Dear editor,

 This is an open letter to Finance Minister Audley Shaw regarding questions we want answered about operations of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) and the resulting enquiry which was stopped by the People’s National Party.

Mister Shaw,

Your expectations are clearly defined as stated in the country’s daily newspapers.

“The commission’s work, in addition to considering the cause of the financial meltdown during the 1990s, also involves examining the appropriateness of the actions taken and reviewing the operations of FINSAC in dealing with delinquent borrowers”.

Would I be correct in saying these are questions the Jamaican public and your Government would like to see answered?

What were the reasons for the creation of FINSAC?

Why were interest rates set at world record figures as much as 98 per cent on overdraft?

Why were Government Papers sold to the public yielding up to 40 per cent per month interest rates on their investment?

Who were the main beneficiaries of these unusual arrangements?

What criteria were used to close some banks?

To what extent has the country benefited from the sale of Jamaican debt that was sold to a foreign debt collecting company, whilst not offering the debt collecting to Jamaicans?

Were some debtors given preferential treatment and others penalised because of political affiliation? How many politicians from both sides received write-offs and what were the highest and lowest write-offs?

Why was an American debt collecting company  (improperly named Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation) allowed to purchase debts at 30 per cent then allowed to charge interest rates on those debts?

Where are details of the arrangements by the then Minister of Finance with this subject company that treats the Jamaican debtors with contempt and sends no statements to debtors and  why do attorneys shy away from cases involving this company?

How many debtors are currently listed by the debt-collecting company?

How many un-serviced debts over seven years and if, and what interest rates are charged on such debts and can interest be added to such debts?

Why did the PNP terminate the FINSAC enquiry (can’t be funds since millions of taxpayers’ money was not properly accounted for after the enquiry stopped).

What tax if any is paid by the debt collecting company and does the Government get a portion of collections; if so where is that allocated?  

Under what Act is this debt collection company governed?

The entire debacle during the 1990s resulted in the dislocation of business sector leaving in its wake a decimation of small and medium businesses.

Will the aforementioned issues be highlighted in the report or will there be a white-wash and cover-up. Will the people involved in the FINSAC debacle be singled out and made to explain to the country why the country was taken on that destructive path and appropriate action taken if necessary?

Mr  Minister this is your Government’s golden opportunity to give the Jamaican electorate hope, that  politicians are not  members of a secret society that will shield each when injustice is done to the populous by one of their own.

Do not drop this catch Mr Minister.

Tony Miles