Blythe summoned to testify, but not Patterson

Dr Karl Blythe, a former minister of water and housing, is to appear at the FINSAC enquiry next week, commission chairman Worrick Bogle confirmed Tuesday.

The exact date is to be finalised.

However, Bogle said that the commission has decided to reject the request for former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson to testify, as well as former FINSAC executives, Dr Glastone Bonnick and Dennis Boothe, on grounds that the commission already has access to documents with the information, which would be required from the three men.

Attorney-at-law Anthony Levy, who represents former Thermo-Plastics/Plas Pak managing director Jean Michel Desulme at the enquiry, had requested the appearance of all four persons, on the basis that they could provide valuable inside information on the financial crisis of the 1990s.

His requests followed public comments on the role of the Patterson administration by both Patterson and Blythe.

Blythe has urged Patterson and former Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Omar Davies to accept responsibility for the role Government played in the meltdown.

He also chided that administration for maintaining for too long a high interest rate policy that, he said, crippled local businesses.

- JIS