FINANCE Minister Audley Shaw says criticisms by the Opposition People’s National Party of the salaries being paid to members of the Finsac commission, who are on a fact-finding mission on the 1990s collapse of the financial sector, are meant to prevent the truth from being told.

Speaking yesterday at the Jamaica Stock Exchange’s Fifth Regional Conference on Investments and the Capital Market at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Shaw sought to justify the $80-m price tag of the enquiry, by reminding guests that Finsac led to the collapse of 40 financial institutions, destroyed many businesses, and caused many persons to commit suicide.

The Government, he said, would not relent.

“The Government will not resile from its commitment to put on record the fundamental failures that caused the collapse of the financial sector,” Shaw said.

The enquiry, which is being presided over by a three-member panel led by retired Justice Boyd Carey and fellow commissioners Charles Ross and Worrick Bogle, is being held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel.

Carey is being paid a daily rate of US$2,400, while Bogle and Ross are each being paid US$1,200 daily. The attorneys involved are also set to earn millions. Accommodation at the Pegasus hotel also accounts for a large part of the sum.