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LIAT Administrator provides further clarity on issues with Barbados and St. Vincent

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LIAT Administrator Cleveland Seaforth has provided further clarity on the issues with Barbados and St. Vincent, which forced the carrier to cancel flights to those countries mere days after it restarted limited services.

Seaforth spoke with state media in Antigua Tuesday evening.

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9 responses to “LIAT Administrator provides further clarity on issues with Barbados and St. Vincent”

  1. I don’t get CARICOM and why we joined. I also don’t get why we stay. What do we get, besides mass migration of these countries poor to our shores? Barbados always want everything for themselves. All regional institutions are in another country. We try to save LIAT and its roadblocks. They tried to block UWI as well. We are not to have anything I guess.
    If they, CARICOM, can help in this though, hurray. I still say we need to get out. We import their goods but maybe we should go State side.
    For all they know, LIAT, might still fail but they can’t risk Antigua possibly succeeding

    • Barbados DID NOT try to block UWI and you know that’s LIE. If you’re going to criticize bring facts to prove your allegations, rather than tell lies because you may hate the island.

      I also want you to tell me what is it that Barbados always want for themselves?

  2. If you are going to judge Prime Minister Mia Motley of Barbados, you need to know that she is a new prime minister, and only became Prime Minister after her Barbados Labor Party made a clean sweep of the polls in the General Election on 25th May, 2018. You must also know that her government inherited tremendous financial challenges from her predecessor, and had to immediately run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) upon assuming office.

    Her predecessor was the administration that bought the majority shareholding in LIAT, 1974. She had nothing to do with it. There is a saying that Government is continuous, and we know that. But, different political parties in a country may not support the same policies. The Barbados Labor Party clearly has no interest in taking on LIAT’S present troubles. Prime Minister Motley clearly has other urgent domestic priorities to deal with, and cannot be bothered at this time. But, there may also be legal and other technical issues that have led up to the present impasse in Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados relations. I think we need to tread cautiously.

    When it comes to the broader CARICOM regional integration movement, you have to be aware that in an economic integration movement there are going to be winners and losers. Antigua and Barbuda has to accept full blame for not gaining more from the regional integration movement: in this kind of relationship, you have to demand what you want before you sign off on documents. But, what have we been doing over the years: just attending meetings and signing documents and not demanding anything, as if we are a CARICOM colony and not an independent state. Besides, as a nation and country, we have never developed any kind of export products. We were always contented to depend on tourism alone. Also, our voters have failed to hold governments to account for our lack of progress in several spheres.

    So, we have gotten out of CARICOM what we deserved: nothing. On the LIAT issue, our biggest mistake was that we should never have allowed Barbados to obtain the majority shareholding (equity capital) in LIAT, knowing that so many of our people were employed by that airline, and the likely devastating consequences of any collapse. I think we simply trusted the Bajans too much. Nevertheless, I believe there might have been compelling reasons for so doing at the time.

    In addition to all that has been said above, I think LIAT’S biggest problem was perennial bad management: how can you ever run any business successfully, if you are renting and leasing all of your physical assets? Just to tell you that all those high profile Chairmen and CEO the Shareholder Governments had hired were just damn unqualified for the jobs given to them.

    • Barbados pumped millions of taxpayers’ money into LIAT over the years, only for successive Antiguan prime ministers to oppose every plan to re-organise or restructure the airline to make it profitable. Barbados guaranteed the debt form the CDB to buy new aircraft. When the air came begging cap in hand, all the other islands, including Antigua, always looked towards Barbados to put the most money.

      I guess this is the thanks Barbados gets for being the main financial supporter of LIAT. When the money was flowing, you trusted the Bajans. Now the Bajan taxpayer well has closed, you simply trusted Bajans too much.

      • You are misinterpreting me. We trusted the Bajans too much by having allowed them to obtain a majority shareholding stake in LIAT. We are now living the consequences of that decision.

        Barbados was actually a late comer to LIAT: study the history. Antigua and Barbuda historically, and traditionally, had been the controlling shareholder and main financial provider to LIAT. So many times in the past, Antigua and Barbuda Governments of both main political parties have bailed out LIAT before Barbados came on the scene.

        At one point, Barbados even envied Antigua and Barbuda for having two (2) airlines based here, and they had none. But, once they they acquired the majority shareholding in LIAT, they installed their own very top-heavy, highly paid, but inexperienced, Board of Directors and Management Team, and moved the Commercial Department to Barbados. These actions drained all the remaining financial lifeblood out of LIAT.

        But, as I said, the present Barbados administration had nothing to do with it. The Barbados Government led by Prime Minister Mia Motley only assumed office on 25th May, 2018, and is determined to clean up the financial mess left behind by her predecessor. She is not to be blamed for anything.

        • Could you please tell me when Barbados envied Antigua and Barbuda for having two airlines based there and they had none?

