized and Government is out of the airline business, it will now be the responsibility of the new owners to reemploy former LIAT workers and assume responsibility for past severance and other compensation payments, as part of the deal.
There is no need for past severance liability to be settled before LIAT returns to operation under Privatization arrangements. Infact, former LIAT employees who are owed severance payments can be offered shares in the new airline as part of the liability. The most urgent thing now is for former LIAT employees to return to the job site, and start earning money as soon as possible (ASAP).
PAPA JACK
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2 responses to “Gov’t should privatize LIAT within Antigua and Barbuda”
Dear Papa Jack
If you were a former employee of LIAT, wouldn’t you want your legally entitlements: BACKPAY( monies already worked for?; your last salary; your vacation pay; your in lieu on notice pay?; and severance pay which should have been put aside for every worker?
When the shoe is on the foot is only when the Big Ups take notice and actually do something.
Laws and penalties change when the politicians fall victims.
To: Dear Papa Jack
Everything you say is correct. But, the reality is: the Antigua And Barbuda Government doesn’t have the money to settle the claims of former LIAT workers. Under present circumstances it looks like they will never get paid. Even if the Government changes, don’t fool yourself nothing is going to happen. The Government has been saying, and it is a fact that it should not have been a Government liability, but Government is willing to accept it as a moral obligation.
The reason why this problem arose in the first place was because LIAT was always a badly managed business for the following reasons:
1. LIAT never owned any fixed asset, except, maybe some fixtures and fittings and leased airplanes. LIAT never owned any land or building. No viable Company ever operates like that.
Every Company must have a relationship with a bank whereby they can apply for loans, overdraft etc. LIAT did not have that.
2. Every Company employing people must own some kind of assets that they can sell and pay off their workers, if that becomes necessary. The fact that LIAT was was in that category of Company speaks volumes about its mismanagement. It just doesn’t work like that in the Private Sector.
3. For so many years the Antigua and Barbuda Government kept on baling out LIAT with Millions and Millions of Dollars, until, finally they got fedup and gave Majority Shareholding to Barbados.
It’s time for the Antigua And Barbuda Government to throw in the towel on LIAT, and privatize it.