DR Omar Davies, the Opposition spokesman on finance, is challenging Finance Minister Audley Shaw to declare what was his personal debt to the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac) and what special agreement was reached to take care of it.

Davies, who posed a number of questions for Shaw, said he already knew the answers but wanted them to be made public so Jamaicans can decide for themselves what is the truth about the financial sector meltdown of the 1990s.

Using the platform of the People’s National Party (PNP) Regional Executive Council meeting at New Day All-Age School in Kingston yesterday at which the new candidate for North East St Andrew, JP Whyte, was presented, Davies said it is important that Shaw declares the total amount of his bad debt taken over by Finsac.

Davies further demanded that Shaw say if he and the Finsac management came to a compromised settlement which was approved by the board.

Shaw, he said, should also reveal what was the figure of that compromised agreement and state if he did tender a cheque to pay as promised.

“Why wasn’t the agreement carried through, which you signed your name to?” Davies asked. “And what was the final settlement figure with the Jamaica Redevelopment Foundation Inc (JRF)?”

Davies explained that the JRF later took over the bad debts from Finsac.

Outlining the reasons for his questions, Davies said when Finsac went into the bank, whatever the amount of their obligation to creditors, regardless of assets in the bank, Government had to guarantee a hundred cents in the dollar.

“When anyone settles, including Mr Shaw, for X cents in the dollar that difference has been taken over by the taxpayers… so we want him to answer the first question and the last question and then we can do the subtraction and know the extent to which the taxpayers of Jamaica have bailed him out,” Davies said.

The opposition spokesman said the answers to these questions are important to getting at the truth.

“I challenge Minister Shaw to respond to the questions and then the public can decide who is speaking the truth,” Davies insisted.

He also used the platform to respond to recent claims by Shaw who boasted of being a better finance minister than he (Davies) was.

Shaw told the Observer Monday Exchange last week that his legacy will prove him to be a better finance minister than Dr Davies ever was.

He noted that among the salient features that will define him as such is the fact that, unlike Davies, he understands business and knows what it takes to make the economy grow.

But yesterday, Davies accused Shaw of having a fixation with comparing himself to him. Davies argued that while he has not been a businessman, he has honoured all the business contracts which he was a party to in his personal capacity.

“I was a client of one of the failed institutions taken over by Finsac, but you know why you never hear my name, it’s because my loan was a good performing loan,” he told riled up PNP supporters.

“He wants to compare himself with me… but while I was not a businessman I was in business contracts and I honoured every single obligation,” said Davies who questioned if Shaw can say the same thing about himself.

Davies also asked why Shaw hasn’t testified at the Commission of Enquiry into the financial sector collapse if he feels so strongly about the Finsac issue.

“By what authority would he speak with any credibility about Finsac?” he asked.

The decision to address the matter publicly, according to Davies, is not one of vindictiveness.

Claiming that Shaw and much of the administration have embarked on a path of personal vilification and character assassination, Davies said that was not his motive.

“I will never be capable of some of the tactics… but I am very capable of using truths and putting the facts forward,” he said.