Shocking findings of early financial and management reviews of the former administration can only serve to increase the momentum with which the Labour Party-led government pursues its goal of “good governance, anti-corruption and constitutional matters.”
A dizzying amount of information of how poorly the finances of central and quasi-government departments were managed is now available for public consumption. So far, we’ve been told about conduct at NHC, Ministry of Finance, and lately, the Soufriere Regional Development Foundation (SRDF).
In a statement to Parliament on February 1, the Parliamentary Representative, Hon. Emma Hippolyte (a licensed fraud auditor, among her impressive qualifications), disclosed that the new board of the SRDF found that the SRDF “had lost its credibility and respect in the community.”
This must be seen as a painful drop in standards, when one considers the importance of the SRDF in a region it had been making a positive difference before the advent of the Allen Chastanet-led government. The Foundation is “a non-profit company established by the people of Soufriere to promote, encourage, support, facilitate and coordinate local development initiatives in the Soufriere region.”
Was the former board and management of the Foundation genuinely living up to its purpose under the UWP-led administration? And was the former prime minister paying attention?
These questions – particularly the latter – must be asked of the former prime minister because it is he who appointed the full board of the organisation, including the selection of its Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
The findings by the new board depict a once proud organisation reduced to a partisan political ATM abused perhaps for election campaign favours to the disadvantage of its line workers and their families and the Southwestern region as a whole.
Here are some of the terrible discoveries:
– management used the workers gratuity fund, reducing it from $1.6M in 2016 to a meagre $33,000 in July 2021 (general election month during which the Chastanet Government was swept from office);
– a demoralized workforce of over 200, a large portion appointed a few months before 2021 elections
– use of the workers’ gratuity fund of $1.6 million which was left in 2016 to $43,000 as of July 2021
– reduction of work days to one or two per week (imagine working for only four to eight days a month)
– business sector blocked lines of credit to the Foundation
– VAT accumulated debt of $570,264
– payables of $1.2 million as of July 2021
– prudent financial management was non-existent
– huge arrears on electricity bills and disconnected telephone service
– non-payment of NIC deductions to the tune of $87,000, putting leave claims of staff in jeopardy
– failure to remit PAYE deductions of $38,000 to Inland Revenue
– failure to pay medical insurance premiums of $123,318 despite deduction from workers’ salaries
– $1.8 million owed to government for lease of Sulphur Springs Park
– excess of $3 million of project payments and some still yet to be verified
– a rather pricey renovation of Soufriere Police station costing $744,000; and more than a half-million-dollars bill for land clearance at Fond St Jacques.
Who’s been dipping their fingers in the Soufriere bucket of honey (bom siwo)?
There is a litany of administrative and financial lapses to fill an entire page of this newspaper. It would appear that the SRDF had all but collapsed under the previous board and a false semblance of normalcy was being maintained purely to hide political embarrassment.
Soufriere has crossed swords with Allen Chastanet before, resulting in the wreckage of his first attempt to enter elective politics. During that eye-opening period during that 2011 campaign, he displayed a poor appreciation for oversight of public works by turning a crucial bridge construction project into an election circus. An important bridge was demolished in too short a time to be rebuilt before election day, causing the whole country to question Mr Chastanet’s judgment.
A lavish campaign extravaganza in the Town also backfired, landing him in court later (2013) on several allegations, “Chief among those were that Mr. Chastanet, while a minister of Government and a candidate for the United Workers Party (“UWP”) requested, advised, received, permitted or acquiesced in the expenditure of the sum of $38,119.00 of public funds of the Council for the unlawful purpose of a campaign and political event for his personal and the political benefit of his political party, the UWP.” (Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, SLUHCVAP2015/0016).
Soufriere folks had to await the return of the Labour Party-led administration of 2011-2016 to get a new bridge. The case of the alleged use of public funds for an unlawful purpose remains unresolved in the court system.
Once again, a Labour Party Administration has come to the rescue of Soufrierians. Hon. Emma Hipppolyte’s attention to the plight of the Soufriere Foundation, in just six months after becoming the first woman MP for the Constituency, has ensured the honouring of all medical claims of the workers, as well as re-establishment of credit facilities in the commercial sector. Amounts to NIC and PAYE have been paid; the gratuity bank account is on an upward path!
At every opportunity within the first six months of accepting the people’s mandate to lead this country, the Saint Lucia Labour Party Administration has risen to the challenge, and it will keep rising until it pulls this country from the economic and social malaise that has affected our people over the last five years.