Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 08, 2021 (SKNIS): Improving regional air and maritime transportation is crucial to advancing regional integration if the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is to operate optimally, said officials working in St. Kitts and Nevis’ Regional Integration and Diaspora Unit (RIDU).
“We can’t get the CSME operational to the optimal point without dealing with transportation,” said Samuel Berridge, Assistant Secretary in the RIDU in the Office of the Prime Minister, on Wednesday’s (February 03) episode of ‘Working for You’.
The Assistant Secretary said that the issue of transportation has to be dealt with in earnest, however, there is a price tag attached.
“It is a cost, and somebody will have to bite the bullet – either the public or private sector. We would have to have a public-private partnership but then the public should not bear all the cost,” said Mr. Berridge.
His Excellency Lionel Sydney Osborne, Head of the RIDU, Ambassador to CARICOM, and OECS Commissioner shared similar sentiments and raised a very important point concerning air transportation.
“Is it a public good, or is it a profit-making exercise?” Ambassador Osborne asked. “And, if it really is a public good then one has to understand subsidies that are going to be required if we really want to move persons effectively, quickly… from one point to another. So, that I think is something which will have to be discussed,” he added.
In terms of rapid ferries, Ambassador Osborne, and Assistant Secretary Berridge shared similar sentiments noting that while some countries report success stories with sea transportation it has proven to be very difficult for others.
“The issue with that is public-private partnerships. The private sector wants to gain the profits, but they want to spread the cost,” said Mr. Berridge. “The same discussions which we have with LIAT in terms of spreading the cost now, Chapter six of the Revised Treaty of [Chaguaramas] speaks about transportation policy. You need to make it more effective, and then there are some less economic points.”
The RIDU officials reiterated the importance of improving regional transportation and noted that it will require multi-sectoral support.
]]>Lodge Hill, St. Michael, January 29, 2021 (Barbados Today)Another 103 employees of the collapsed regional airline LIAT are to be terminated, joining close to 600 already on the breadline following the demise of the carrier.
This has been revealed by Cleveland Seaforth, the Antigua and Barbuda court-approved Administrator of the company in a letter dated January 22, 2021 and addressed to Prime Minister Mia Mottley and eight other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government in which he warned the CARICOM counterparts that they could be exposed legally unless some effort was made to pay the affected workers.
However, Prime Minister Mottley told Barbados TODAY tonight she had not yet seen the letter and would not comment until she had seen it.
In that letter – a copy of which has been obtained by Barbados TODAY – Seaforth even placed Mottley and the other Heads on notice of possible legal action that could be taken against them with regards to their financial obligations to the LIAT employees.
Seaforth, who is charged with administering the affairs of the company during its current restructuring process urged Mottley to assist in paying the EC$79 million in severance owed to the 564 workers already put on the breadline.
“To date, 564 employees have been terminated and as the restructuring process is completed, the remaining 103 employees will also be terminated,” the administrator told the regional leaders including Antigua and Barbuda’s Gaston Browne, Trinidad and Tobago’s Dr Keith Rowley, Dr Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica’s Roosevelt Skerrit.
He disclosed that as at April 30, 2020, the total unpaid entitlements to employees across the region amounted to EC$119,006, 962.
“Of this amount, EC$79,011,337 is in respect of the employees’ legal severance entitlements,” the letter stated.
Seaforth, whose letter also went to Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, St Kitts and Nevis’ leader Dr Timothy Harris and his St Lucian counterpart Allen Chastenet, said that based on preliminary estimates, it is highly unlikely that any significant portion of the employees’ severance would potentially come from the sale of the LIAT estate upon eventual liquidation.
“Against the backdrop as noted above, the purpose of my letter is to make an appeal to the respective governments for consideration to be given to the payment of employees’ severance entitlements of approximately EC$79 million,” the LIAT administrator wrote.
The airline official then sought to make out a “strong” case for the hundreds of “suffering” workers from Barbados and other Caribbean territories to be paid their outstanding monies without further delay.
Seaforth termed as most unfortunate the fact that the workers were unlikely to receive any meaningful compensation from the sale of the LIAT estate.
“It is most unfortunate, as over the years, notwithstanding the continued financial ill-health of the company, the employees committed themselves and continued to provide service to the company,” the court-sanctioned official declared.
He contended that the staff continued to serve the airline in spite of those circumstances because they firmly believed they would not have experienced any hardship since LIAT was owned by regional governments.
