BIDC Chairman, John Rocheford speaking to the media following a tour of booths at the Barbados Manufacturers’ Exhibition (BMEX) with Minister of International Business and Industry, Ronald Toppin.
The Barbados Investment and Development Corporation’s (BIDC) Chairman, John Rocheford says the organisation will be taking action against tenants who owe outstanding money in rent and refuse to pay.
Though not disclosing a date, he stated a “lock down” of locations rented from BIDC across the island could be one of the steps taken “if the rent and the arrears are not paid and the payment plan not followed.”
“It cannot be business as usual. BIDC is also a business and we must run it as a business and therefore, the money that we spend in various projects and other aspects of our business, we have to get revenue from somewhere to keep those projects going and therefore we can no longer sit down and allow people to not pay the rent that they have agreed to pay. They have not stuck to the payment plans and really and truly as I said, it is not our main purpose to put anyone out of business. We try, we try, we try and unfortunately, we are going to have to take action!”
Rocheford disclosed that “right now there are lots of lots of people who are in arrears” and “all the extensions” given expired last month.
“Unfortunately, they have had more than enough time to meet their commitments and we have actually… given extensions after extensions. We have had payment plans in place for them and yet they will not stick to the payment plans. There are some people who have not paid anything at all but there is the general feeling of, ‘Oh these are the government’s pockets and well, they are deep pockets so we don’t have to pay’ but we need to get our revenue to keep the programmes going.”
Rocheford was speaking to the media last Saturday following a tour of booths at the Barbados Manufacturers’ Exhibition (BMEX) with Minister of International Business and Industry, Ronald Toppin.
Toppin explained that one year ago, those tenants owing outstanding sums in rent to BIDC were given notice. He also voiced his support of the BIDC Chairman’s comments.
“In Parliament last June/July, I made reference to the number of tenants that were in arrears with BIDC and I made the statement that a notice to quit had been sent out to a large number of those entities. I gave the assurance then that we were having a stay of enforcement of the notices to quit by six months and that expired at the end of last year. We are now into the sixth month of this year, I don’t think that any tenant right now of the BIDC could really complain of unfair treatment…, so there comes a time when you just have to do what you have to do and that is putting it directly and fairly. We still have the commitments to the programmes that the gentlemen mentioned and without funding you can’t run the programmes.” (MG)
