Broad Street Journal reports on 'A Man For Four Seasons'

Pat Hoyos, who publishes the periodical Broad Street Journal, has recently conducted an interview with Professor Avinash Persaud concerning the recent deal to resurrect the Four Seasons project (see images alongside; click to enlarge), and published this in the edition for January 11, 2010. He poses a number of pertinent questions about the project and the answers give some clarification about the physical and financial scope of the project and the government's new position within it.

I was intrigued when I read the press reports of the deal last week: so few questions were posed about it, not to embarrass anyone but to inform about an important and uncommon approach to 'private public partnership'. That is a dig at the local press, which does not seem to have the consistent drive to go behind what may be offered in a press release. Is the problem that the journalists are too bound by deadlines, as some of their representatives have argued? Is it a matter of resources, which journalists also argue are dwindling? Is it that the reporters do not have the real interest in unearthing more information? I hope that they have a genuine desire to expand the public's understanding of important local matters. But, it is not enough that the journalists that they say do not have the expertise or time or other resources: part of their job should be to see what are national priorities and seek out and speak too those who can offer expertise and then relay their findings to the general public.

When this journalism matter was discussed on Voice of Barbados' radio call-in programme, Down to Brass Tacks, some months ago, it was clear in the context of another major financial issues story (the rate hearing for Barbados Light and Power), that even when offered such expertise, the press do not seem willing to take the hand offered. That said, some elements of the press do try to find experts to help them understand what is going on: I can attest to that, personally, but my reading of the papers suggests that it goes on too little.

As the Four Seasons project regains its legs, several elements of the deal will start to loom large. In my mind, one of these is the issue of the new contingent obligation that the government has taken on in the form of a guarantee of US$ 60 million of the project's debt. As far as the IMF definitions go, the contingent nature of the guarantee does not stop its being counted as part of the country's public debt--it is often the inclusion of such items, some of which can be off-budget, that gives a wholly different picture of the true weight of public debt. So, Barbados' already high debt ratios will rise. The nature of the guarantee may cause few immediate concerns about the country's capacity to repay, but one has to hold breath until work resumes and longer to see if the project is completed and turns out to be the financial success that is envisaged, with the government having a 20 percent stake in the project for no financial outlay. In the meantime, the jury is out, but let's all hope that there will be the hoped for happy day.