MTS owed $600m by government, state agencies

The National Maintenance Training and Security Company Ltd (MTS) is owed over $600 million by government ministries and state agencies. Its biggest debtor is the Ministry of Education which owes $300 million.

This was revealed on Monday during a virtual sitting of the State Enterprises Committee of Parliament.

The debt has been outstanding for several years and under different administrations.

The committee’s chairman, Independent Senator Anthony Vieira, expressed surprise.

He said, "MTS is a major employer in this country. At least 6,600 people. MTS is fully compliant with its statutory obligations.

"MTS is self-supporting. It gets no subventions from the Government. MTS is up to date with its financial statements. MTS does not owe money to any state agency. Good job, well done.

“...the company is saddled with substantial sums owed by Government and state agencies."

MTS earns an annual revenue of $540 million, but Vieira observed, "Yet, it has lost personnel because salaries could not be paid. It has lost contracts due to non-payment by clients and we are talking about the government clients."

MTS CEO Lennox Rattansingh said the Judiciary, police service, Housing Ministry and Sport Ministry also have large debts to MTS.

The company spends approximately $35 million per month to pay salaries.

"We struggle to find that money to pay salaries but, I dare say, we have paid salaries on time, every time since I've known myself here and I have been here a long time."

Vieira said MTS directors’ first responsibility is to the company, not the government or state agencies.

"My concern is what would happen if some of these large debts were to become statute-barred."

He told MTS officials, "You have four years to bring a claim, after which it is not actionable."

Rattansingh replied, "We write to our clients to keep the debts alive."

He said some debts have been on MTS' books for as long as 15 years but the company eventually had to write some off.

As a state agency and 99 per cent of its clients are also state agencies, Rattansingh said, "We cannot sue (them) and we cannot put persons in court, because it would be contrary to the state (enterprise performance) monitoring manual."

Vieira, an attorney, told Rattansingh that kind of situation posed a problem for MTS. "When you do go into court, you are going to be told your obligation is to the company and no one else."

Opposition Senator Wade Mark was concerned about loans taken out by MTS. Company corporate secretary Adilah Elahie said, "All these loans were all taken on behalf of the Government. MTS is not responsible for the repayment of the loans or the interest payments."

She said the majority of the loans "were taken to finance projects for the Government, in particular school construction and school repairs."

The only exception, Elahie said, was a $300 million loan from Republic Bank which was used for MTS operations.

She reiterated, "All the loans are being financed by the respective ministries, directly paid to the financial institutions and not through MTS."

Mark asked about a First Citizens Bank (FCB) loan to complete work on 24 priority schools by the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL). He said a note from MTS indicated that work on 13 out of the 24 schools would be funded from that loan.

Elahie said the $400 million loan in question was the first phase of those works, with 13 schools to be completed in that phase. "We are awaiting the funding from the Ministry of Finance for the remaining schools."

Government Senator Laurel Lezama-Lee Sing asked for an update on school repairs scheduled for February. Referring to plans to reopen schools to more students on February 7, Lezama Lee-Sing asked if any of the schools listed for repair works would have those works done by then.

Rattansingh said, "In terms of the priority schools, most of those schools will not be utilised from February 7."

He added while most of the works on those schools are complete, they will reopen at a later date.

Mark suggested the committee meet with Finance Minister Colm Imbert to discuss financial challenges facing MTS.