READY TO PAY UP

THE Government of Barbados stands ready to pay a fair fee to the owners of Liquidation Centre. This as Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley toured the site of the Hyatt Ziva Barbados project yesterday amidst the ongoing demolition works. Speaking to members of the media as heavy machinery took a break from smashing its way into the building of contention, Mottley said that she was willing to pay today.

After the demolition work was given the green light on May 4 when civil works and construction were allowed to resume under Phase II of Government’s business reopening plans, Prime Minister Mottley highlighted the fact that things were delayed by about six to eight weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the acquisition of the property being a hot topic among Barbadians, the PM laid her cards out saying that she was ready and willing to pay a reasonable price.

“The Government of Barbados is anxious to be able to settle and to pay for this building to the owners – that is how we do our business. But the records will show that over the course of many, many, many meetings over a 16-month period, that we were unable to reach an agreement that was in the interest of the public,” she said.

Noting that for many years the property carried a land tax valuation of BDS$4.5 million, an amount which the owners claimed to be too high at the time, Mottley said that a commercial valuation was done more recently which came in at BDS$8 million. However, the owners refused the offer at a higher price and the Prime Minister said that she had moral obligation to the people of Barbados to be responsible with their money.

“At the end of the day we still have to be fair to the Barbadian people. We are not here as owners. We are here as trustees. We are here in a fiduciary position and I would not know how to tell the Barbadian people that we would leave, at this stage of development when we need additional people working and producing in order for us to maintain our quality of life, the best beach, without fear of contradiction, in the entire Eastern and Southern Caribbean, is this Carlisle Bay beach. The Lord has blessed us with the accretion. For us to leave it now in bush for another few years would be a criminal act to the people of Barbados.”

Stating that the Government stood on the position of a balance between the interest of the owners and the interest of the country, Mottley said that they were ready to close and stand ready to pay today if an agreement were to be reached.

“We stand ready to pay tomorrow if we can reach a sum that is fair to the people of Barbados – not to this Government – to the people of Barbados and fair also to the owners. But we need this site to provide the work for a couple thousand Bajans to be able to sleep easy at night and to eat, and that is what this is about.”

Attorney General Dale Marshall was also in attendance and chimed in to state that the offer was what he called “more than generous terms” under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme. Stating that they were still willing to sit down with the family, they had offered up to BDS$12 million, but were forced to use the Land Acquisition Act to take control of the property.

“Throughout that process we have remained prepared to pay a reasonable settlement, but the Merchandanis have asked for a figure well over BDS$30 million. The Prime Minister has indicated that the land values really do not take us anywhere there. At this point, there is no offer on the table by the Government, save the offers that were made originally. Given that we are still at an impasse, it is now for the Merchandani family to follow the process under the legislation and that is that they can apply to the High Court to have the value settled.”

With regards to the merchandise that was in the building up until last week, AG Marshall said that all products were moved securely to other sites, all at the expense of the Ministry of Housing.

“We gave the Merchandani family month after month, extension after extension to be able to remove the stock. The stock is theirs, the Government doesn’t want it, we’ve laid no claim to it. But because of their refusal to remove it, we were at an impasse. We had acquired a building, the property had vested in the Crown, but we couldn’t take possession of it simply because the Merchandani family would not move out their merchandise. So we had to follow another legal process which allowed the Court to give the Government possession and that was done. They had opportunities to move it out; up to now they haven’t, so we have had to take matters into our own hands,” he said. (MP)