“There was the expectation that the company would never be abandoned by the respective governments,” Seaforth argued.
“Despite the known insolvent position of the company, the employees relied on the undertaking of the respective governments’ Letters of Comfort to the company’s auditor to provide financial support for the continued operations of the company.”
He continued: “The letters of support as issued by the respective governments do [sic] in fact create a litigation exposure for the governments.”
The administrator also told the Barbados Prime Minister and her regional counterparts that the employees saw themselves as working for a state-owned entity which was engaged in fostering Caribbean integration and as such, the notion of them being quasi-government civil servants, was foremost in their minds.
He said that based on his discussions with the unions in the various territories, it was “clearly” evident that both the current and former employees are experiencing severe financial hardship and a high level of disappointment and disillusionment in what is perceived as a lack of support from the respective governments.
He lamented that their situation was made even worse by the impact of COVID-19 because of the inability of workers to find alternative sources of employment due to the economic downturn.
Seaforth said that apart from any possible severance which may come from the LIAT estate, the Antigua and Barbuda Government has indicated it is prepared to offer the staff up to a maximum of 50 per cent of their severance either by cash, land or government bonds or a combination of the three.
“Against the initiative being contemplated by the Antigua and Barbuda government, I write to inquire if such an approach can be considered by other governments within the region and whether each government would be prepared to engage in dialogue on this matter with the government of Antigua and Barbuda,” he asked.
He welcomed the opportunity to further discuss the issue with the governments as a group or individually in an effort to chart a way forward for the employees to receive “some form of compensation” for their legal severance entitlement.
Seaforth informed the CARICOM leaders he had copied the letter to Secretary General of CARICOM Ambassador Irwin LaRocque with the expectation that a regional approach could be pursued in this matter, if considered appropriate. He said he is hoping a meeting could be convened to thrash out this issue. (emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, December 01, 2020 (SKNIS): The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has made a decision to cancel the $11 million debt owed to the Federation by LIAT, the Caribbean Airline.
Prime Minister, Dr the Honourable Timothy Harris, said that the debt relief was made following a request by the liquidator. According to its Facebook Page, LIAT is currently under administration and is being restructured following a decision by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda to reorganize the airline.
Prime Minister Harris said that the decision considered the “ill health” of the regional carrier. He added that it also reaffirms St. Kitts and Nevis’ commitment to regional integration and regional travel.
“We accept that LIAT is the largest carrier supporting intraregional travel and without LIAT there is a major void that has a significant impact on the ease of movement of citizens, residents, and visitors to the region,” Dr. Harris said at his monthly press conference at the NEMA Conference Room on December 1, 2020. “Mindful of the challenges that LIAT has faced, we believe that we must take this position in the best interest of the people of St. Kitts and Nevis and the region as a whole.”
The regional carrier returned to the air on a reduced commercial schedule on Monday (November 30, 2020). It will operate flights to and from the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport in St. Kitts on Saturdays only in the initial phase.
]]>September 13 , 2020 Antigua Breaking News (ABN) — A number of regional leaders have given their commitment to write of debts owed to them by LIAT — which is now in Administration — Prime Minister Gaston Browne revealed Saturday.
Administrator Cleveland Seaforth has been negotiating with creditors asking them for certain debt write offs.
“In fact, that matter was raised yesterday by me with some of the heads within the region and they have all committed to writing off their debt,” Prime Minister Browne said.
“So I believe sometime during the course of [this] week that we’ll be hearing from the various Heads within the region to write off the outstanding airport taxes and other fees that were due by LIAT.”
Prime Minister Browne said the Administrator is also speaking with other creditors, adding that the whole idea is to get to a significant write down in the liabilities so that there could be some level of severance paid to the staff.
“If the administrator is unable to achieve that then there will be a problem — even if there is severance paid, they will be nominal. But the deeper the write downs, then the larger the amount of severance that will be paid to the staff, so that is the exercise that the Administrator is undertaking to get completed as soon as possible,” Browne said.
Meanwhile, the Antigua and Barbuda leader said the Administrator continues to negotiate with a few prospective investors.
“I’m not aware that there’s any firm deal as yet but we still remain hopeful that within the 120-day period that we will have LIAT back in the air,” he said.
“That is still the objective, we have not changed the timeline and we are working towards it.