          I’ll remind you there were Caribbean Airways, Air Calypso, Trans Island Air, Caribbean Air Cargo, REDjet, Carib Express and Tropic Air, all based in Barbados.

          Did Barbados invite itself to be a shareholder in LIAT?

          And you’re wrong about the Board of Directors and how they were chosen.

          You’re essentially suggesting Barbados made unilateral decisions to “install their own Board of Directors and management team.” How could this be the case when the number of each shareholder island’s directors are chaosen according to the shareholding?

          Barbadian Jean Holder was the long standing chairman, who was not chosen by Barbados, but voted for by the other board members.

          Other than Julie Reifer-Jones, how many of LIAT’s CEOs were Barbadian?

          How many directors each shareholder island was allowed on the Board?

          How were managers chosen? Were they chosen by Barbados or was there a collective process and ratification by the Board?

          You’re commenting based on what you think, not on what you know. I’ll advise you to do some more research on LIAT and we could have a rational discussion, rather than one based on emotion.

  3. During the time when both Caribbean Star and LIAT were based in Antigua and Barbuda, before Barbados came into LIAT, a former Prime Minister of Barbados said to Antigua and Barbuda publicly: “you have two (2) airlines, give us one”. That was a statement of envy.

    All Caribbean countries were eligible to become shareholders in LIAT, and Barbados was a Minority Shareholder for some time.

    After Barbados became the Majority Shareholder in LIAT they had the power to control the airline, and they did: They had the Chairman; Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Chief Financial Officer (CFO); Chief Operating Officer (COO); and, Other Chiefs. ‘There were more Chiefs than Indians’. Plus, the Commercial Department, which still needs to be properly audited, or investigated, was transferred to Barbados. They controlled the spending of LIAT’S money.

    Finally, they installed their Former Ex Great Prime Minister, with absolutely no prior business experience, as the last Chairman of LIAT. When he discovered that his ‘Mission’ to rescue LIAT had failed, he got a Heart Attack.

    You probably never studied Company Law, but I did a Final Year Company Law Course in the Faculty of Law in Barbados in the 1980’S. And, let me tell you: the Majority Shareholder in a Company holds all the power. And, there is something in Company Law called the ‘Oppression of the Minority’: that’s exactly what Barbados did to us in LIAT: Oppressed Us, the Minority. Shame! Shame! Shame!

    Nevertheless, I still want Barbados to be our Friend: although they think they are big, and called themselves ‘Little England’, they ultimately belong to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Grouping in CARICOM. Not because I just put them on trial: I Love Barbados and Barbadians. Together, we are one people in the OECS. But, when Barbados comes into the OECS they will come on our terms, not theirs. Guadeloupe and Martinique, ultimately, belong to the OECS too. You just please calm down, we are one (1) family.

  4. I guess you did a final year medical course at UWI and know the circumstances surrounding Arthur’s death to state with authority, he died of a heart attack because, according to you, “his mission to rescue LIAT failed.” You would’ve learnt from other law courses what you spewed is ‘hearsay.’

    How do you know Arthur did not have “absolutely no prior business experience?” And, you’re talking about a man who oversaw every aspect of the Barbados economy for 14 years.

    Barbados has been described by the British as ‘Little England’ from as far back as the 1700s.

    My friend, completing a final year company law course at UWI does not mean you studied company law. You did not. Mentioning that was meant to shut down the discussion and imply you know and I don’t. Do you know the construct of LIAT shareholders’ agreement? How does ‘Oppression of the Minority’ becomes relevant in circumstances where a minority shareholder opposed every recommendation to restructure LIAT, or taking it upon himself to negotiate with Sir Richard Branson to invest in LIAT, or making several other decisions, unknown to the other shareholders, hoping they would agree after the fact? Is that “Opression of the Majority?”

    With the exception of the last paragraph, your comments were based entirely on speculation.

    Anyhow, enough of this.

    And, yes…… I agree with you wholeheartedly that we’re one family in the Caribbean. The region could achieve several objectives if we were to put trivial differences aside and unite.

  5. You are just a Propaganda Machine. Rumor said the Former Chairman of LIAT – Out of respect, I did not call his name, you did – suffered his heart attack, because he failed in LIAT. Rumor is always closer to the truth. You can beat Rumor!

    I am an Accountant and Auditor in my country for the past forty (40) years. I did a Bachelor in Accounting at Cave Hill, Barbados. I did not study to become a lawyer. but, the Company Law Course was mandatory for the Degree in Accounting. You know, we were being taught how to keep ourselves from going into prison.

    I know the former Chairman of LIAT did not have previous business experience, because I studied his profile. He went from Academia straight into Public Sector employment. He studied a Master Program in Jamaica, and upon graduation, worked in the public sector there, I think having to do with the Bauxite Industry, as a consultant, before returning to Barbados. In Barbados, the former LIAT Chairman always worked as a Teacher, UWI Lecturer, or with the Government of Barbados.

