The government of Antigua and Barbuda says it is considering a proposal to transfer the Five Islands school building to the University of the West Indies to off-set monies owed to it.
The UWI is owed by all of its contributing governments, including Antigua and Barbuda. Last month the UWI told regional governments to consider using property to help cover some of its outstanding obligations.
The Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda did not give further details about its plans to clear an unknown amount owed to the university.
The matter is expected to be discussed along with other issues when a UWI Council of nine officials are to meet with a nine-person Antigua and Barbuda team on Thursday.
The meeting is expected to bring both sides closer to a final agreement on the establishment of the Fourth Landed Campus at Five Islands, Antigua.
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Over $1billion dollars collected in CIP. Were any of these revenues used to clear the UWI debt that has accumulated over several years?
Whenever people win the lotto one of the first things they try to do is pay off some bills. Was any consideration given to wiping off our debt to make the path easier for future generations to get a tertiary education? The number of scholarships has increased, but we keep hearing that many students are not receiving payment on time. Would be good to get an objective response that does not refer to the failings of the previous administration.
Paying off IMF. The debt owed to UWI is across ALL campuses and not any single UWI campus. Also, it is an accumulation of outstanding payments over a number of years. Considering how monies have to be dispersed from any surplus the treasury would have, it is obvious clearing scholarship debts were not an immediate priority. In fact it would have fallen way down the pecking order, only getting what’s necessary to maintain the relationship with UWI.
Regarding clearing the debt for future generations to get a tertiary education. Here’s why I’m a proponent of an Antiguan university campus or two. UWI tuition fees rise very often and that puts sponsored students at a disadvantage in meeting the monetary obligations required, as scholarships are only a certain amount per school year.
You like to give fake and false news don’t you. Even when election just ended.
Show me where you read that Government collected over one billion dollar from the CIP.
They love a scheme. I wonder who does be the brain child of all this.
Let me edify some of you small UPP minds a little. Some years ago when the UPP was in power the IMF told Lovell he had to do something about the Social Security debt because it just doesn’t look good that the government has all this debt on the books that they are not paying. Lovell’s technicians came up with a brilliant idea saying will we can take these debt and have Social Security take bonds for them. Great now the condition of the bonds should be that they are due in twenty to thirty years and that you have a minimum interest of 1%. The IMF technician applauded them from taking current debt and putting it to long-term debt. But debt remained debt. In come genius Gaston Brown. He faced the same issues of course with the IMF wanting to see this debt taken care of. Now Government may not have money but government has lots of property and land. Social Security in the past got lots of land already for this very same purpose and started the housing project at Paynters. Something they lost money on and not made a dime. So Gaston was not inclined to give them any more land and by the way National Housing needed the lands. So here comes the idea for the American Air Force Base that just became vacant. A large asset that could easily be valued at hundreds of millions. So just do the window dressing, Give the Social Security on paper the property and let them cancel off the debt with that. The same thing is intended to be done for the MSJMC. Give the building to Medical Benefit and let them offset that with the debt of government. Now come UWI. They say we owe them millions. We want them to have a universality in Antigua. So why not provide them with the building to have the university and kill two bird with one stone. Because now they must decide the have the university here, cause they own a building already. And the details can of course be worked out. They can show a balance sheet with a property in Antigua and no debt of the Antigua Government to claim. And as Papa used to say, they cannot walk with the building anyway. This is what you call smart Financial Engineering, CAPITO. UPP small brains.
And by the way do not forget the building was a present from the People’s Republic of China. So we didn’t pay for it anyway. I guess we will have to get the blessings of the Chinese to do this as well. How will it look it we just sold a gift or give it away to someone else?
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