ST.JOHN’S, Antigua, Dec. 05, 2014, CNS – Prime Minister Gaston Browne says efforts by the owners of a hotel here to have him jailed over an outstanding multi-million debt by the government, have failed.
“The country is not in a position to pay US$40 million to Half Moon Bay. We do understand that they are owed and we do understand the principle in the constitution that when you acquire someone’s property that you have to pay them. We recognise that in law that there is no discretion. We must pay,” Prime Minister Brown said in the statement.
“But the reality is do we have the capacity to pay? And reality is far different. We do not have the capacity to pay. So what they have done is that they have rejected an offer that we have extended to them. We extended an offer of an interim payment of one million dollars as a goodwill gesture immediately.
“We had the cheque at court to pay them. We offered to pay them an additional US$20 million within the next six months because we believe that in a matter of weeks we will sell the half Moon Bay property and we will get 20 to 23 million which we will hand over to them,” said Prime Minister Browne.
“The whole idea is not to profiteer from the arrangement or to do anything to frustrate the payment of the Half Moon Bay debt. But we have to take into consideration the financial circumstances of the country.”
Prime Minister Browne said that paying HMB Holdings Limited Managing Director Natalia Querard a lump-sum of EC$108 million would mean no payment for pensioners and sending home government workers.
He noted that his government could not do such as they have an obligation to the people of Antigua and Barbuda to ensure that they earn a decent living.
