The Barbuda Council notes the false and misleading statements made by the Prime Minister regarding certain ABST funds recently paid by PLH (Barbuda) Ltd., and uses this opportunity to correct the public record.
The Barbuda Council has no outstanding wages or salaries owed to its workers. The Council has made tremendous sacrifices to pay all outstanding sums owed to its workers in spite of the arbitrary and punitive cuts to its budgetary allocation. This has been a significant achievement with the support and patience of the workers.
The payment of pensions is not the legal responsibility of the Barbuda Council. Pensions are paid from the consolidated funds through the Treasury Department in Antigua. The Finance Minister should be well aware of this fact.
PLH has not been up to date with its ABST payments. It is only after certain false pronouncements on the political platform at the labour party campaign launch in Barbuda by a member of the Cabinet that PLH made a hasty payment of $1,259,891.29 two days later. The labour party politicians were trying to make the case that PLH was sustaining Barbuda and so Barbudans should vote and elect labour party candidates onto the Council. It should be noted as well that the Council is presently in Court with PLH over the issue of payments of funds due.
The Council and the People of Barbuda are very much aware of these efforts on the part of the Prime Minister and his central government administration to influence the outcome of the pending Council election. However, Barbudans will not fall for this type of false and misleading rhetoric and relinquish control of its Local Government.
The labour party controlled central government administration desperately needs to gain control of the Barbuda Council in order to facilitate the sale of lands as part of its policy of promoting the creation of a luxury real estate market that benefits only the millionaires.
