ISN’T?the Al Barrack mess ever going to get cleaned up? Isn’t the Government going to make another serious effort to settle this matter of outstanding sums to Mr Barrack?
More importantly, what will it take Mr Barrack himself to accept, at the very least, as a compromise?
The former American poet and children’s author Phyllis McGinley once said that “compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy”. We might add: makes business arrangements worthy.
We hold no brief for the Government – neither under the administration of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), when the Barrack dispute was born, nor the current Democratic Labour Party (DLP) who, some critics say, made but feeble attempt to assuage the contractor’s anxiety.
Feeble or not, Mr Barrack was not remotely appeased by the offerings of the late Prime Minister David Thompson, who agreed the contractor should have been paid for his work on the Warrens Office Complex, but could not raise the full amount of $65 million owed.
In December 2009, the Government, through its legal representative Sir Maurice King, QC, offered to settle with $45 million: an initial payment of $15 million by January 31, 2010, and instalments of $1 666 666.67 monthly for 18 months thereafter until clearance of debt.
Mr Barrack, through his lawyer Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, rejected the proposal, deeming it “unlawful, exploitive and oppressive”.
Sir Richard saw the offer as reflecting “a continuing lack of seriousness by the Government . . . even though interest has been running at over [$3 million] a year”.
To our knowledge, there was no counter-offer from Mr Barrack’s side.
The contractor’s clear position was that he wanted his money in full; not any part-payments.
It seems the Government, under the leadership now of Freundel Stuart, has not bothered to look back at the Barrack muddle. Mr Barrack on an occasion since painted his face white, sarcastically opining that maybe his makeshift “Caucasian” look might get him his money. It did not!
Today, Mr Barrack is on an international letter-writing exercise to highlight the Barbados Government’s non-payment of the 2004 court-awarded judgment, now climbing toward $70 million.
Mr Barrack hopes through his missives to the world media and all of CARICOM to have Barbados blacklisted. It may be an Herculean task. Barbados has a high reputation internationally for paying its debts and meeting commitments.
Mr Barrack at best may raise a few eyebrows; but it shows a man subsumed in frustration because he has been wronged.
The Government needs to get back to the Barrack mess; the muddle needs urgent clearing; and Mr Barrack must be satisfied.
Still, Mr Barrack needs to be reminded of the wisdom of that other American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”