Oropouche West MP, Dave Tancoo, has described recent boasts about the Heritage and Stabilization Fund as an attempt to sugarcoat the PNM Government’s horrendous mismanagement of the country’s economy.
A recent report of the HSF published on the 23rd of August 2024 boasted about the growth of the fund,” Excess returns were driven by the Fund’s relative asset allocation positioning and external managers’ active investment decisions.”
However, Tancoo said: “The fact that this boast comes in the midst of General election campaign is yet another desperate attempt by a politically appointed board to sugarcoat the PNM Government’s horrendous mismanagement of the country’s economy.
He reminded the nation that the Heritage and Stabilization Fund was set up in March 2007 as a rainy-day fund, financed by the surplus from oil revenues.
In a release, Tancoo said: “It is no secret, the Minister of Finance has treated the HSF like his own personal piggy bank. He’s been dipping into it, pulling out billions to shore up our collapsed foreign exchange reserves and to spend on unidentified projects. In fact, it’s a matter of public record that Imbert was publicly called out by this country’s Auditor General for breaking the law with his late payments into the HSF.”
“It’s important to put the current boast about the Fund into perspective. During the period from September 2010 to September 2015, under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration, the HSF grew by a whopping 56% (US$2.03 billion), reaching US$5.66 billion by the time Imbert took office. In stark contrast, between September 2015 and March 2024, the HSF grew by only US$243 million—just 4%. What, then, is the basis for the PNM board’s boast? It must be noted that in previous reports, the board was not as verbose in its commentary when the Fund lost value. It’s high time that these boards be managed by competence rather than by political puppets.”
Tancoo said the report only covers the period up to March 2024, so it does not take into account the recent economic uncertainty, monetary policy shifts, or geopolitical tensions that have caused the stock market to tank with significant volatility and sharp declines.
He said this is bound to hit the fund’s value hard, especially since nearly half of it—47.9% to be exact—is tied up in equity mandates like the US and International Equity Mandates, which were big reasons for the fund’s growth, according to the report.
Tancoo added: “Given the complete failure of the government to create new foreign exchange revenue sources, there is the real and present danger that Imbert will once again raid the HSF to artificially disguise the foreign exchange crisis facing this country. Citizens need to pay close attention to the HSF and every financial decision of this Minister of Finance as his words do not often match the realities facing this country.”
“One only has to recall the recent fiasco involving the Minister and his reported attempt to pressure the Auditor General into changing the country’s accounts without providing the necessary information to substantiate his claims. It’s exceptionally unfortunate that, when it comes to this country’s finances, citizens simply cannot trust the actions or words of the very Minister responsible for spending over $530 billions of taxpayers’ money to date,” according to Tancoo.