Opposition: Prime Minister Got It Wrong

Leader of the Opposition John Briceño, however, has a different take. He says that he is not surprised that the bondholders would reject the proposed restructuring of the superbond because PM Barrow failed on his commitments in the terms of the 2012 superbond restructuring agreement.  Briceño says the Barrow Administration guilty of mismanagement, incompetence and corruption.

John Briceño

John Briceño, P.U.P. Leader

“I was not surprised that they were going to reject the government’s proposal because the government has been so incompetence and they mismanage everything so that they have no credibility. When in 2012 the prime minister boasted in the national assembly that he has fixed to superbond once and for all so in effect he had wrapped himself around the superbond. And he made full commitments to the bondholders. One; that he was going to increase revenues through taxation; two that he was going to reduce expenditure including retrenchment cause it was making the case that the government has hired too many people. Three; they said that the government made a commitment that they were going to reduce the debt of the government to sixty-seven percent of the GDP; and four, they said that they were going to grow the economy. Well the prime minister raised some taxes, but it wasn’t enough according to them so he failed in that. He did not cut government expenditures. Government expenditures continue to go to the roof; he failed in that commitment. He said he was going to reduce the GDP…the borrowing to reduce it to sixty-seven percent; it is now ninety percent and according to his projections, by the end of this year or sometime next year, it is going to be at a hundred percent. So he failed in that commitment. And lastly, we are in a recession. The economy last year contracted by one point five percent. That’s the last estimate and it is probably going to be at two percent when it is finished. So I am not surprised that the bondholders are not going to hold or are going to listen to the prime minister very seriously in whatever commitments that he makes.”