Barbuda Senator cries down Administration for withholding Council subvention and inflicting hardship on workers

Barbuda Senator Fabian Jones says the Browne Administration continues to subject Barbudans to suffering and financial hardship by not paying the reduced monthly subvention to the Barbuda Council.

The Browne Administration boasts that Barbuda will become the bread-basket of the twin-island state, and that the Peace Love and Happiness (PLH) Project has employed scores of Barbudans, as well as Antiguans.

However, Jones says that – in these difficult times – Local Government workers are owed almost 50 weeks in wages; and he asks why the Central Government is finding it so difficult to remit monies to the Council.

Prime Minister Browne has declared many times that the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) will win all 17 seats, including Barbuda, in the upcoming elections.  

Accordingly, some people believe the Administration is deliberately withholding the Council’s money as a strategy to frustrate workers and influence them to vote out the Barbuda Peoples’ Movement (BPM).

In this way, the Labour Party Government would have no opposition to selling Barbuda’s lands to outsiders, a source says.

Meanwhile, Senator Jones says the Browne Administration has mismanaged the money earned through the sale of Citizenship by Investment passports; National Housing; and the National Management Asset Company (NAMCO).

He declares the time has come for this Government to go, and is urging the Prime Minister to call the elections, as he has been promising.