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The General of the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) was back in the hot seat when the Commission of Enquiry into the entity's role following thee financial sector meltdown of the 1990s resumed Tuesday morning.
Errol Campbell had been charged to ferret out the answers to crucial questions posed by Commissioner Retired Justice Boyd Carey nearly a month ago.
Mr. Campbell was armed with the relevant and information for which he was berated by Mr. Carey a few weeks ago.
However, Mr. Campbell was still unable to provide some answers such as the how much FINSAC collected for all the that it sold.
Reporters covering the Enquiry were not given access to the documents with the list of companies which had their debts written off by FINSAC but the audience at the Enquiry was stunned to learn that FINSAC had written off the debt of one company at a price tag of $322 million.
Reporters were told that the documents contained confidential information comprising the names of persons and companies.
Errol Campbell, Managing Director of FINSAC.
One company which owed $326 million dollars had its debt reduced to just over $4.3 million.
Mr. Campbell referred to this method as the "window of opportunity" where companies would either have their debt written off, reduced significantly or offered a repayment plan.
The Commission Chairman brought the audience to laughter as he commented on the significant write offs.
"If you go to the page, you'll see a significant one where a balance of $116 million has $112 million written off ... I would love that," Mr. Carey said.
"Mr. Chairman that figure jumped out at me too when I said it," Mr. Campbell said which resulted in laughs around the room.
The laughter died however, when Mr. Campbell was unable to provide a comprehensive list of the names of the companies whose debts were written off or the written decisions made by FINSAC's Board of Directors.
No due diligence
Letting him off easy this time, Mr. Carey accepted that Mr. Campbell would conduct a further search for the documents.
Yola Grey-Baker, Acting President of the Finsac'd Entrepreneurs Association, said the "window of opportunity" was not open to some FINSAC debtors like herself.
"According to Mr. Campbell's testimony today, it's obvious that they did not do due diligence. He stated that hey only got a list from the financial institutions telling them how much the debt was ... there was no documentation to prove or to show if and how much was paid prior to these debts being sold to FINSAC at which time, our assets were sold," she said.
Of the 220 companies that could be accounted for, $4.1 billion was collected by FINSAC for partial debt forgiveness, $2.5 billion of which was for debts written off.
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