FORMER PRIME MINISTER Owen Arthur said yesterday that he was simply extending “a requested helping hand” to Antigua and Barbuda by accepting a “specific work assignment” on behalf of the government of Prime Miniser Baldwin Spencer.
Arthur offered the explanation in seeking to minimise the significance of comments attributed to Prime Minister Spencer in yesteray’s WEEKEND NATION.
He said the offer to help was in reponse to the “debacle” over the sensational developments surrounding Texan billionaire Allen Standford (now in prison awaiting trial) and the ensuing crisis in the country’s financial services sector.
Arthur explained that the proposed “consultancy assignment” with the Antigua and Barbuda government to help examine and make recommendations for effective legislative arrangements for regulating that country’s financial services sector would be in keeping with similar work he had done as a Minister of Finance of Barbados.
That work had laid the basis for legislation soon to be enacted by the parliament of this country and he was, therefore, “pleased” to undertake the requested assignment to head a team that would fulfill the mandate of the Antigua and Barbuda Government.
Arthur has just recently concluded a six-month assignment for CARICOM, funded by the European Union, intended to help Belize and the countries of the OECS region to become “fully integrated” into the emerging CARICOM Single Market and Economy. (RS)
