‘Gov’t should not sell BNTCL to just one entity’

The Barbados National Terminal Company Limited (BNTCL) should not be sold by government to a solo entity, but to three entities.

Such a view was expressed by Neil Holder. The Political Leader of the Barbados Integrity Movement (BIM), one of this island’s newest political parties, stated that one of these entities should be the credit union movement.

“BIM’s position is that the BNTCL should be sold to three entities. Those three entities would be the local credit union movement as a collective body, so that this would give at least 170 000 Barbadians some ownership or stake in this. The SOL Group, Rubis and the latter two should be the ones that will pay in US dollars. That is how we perceive this transaction should go.”

His comments come on the heels of the announcement of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited’s (BNOCL) plan to sell its shares of its subsidiary, BNTCL to the SOL Group.

This matter is presently before the Fair Trading Commission (FTC), pending approval.

Holder, while addressing Wednesday’s press conference at the Divi Southwinds Resort, stated the move “is going to hurt everybody in Barbados.” He also said it “spells out monopoly and monopoly in a very bad way.”

“Of grave concern to Barbados is the fact that the agreement calls for a protection period of 15 years where the government of Barbados is saying that they will not permit any other petroleum operation to have storage facilities of that sort in Barbados. It protects the SOL Group through this company until 2032. What happens if that company becomes insolvent for some reason or another? What happens if we have an issue where there is a world shortage and for some reason they cannot supply demand and another party has an opportunity to do so, but Barbados is locked into this salacious agreement for 15 years?,” he asked.

The BIM Political Leader also called for a disclosure by government of details of how many bids were made for the purchase of BNTCL and “what is the agreed purchase price as this is not clearly stated anywhere”.

“The Fair Trading Commission could not provide BIM with the sale price, therefore it cannot provide Barbadians with the sale price because we were referred to
a document today by the Fair Trading Commission, which happens to be the press release of the December 2016 Central Governor report… The Fair Trading Commission is investigating this matter, but they are asking us to refer to the Central Bank Governor’s report at page four where it says, proceeds from the sale of BNTCL and amount
of $100 million were waiting approval by the Fair Trading Commission.”

He added, “Barbadians cannot accept from the Fair Trading Commission that what they are doing could be fair and impartial if they are not operating with all of the information that they need to have to hand, and if they are not providing the public with the relevant information that simulates what the sale price is and further more how
this agreement came to be.” (MG)