KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesman on finance, Audley Shaw, said last night that one of the first actions he would take as minister of finance, after Thursday’s election, is to order the disbursal of the $15 million needed to complete the FINSAC Enquiry report.

“I say tonight, in the name of all who died of a broken heart, in the name of people who suffered from broken promises, broken homes, broken families, broken dreams, in the name of those who lost their houses, which were sold cheap to a politically connected favoured few; in the name of all of them, I now declare and proclaim that, as minister of finance, one of the first things I will order is the $15 million to complete the FINSAC Report,” Shaw told Labourites attending a mass rally in Half-Way-Tree square, St Andrew.

Shaw has constantly raised issues with the Government’s refusal to provide the funding to complete the enquiry. The former JLP minister, who was responsible for setting up the Commission of Enquiry in 2009, has noted that while the government is willing to spend $300-$400 million on the West Kingston Enquiry, it has consistently refused to allocate the funds to complete the process.

Shaw has insisted that it is paramount that the FINSAC enquiry be conducted, to properly comprehend what happened in order to move forward.

FINSAC Limited was established by the Government of Jamaica in January 1997, with a mandate to restore stability to Jamaica’s financial institutions after the financial meltdown that year. At that time, a number of Jamaican banks and insurance companies were experiencing liquidity and solvency shortfalls and an erosion in customer confidence.

Balford Henry