    You see, working in the Public Sector, or in Government, even as Prime Minister does give a person Private Sector Business Experience. The former Chairman may have studied a Micro-Economics Course during his Bachelor years at Cave Hill. But, the knowledge of the theory is not a proper replacement for actual business experience. Overseeing the Barbados economy for fourteen (14) years is good experience at the Macro-Economics Level, which involves providing business incentives, and managing taxation, among other things. Such kind of experience does not make one qualified to be Chairman of any kind of Private Sector Company, much less a regional airline like LIAT, 1974 Ltd.

    It doesn’t matter how Barbados got the name ‘Little England’: the country is ‘Little England”, because the country has been more progressive than any other former British Caribbean colony. I lived in Barbados when Tom Adams was Prime Minister: in his public speeches, he talked about taking Barbados to the First World Level. I was inspired by him. But, unfortunately, he died suddenly before he achieved his objective.

    I am glad to know that I have become your friend. I studied a Final Year Course in the Faculty of Law together with law students. It was not an easy course. Most law students didn’t like it, simply because law students don’t like studying topics like ‘Stocks and Shares’. But, if you are an accounting student you don’t mind the course. Nevertheless, there was never a free pass. You had to pass the Course before you can get your Degree, and within a certain time frame. I remember, one law student from Guyana failed the course, and replaced it with Human Rights Law; unfortunately, he never graduated. I failed the Course twice, and passed it on my third, and final, attempt. So, I actually studied Company Law for three (3) years. I previously passed Contract Law examination in ACCA studies. When you are an Accountant, or Auditor, you must have studied, at least, a few Law Courses.

    For you to say that, except for my last paragraph, my comments are based purely on speculation is just like admitting before a Court of Law that you are just a Dishonest, Self Opinionated Propagandist, who actually knows very little. Let’s end the conversation here. It’s really a waste of precious time to discuss anything with you. And, we don’t necessarily have to be one (1) family, if we are prepared to exploit each other: we are sometimes better off going our separate ways. Bye!

In Other News

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

(CONSULTING SERVICES – INDIVIDUAL SELECTION)

 

OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

Loan No.: IDA-62670, IDA-62660, IDA-62640, IBRD-88830, IDA-62650

Assignment Title: Senior Operating Officer (SOO)

Reference No. KN-ECPCGC-207852-CS-INDV

 

The Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have received financing in the amount of US$10 million equivalent from the World Bank towards the cost of establishing a partial credit guarantee scheme, and they intend to apply part of the proceeds to payments for goods, and consulting services to be procured under this project. 

The consultant will serve as the “Senior Operating Officer (SOO)” for the ECPCGC and should possess extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to Micro, small and medium-sized businesses, knowledge of the internal control processes necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk mitigation procedures. The ideal candidate should possess an Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Accounting, Banking or related field, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in lending, inclusive of MSME lending. The initial employment period will be for two years on a contractual basis. Renewal of the contract will be subject to a performance evaluation at the end of the contractual period. The assignment is expected to begin on September 30th, 2021.  The consultant will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer of the ECPCGC.

The detailed Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment can be viewed by following the attached link below. 

 

https://bit.ly/3iVannm

 

The Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC) now invites eligible “Consultants” to indicate their interest in providing the Services. Interested Consultants should provide information demonstrating that they have:

  • An Undergraduate Degree from a reputable college or university, preferably in Business, Finance, Banking or related field; and
  • Minimum of 5 years’ experience in MSME lending. Applicants should also have:
  • The ability to design and implement risk management procedures 
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME lending with some direct experience lending to small and medium-sized businesses
  • Extensive knowledge of MSME banking operations
  • Knowledge of the internal controls necessary for a lending operation and the ability to design and implement risk management procedures
  • Experience developing and presenting information in public, including responding to questions in real-time
  • Experience lending to MSMEs located in the ECCU
  • Knowledge of marketing and communicating with the MSME sector
  • Ability to draft procedures to be used in a lending operation
  • Familiarity with the mechanics of a loan guarantee program
  • Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills, and
  • Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office suite.

The attention of interested Individual Consultants is drawn to Section III, Paragraphs 3.14, 3.16, and 3.17 of the World Bank’s Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers July 2016, [revised November 2017] (“Procurement Regulations”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest. A Consultant will be selected in accordance with the Approved Selection Method for Individual Consultants set out in the clause 7.34 of the World Bank Procurement Regulations for IPF Borrowers. 

 

Further information can be obtained at the address below during office hours 0800 to 1700 hours:

Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation

Brid Rock, Basseterre,

St. Kitts.

Expressions of interest must be delivered in a written form by e-mail by August 11th, 2021, to [email protected]. 

 

For further information, please contact:

Carmen Gomez-Trigg                                                            Bernard Thomas

Chief Executive Officer                                                          Chief Financial Officer

Tel: 868-620-8144                                                                  Tel: 869-765-2385

Email: [email protected]                                          [email protected]