Following the International Monetary Fund's publication of a private letter to its Managing Director from Hon. Harold Lovell, Antigua & Barbuda's Minister of Finance and Public Administration, it would be beneficial for international investors and other observers to examine a fuller perspective.
The Managing Director of HMB Holdings Limited, which had had its private property expropriated by the Government of Antigua & Barbuda, has written an open letter to the head of the International Monetary Fund.
In the interests of transparency and probity this is reproduced in full below.
It is not possible under copyright restrictions to reproduce the letter and its attachments from Antigua & Barbuda's Minister of Finance and Public Administration but they can be viewed on the IMF website at: http://www.imf.org/External/NP/LOI/2012/ATG/052112.pdf
H. M. B. HOLDINGS LIMITED
P.O. Box 144 - St. John's, Antigua - West Indies
E-MAIL: hmbholdings@gmail.com
Open Letter
Madame Christine Lagarde, Managing Director
International Monetary Fund
700 19th Street N.W.
Washington D.C. 20431
August 15th, 2012
Dear Madame Lagarde,
I refer to the letter from Hon. Harold Lovell, dated May 21, 2012, addressed to you, which you have kindly reproduced on the IMF website.
I am the Managing Director of H.M.B. Holdings Limited, whose resort property at Half Moon Bay has been expropriated by the Government of Antigua in 2007. Our Company is still awaiting compensation to which it is entitled by law.
I would like to draw your attention to an affidavit issued (sic cert =sworn) by Minister Lovell, dated 3 September 2010, that states:
"GOAB is itself currently unable to finance the purchase of the property (Half Moon Bay Resort) and has embarked on a Fiscal Consolidation Programme (FCP) that is supported by a Stand By Arrangement from the International Monetary Fund. The FCP is intended to bring about fiscal and debt sustainability allowing the GOAB to review and rationalize expenditures, improve tax administration and increase its income streams. Also, the GOAB plans to engage the Paris Club group of creditors to elicit support (sic) the FCP and the debt management strategy in particular. ......Continuous litigation over the issue of Half Moon Bay has not placed the development project in a positive light in the international financing community."
It is imperative that I re-affirm the position of H.M.B. Holdings Limited, a position that our company has held from the very beginning of the Government's intrusion into our private enterprise sixteen years ago and in which it has not wavered.
The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has exercised the sovereign powers of eminent domain under its Land Acquisition Act to "compulsorily acquire" our property.
The very same Land Acquisition Act lays out the steps the Government must now take to complete the "acquisition" by payment of "fair compensation within a reasonable time," such compensation to be paid out of the Treasury by direction of the Minister of Finance.
That is the law under the Land Acquisition Act.
The Constitution of Antigua and Barbuda also gives a constitutional right to payment of compensation to entities deprived of their property by the Government.
There is no standing or even mention of any third parties being involved in the exercise of eminent domain or the "compulsory acquisition" of private property in either of these two documents which provide the legal basis for the Government's actions.
Nevertheless, Finance Minister Lovell is on public record as saying "not one cent will be paid to the investors" and that the IMF would not permit such payment.
The Hon. Justin Simon, Q.C., Antigua's Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Minister of Legal Affairs, has published his opinion that payment of compensation to the dispossessed owners for the "acquisition" of their property is not legally required prior to the commencement of any redevelopment of the property.
You will also note the absence of any debt to H.M.B. Holdings Limited in any budget presented by the Government of Antigua to the IMF, although the balance currently due and owing to our company has been established by the Courts to be in excess of US $68 million, accruing further interest of US$ 4.5 million per year.
Meanwhile, both the Senate and the House in the U.S. Congress have issued Resolutions (#346 and #507 respectively) "expressing the sense of the Senate/House... that provision of all aid and assistance to Antigua and Barbuda should be suspended until the Government of Antigua and Barbuda provides complete redress of the issues described in the preamble, including ...(F) the fulfillment by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda of its obligations relating to the expropriation of the Half Moon Bay Resort."
No doubt the International Monetary Fund will be keen to respond with a credible explanation as to why it is willing to overlook expropriation of foreign-owned property in the first place and why during the ensuing period of quarterly reviews it has not insisted that Antigua take the first step towards returning to proper and acceptable practice by immediate payment of constitutionally overdue compensation to international investors forcibly deprived of their property and their business.
The shareholders of H.M.B. Holdings Limited and I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Natalia M. Querard, Managing Director
H.M.B. Holdings Limited
cc. Mr. Thomas A. Hockin, Executive Director (Canada, Ireland and Caribbean)
International Monetary Fund
Mr. Ian Moncrief-Scott
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