We have nothing to add

We have nothing to add

TT Finance Minister Colm Imbert defends Barita Investments against “scandalous, untruth, wrong” assertions made by colleague senator Wade Mark on Monday. Imbert outlined that the Jamaican entity is “not a fly by night company”. Barita pleased with TT finance minister’s defence of its transactions and reputation

Barita Investments yesterday declined a fulsome response to issues raised in the Trinidad and Tobago Senate about certain transactions involving its parent company Cornerstone Financial Holdings and Port-of-Spain-based First Citizens Bank, despite promising to do so.

The company, instead, through one of its directors, made it clear that, since Trinidad and Tobago’s Finance Minister Colm Imbert dealt with the matter “so complete and emphatic and accurate” in the Senate on Wednesday, “we really have nothing to add”.

The director, who said he was not involved in public relations for Barita Investments, told the Jamaica Observer that the company was unaware that Imbert would have addressed the matter, but added, “We were pleased with the comments by the minister, especially with regards to Barita, because they were important comments, they were accurate comments, which really support the continued development of our company in Jamaica and the Caribbean, and so we really have nothing further to add, it wouldn’t be of any value.”

Barita Investments took the position after Imbert stopped just short of being disparaging towards his Opposition Senate colleague, Wade Mark, while responding to Mark’s call on Monday for a “forensic audit to be conducted” into the relationship between Cornerstone, its subsidiary Barita Investments, and First Citizens Bank.

“Senator Mark made his usual scandalous, untruthful, wrong, false contribution, I wish I could use some unparliamentary language…” Imbert began, before charging that Mark “fell into [the] trap or willingly joined [the] negative campaign and uttered absolute nonsense” about Barita, Cornerstone, and First Citizens Bank, while making his contribution in the Senate on Monday.

“Well, let me just say, Madame President, these are the facts. First Citizens Bank is diversifying outside of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago with the full support of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. First Citizens is seeking to make investments throughout the Caribbean. Seeking to acquire banks throughout the Caribbean — in the Northern Caribbean, Southern Caribbean, and even outside of the Caribbean region — and we’re encouraging them. The only way for our companies to grow is to diversify outside of the economy of Trinidad and Tobago,” Imbert outlined in the second […]

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