PRIME Minister Philip J Pierre this week confirmed that an audit has been completed in connection with the 7-million-dollars vaccine scandal and said government will reveal the report when it “sees it fit.”
Government, in 2021, ordered 100,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines (under former Prime Minister Allen Chastanet) from Radical Investment which cost the country a whopping $7.3 million dollars. Saint Lucia, however, never received those vaccines.
Chastanet, in 2021, defended his decision saying “I was satisfied that the contract that we had put in place would have covered Saint Lucia. I was further satisfied that Mr. Maloney who headed Radical was not unknown. (Maloney), an established business man in Barbados, had done business in Saint Lucia, and more importantly owns assets in Saint Lucia, so that if at any point things went wrong, I knew that government would have had a recourse.”
Radical Investment has reportedly repaid the government a total of US 1 million dollars (EC$2.70 million).
Pierre, this week, said, “if proper procedure had been used for the purchase of these vaccines, that would never happen. Saint Lucia is the only government which paid money in advance. Saint Lucian taxpayers are the only taxpayers who up to today (are) still suffering from the recklessness of that action.”
Chastanet, in 2021, claimed that “Radical approached us indicating that they were working on purchasing a million vaccines and that they had two other countries that were participating in it. We also understood that one country would be taking the lead with Astra Zeneca directly so that basically Astra Zeneca knew what the role of Radical was going to be in this process; in fact, there was another entity involved.
“I am very happy to know that the faith that I had in Mr. Maloney and in Radical was well-founded and the fact that they have started the process of reimbursing Saint Lucia.”
What is often forgotten, said Pierre, is that “that’s not my money, that’s the taxpayers (money) and some of it is grant money that other people’s taxes pay. How can you take 7 million dollars in advance and pay a supplier and up to this day the people of Saint Lucia have not seen their 7 million dollars and that case now is in the courts of the United States? I have nothing against the supplier; going after the supplier is not my business.
My business is the people who took 7 million dollars of taxpayers’ money and went against all the rules. There is an audit report on that vaccine situation which the government will reveal when the government sees it fit.”