]]>Lodge Hill, St. Michael July 21, 2020 (Barbados Today): Caribbean News Service (CNS) LIAT’s major shareholders have reached an agreement, which Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne said could see the airline flying again “in 60 to 90 days.”
The shareholder, which also includes the governments of Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, met virtually late on Monday for Browne to present a plan to reorganize the cash-strapped LIAT.
He said, “The meeting went very well, the tone of the meeting was very respectful, the interventions were heard and we came to the consensus that we should sell the three planes that are owned by LIAT and charged to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)”.
He continued, “What that will do, that will help to literally eliminate the debt from LIAT’s books for those planes, and, in addition, the proceeds will be utilized to pay down the loan, even though there would be a residual value. The governments will continue to make payment on the residual value after the proceeds of the planes are applied to the loans at the Caribbean Development Bank,” Browne explained.
The Antiguan leader said there are a number of LIAT-related loans with the CDB.
He said, “There’s a re-fleeting loan and you also would have had a number of additional loans that were extended to the governments in order to support LIAT over the years. So, if you were to aggregate all of them, after the aircraft would have been sold and the proceeds applied, I believe there will be a shortfall of about US$45 million, which will be shared proportionally by the shareholder governments and obviously we will have to service those loans until they are retired”.
Prime Minister Browne said his colleague prime ministers must be congratulated for this very important step towards saving the LIAT brand.
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 13, 2020 (Barbados Today): Creditors are about to have their say on whether cash-strapped regional carrier LIAT should go into liquidation. Almost three weeks after Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne announced the airline would be liquidated and a new airline formed, LIAT has called a meeting of the company’s creditors to discuss its wrapping up.
The meeting is scheduled to take place at LIAT’s headquarters in Coolidge, Antigua, on July 31.
In a letter dated July 16, 2020, and signed by LIAT’s Company Secretary Diane Shurland, creditors were informed that the meeting was being held to “consider the winding up of the company”.
It instructed all creditors who had claims against the company to submit them by Monday, July 27.
“A creditor entitled to attend and vote is entitled to appoint a proxy to attend and vote instead of it/him/her. A proxy need not be a member or creditor of the company,” the letter stated.
It said the names of those proxies selected had to be submitted no less than 48 hours prior to the meeting.
It was not immediately known if that meeting will still be held following the news that chairman Owen Arthur was hospitalized and is now in intensive care.
The former prime minister, 70, reportedly suffered a heart attack last night. He is said to be in stable condition.
During his liquidation announcement, Browne stressed that all of LIAT’s creditors could not be satisfied.
He said negotiations would have to take place with not only creditors but employees as well.
Browne said: “LIAT only owns three planes and those planes are charged to the Caribbean Development Bank, so clearly they have a superior claim and after they would have covered their claim there will be hardly any assets available to liquidate severance and other liabilities to staff and other creditors, so there has to be a negotiated position.
“The governments won’t be bandits and just walk away from the staff, they will have to pay some form of compassionate payments to assist them. But they have to understand that they are legally vulnerable and that they have to look at the bigger picture and to cooperate, not to become litigious and to prevent the creation of a new LIAT.”
Leeward Island Air Transport (LIAT) was established in 1956 on the island of Montserrat. In 1971 Court Line Aviation of the UK acquired control and renamed the airline LIAT. Ownership of the airline was acquired by 11 Caribbean governments in 1974 and it was renamed LIAT (1974) Ltd. Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines are the four remaining shareholder governments. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
]]>Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 15, 2020 (SKNIS): Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris has commented on the proposed liquidation of LIAT noting that air travel within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) should meet three main attributes.
“We have always said that we want affordable, reliable and safe transportation for people leaving St. Kitts and coming into St. Kitts,” Dr Harris stated on Tuesday (July 15) during the Leadership Matters Virtual Forum Series.
His comments were in response to a question about the regional air carrier, which has struggled to achieve profitability and has significant liabilities.
Dr Harris noted that there is a difference of opinion among regional Heads of Government about the future of the airline established in 1974. What is not disputed, however, is the need for intra-regional travel.
“Whatever comes forward, we are willing to give support and to participate because a regional mechanism for transporting our people is critical to the way we live, our tourism industry and regional integration,” Prime Minister Harris expressed.
He added that the majority shareholders “wield significant power and control over LIAT and in that regard their plans have not yet been shared with … those who are not significant shareholders and we await that so that we can make an informed decision.”
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