Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has described as misleading and false claims by People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding that he had “nothing whatsoever” to do with the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (Finsac), the entity formed by the Jamaican Government in response to the mid-1990s financial sector collapse.

Golding had come under fire during the recently concluded budget debate in Parliament when Finance Minister Fayval Williams commented that the promises he made to the Jamaican electorate in his budget presentation would, if implemented, lead to “Finsac 2.0” and potentially wreck the economy.

Golding hit back during a media conference called by the PNP last Wednesday and moved to distance himself from the Finsac saga, while arguing that his then company, Dehring Bunting and Golding (DB&G), did well due to its skilful navigation of the perilous financial environment at the time.

The collapse of several major financial institutions was due largely to various factors, among them high bank interest rates promulgated by the then Government; excessive spending by large, small, and medium-sized businesses; and a meteoric rise in bad loans at financial institutions.

It is still unclear how much the economy lost during the period; however, experts have put it at approximately $120 billion and about 40 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

At the PNP news conference Golding noted that the financial meltdown “cost the country quite a lot of money” and “it took time to work our way out of that”.

Added Golding: “That era is long gone. I had no role in Finsac whatsoever. I was in the private sector. I was an attorney-at-law and I was involved in business as well. So you know, that was an environment we all had to navigate in the sector at the time, and we did it skilful enough that we did not have to ask Finsac for assistance.”

However, on Friday in the Upper House, Senator Fitz-Henley, during his contribution to a marathon debate on the Appropriations Bill, fired back at Golding.

“I heard the Opposition leader this week commenting that he had nothing to do with Finsac. Our country will recall that during a public event last year the Opposition leader stated, ‘I came into the PNP via Dr Omar Davies because I knew him in the financial sector where I was involved in financial engineering, and so when he was minister of finance, a lot of the stuff that needed industry input, I was one of the industry experts he had to deal with, and that’s how I came into the PNP,’ “ Fitz-Henley recounted.

Arguing that it was highly improbable that Golding was not consulted during the Finsac débâcle, Fitz-Henley said, “I submit to the Parliament and the people of Jamaica that when the Opposition leader says he had nothing to do with Finsac, he should not be believed. In fact, the public record suggest that he did not speak the truth.”

He said the public record indicates that there were payments made to DB&G during the Finsac fiasco.

“In one such payment, the PNP Administration, via the Ministry of Finance and Planning, had an obligation to pay Dehring, Bunting and Golding over US$29.5 million. Furthermore, Finsac paid approximately US$10 million to Bunting and Golding’s company on July 29, 2005 and the Debt Management Department of the Ministry of Finance paid the balance of US$20 million,” Fitz-Henley highlighted.

He further said that in another instance a Financial Gleaner report of December 5, 1997 stated that, “Bunting and Golding’s entity abandoned plans for a merger and took full control of Billy Craig Merchant Bank which was badly affected by the PNP policies of the 1990s.”

“And guess what happened after… Finsac, which was set up by Golding’s political allies, pumped $85 million of taxpayers moneys into the bank which was taken over by Bunting and Golding’s company. The
Gleaner says these developments occurred after a hectic year for DB&G which saw Peter Bunting and attorney Mark Golding playing a prominent part in the company’s operations,” Fitz-Henley said.

“What I just alluded to are two pieces of evidence which confirm that the Opposition leader’s claim that he had nothing to do with Finsac is false. He misled the people of Jamaica and his latest comment is confirmation that he cannot be trusted to be honest with the Jamaica people… and to lead this great nation,” Fitz-Henley added.

He said that the “undiluted truth” regarding Finsac was that, “while iniquitous PNP policies caused over 40,000 Jamaican businesses to collapse, destroyed savings and drove many Jamaicans to take their own lives, deals were entered into which the anti-corruption agency of the day described as irregular and highly improper, and arising from those deals, public funds, millions of US dollars, millions of Jamaican taxpayer money, were shelled out and used to line the pockets of a company owned by Peter Bunting and Mark Golding, two men who now aspire to lead Jamaica”.

He said Golding should “apologise for his misleading comment that he had nothing to do with Finsac”.

“It is simply not true. It is an insult to those of us who will never forget the pain caused by the PNP policies of the 1990s. And to make matters worse, the Opposition leader has been on platforms across the country boasting, uttering comments to the effect, ‘Me done mek my money already; mi done set it fi me and my family.’ Yes, he did, he sure has, but no amount of revisionist history will hide the fact that he was aided and abetted to that perverse boast by wicked policies pursued by his PNP political cronies — policies which cost many, many Jamaican lives,” Fitz-Henley said.

“My humble view is that those whose pockets were lined by those policies generated by their political ‘combolos’ — policies which hurt the Jamaican people — those individuals should never be allowed to lead this great country,” he said.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding making his presentation to the 2025/26 Budget Debate in Parliament on March 18, 2025.