Tancoo: Government weaponised forex allocation

OROPOUCHE West MP Davendranath Tancoo accused the Government of weaponising the distribution of scarce foreign exchange (forex) to favour big businesses friendly to the ruling party, at the expense of medium, small and micro-enterprises (MSMEs).

He was addressing a UNC briefing in Chaguanas on November 3. Tancoo, shadow minister of finance, took aim at Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

He accused Imbert of a decade of denying any forex crisis, saying while conglomerates readily got forex, MSMEs have had "the greatest difficulty."

Tancoo alleged forex allocation was done in secrecy amid "elitist and discriminatory policies.

"Monopolies have been created simply because they could access forex, while others in the same industry could not."

He alleged forex distribution had favoured certain businesses, while most MSMEs and citizens could not get even nominal amounts.

Tancoo accused Imbert of failed promises such as measures to determine the causes of forex shortages and new arrangements to facilitate MSMEs.

Saying MSMEs were now even worse off than before, he alleged Imbert viewed the sector as being of no value.

"But not so, Minister Imbert. This is not how one treats investors who have been willing to put their money where their mouth is, who have stepped out of their comfort zone, taken their money out of the safety of a bank to invest in revenue generation and employment creation for the people of this nation.

"This is not how a minister is supposed to create a welcoming environment for investment of any sort. This is not how you build a small investment class.

"But what it is, is a clear vision of just how this Government views the ordinary citizens who aspire to become entrepreneurs."

On the closure of the EximBank facility for allocating forex to import vital medicines and basic foodstuff, he said Imbert's utterances that some businesses were holding the public to ransom have made some business people afraid to speak out for fear of victimisation.

Meanwhile, businesses were losing their credit ratings and being compromised by a lack of access to forex, even as TT's GDP shrank by 20 per cent under this Government, he said.

Tancoo said Ramsaran Dairy Products had complained of not getting any forex but Imbert had said he checked EximBank only to learn that business had not applied to it for forex.

Saying he was disturbed that an active politician could access a company's private information at EximBank, he recalled pressing for details from Imbert, whom he accused of throwing "a hissy fit of misdirection."

"According to Imbert, my offence is that I dared to ask him to explain himself."

Tancoo said if Imbert called him names, that would not distract him.

"I am not afraid of you and I don’t care what you say or do to me. I will call you out every single time you overstep your authority and fail in your duty, and I do this on behalf of those who are too afraid of speaking out and exposing themselves to the vindictiveness of this PNM Government."

He said Imbert had failed to explain his access to EximBank information.

Tancoo said the bank owed the country an apology and asked what (if any) other details had been provided to Imbert.

"This is exactly why the Revenue Authority must be opposed.

"Imbert and his Cabinet colleagues will have access to everyone’s financial information for political victimisation and abuse."

Tancoo challenged the minister to prove any link between Tancoo and Ramsaran, saying none existed.

He said the Ministry of Finance had  responded poorly to Ramsaran's requests under the Freedom of Information Act regarding the provision of any documentation on the distribution of forex.

Tancoo said the ministry had said no documents exist stating the forex allocation policies since 2015; the amount of forex the Central Bank gave private banks for 2015-2023; whether banks got equal amounts and if not, then why not; whether the Central Bank monitored forex distribution by private banks; audits (internal or external) and oversights on the Central Bank's distribution processes since 2015; and historical data on forex distribution since 2015.

"What this means is that there is no official policy that deals with allocation of foreign exchange to businesses and individuals, nothing that guides the Central Bank on how to determine how much and whom to give the hundreds of millions in foreign exchange distributed every year.

"So exactly how did they decide and who decided which company should get forex, when it should get and how much?

"It is a free-for-all!"

Tancoo alleged the existence of a "foreign-exchange cabal" of friends, family and financiers of the PNM.

"This is why a former Central Bank governor was hounded out of office.

"This demands a full and public investigation. Since this Government has been in office, over US$13 billion has been sold to authorised dealers and nobody knows what they have done with it! All this while legitimate businesses are made to beg from pillar to post for a few hundred US dollars."

Alleging a worsening forex crisis, Tancoo said the Government was now living on borrowed money, hoping the Dragon gas deal would save it.

He displayed a graph showing TT's foreign exchange reserves steadily declining since 2015, while the country's foreign debt has steadily risen(worsened).

"In 2015, Kamla Persad-Bissessar left US$10.5 billion in foreign reserves, which was $8.4 billion higher than the foreign debt at the time.

"Today, the gap has collapsed to US$91 million."

Tancoo accused the Government of failing to develop any new industries capable of generating forex but rather presiding over years of negative foreign direct investment by way of investment leaving the country.

"The foreign-exchange cabal presided over by this Government is guilty of many things, not the least of which is robbing the country of its future.

"I commit that a UNC Government, upon assuming office after the next general election, will investigate these practices and publicly hold to account those responsible for facilitating this unethical, corrupt, biased distribution of foreign exchange."