Minister of Agriculture Dr David Estwick has again written to the Prime Minister, this time complaining that his colleague Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler is behaving as though he is the Cabinet.
In a letter dated February 27 addressed to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Estwick charged that officials of the Ministry of Finance, on Sinckler’s instructions, bypassed his office and issued instructions to the general manager of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) that were not in keeping with Cabinet decisions.
The matter surrounded the long-awaited loan from ANSA Merchant Bank of Trinidad, which he said was secured specifically to restructure the local sugar industry, but which the Ministry of Finance was now asking BAMC to use to pay wages, salaries, vacation pay and Sol (Simpson Oil Limited).
Describing the matter as “a fundamental breakdown in Cabinet governance”, Estwick noted he had been charged by that body through decisions made on May 13, 2013 and January 15, 2015 to advance the project.
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