Prime Minister Mottley: White Oak saved numerous jobs

PRIME Minister Mia Amor Mottley says no one can hold the White Oak Advisory over her head since it was made public by the Barbados Labour Party.

Speaking in the Carlisle carpark on Sunday night, Mottley said, “You know who laid White Oak’s documents in Parliament? We! You think somebody could blackmail me or curse me about a document that I laid? We are the ones that made it public. And we made it public because we said that we are not doing any deals behind door behind the cover of night,” she stated.

In fact, Prime Minister Mottley stated that it was through that relationship that numerous jobs were saved. “The amount that we have gotten in terms of what White Oak has saved us is what has stopped us from having to send home people in this country. It’s what has allowed us to stabilise this economy.”

“In 1991 to 1994,we had a problem with our foreign reserve. Today we have a problem with reserves and debt. In 1991 to 1994 they sent home 4 500 and cut salaries at 8 percent. In 2014 when we met here the DEMS had already sent home 2 000 people. ...This BLP, said N-O. We are not putting workers in the frontline of change in this country. And that we would ask the people who were making profits in the banks to share the burden. That is what White Oak helped us to negotiate.”

She said monies for White Oak will not be paid in a year. “We’re spreading it out over four years...and by the time we told them we need help to restructure the arrears....remember we had told you the last government over $1.9 billion when we came in. And we put all of that in the pot. And they are getting 29 cents to every 100 dollars [saved].”

Prime Minister Mottley said she told Opposition leader Joseph Atherley that even as he wants ten dollars White Oak is only getting 29 cents in 100 dollars.

“What madness am I hearing? What is sad is that [they] are trying to titillate people because of the numbers, without telling people what they have saved this country and how they have allowed us to be able to move forward,” she stated. (JH)