I chuckled at The Briefing Room on Monday during the Prime Minister’s weekly Press Conference — his first after returning from a much-needed five-day vacation abroad.
But my amusement was not-at-all funny, as I watched him struggle to find words not to call a fib a lie.
He opened his remarks with a lengthy and detailed explanation of the facts that prove the Opposition Leader’s recent letter to funding agencies that finance the Saint Lucia Social Development Fund (SSDF), that he termed an attempt to negatively influence their understanding of what the SSDF has done and is doing for social development in Saint Lucia under his administration.
The PM didn’t mince words to explain and exposing what he considered fallacies in the Opposition Leader’s letter, also posted to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) – the main contributor to the SSDF’s Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF).
The missive was also delivered to the Taiwan Embassy – among other main sources of SSDF funds.
The facts and figures revealed by the PM had me and the gathered press (and most who followed the Press Conference online) bamboozled as to why an Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister and Minister for Finance would have included so-many unsubstantiated claims in his letter.
The letter made claims – including that SSDF’s accounts were unaudited — but the PM disclosed that, to the contrary, the only time the SSDF’s accounts had NOT been audited was during the five years the accuser was PM and Finance Minister (2016-2021).
Further, as he pointed out, it’s THIS administration that’s started auditing the unaudited years – and the SSDF’s auditors today are the same ones his government inherited.
PM Pierre opined that the ultimate objective behind what he termed a misleading missive was not only to publicly malign the SSDF and its auditors, but also to “instil fear in Public Servants”.
The current Finance Minister also said the current Director of Finance was unfairly named and his photograph was published online by Opposition supporters, in ways that could unfairly impugn his character and integrity.
But what those responsible for the accusatory online posts didn’t say in their veritable viral statements of innuendo, was that the current Director of Finance was one of the four authors of damning 2013 ‘Review of Financial Operations of Town, Village and Rural Councils’.
That extensive 190-page report catalogued names and disclosed amounts made available to ministers and local government operatives in 13 Town, Village and Rural Councils during the period January 2008 to December 2011.
The investigation was ordered by then-Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony into the direct handling of Taiwan funds, in contravention of Local Government laws.
This led to Dr. Anthony’s insistence that thereafter, all further contributions by foreign donors (including Taiwanese and Moroccan) had to be through the Consolidated Fund.
All future contributions (from Taiwan in particular) were publicly handed to the PM and the Accountant General and disclosing the full amounts – a transparent process that continued for the rest of the then government’s term.
The report chronicled — in full detail — the ways Taiwan-donated local government funds were channelled to and made use of by then ruling party Cabinet Ministers and their unelected partisan subordinates in the 13 Rural Councils investigated.
Interestingly, immediately following the 2016 change of government, the report was dumped and related charges reportedly being pursued by the Attorney General and/or Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) were allegedly withdrawn – and the Special Prosecutor identified to advise on prosecution was officially outed.
The report contained 24 chapters and concluded with 26 pages of Recommendations.
Back then, the present Director of Finance did his job as an Acting Accountant 1 at the Treasury Department, but 13 years later he was publicly fingered by the current Opposition in relation to its claims against the SSDF.
Unfortunately, those pointing fingers never look where their thumbs are pointed and today, persons named and exposed in the report would dare boast about personally delivering the Opposition Leader’s letter to the embassy for the attention of the present Taiwan Ambassador.
I will not here identify everything revealed by the PM during his press conference, except to say that he went far-overboard not to call the Opposition Leader ‘a liar’, instead indicating that his sole intent was to unmask the accuser’s balaclava with facts and figures.
He recalled too that during the last General Elections campaign he NEVER attacked the Opposition Leader on matters of ethics.
Members of the press on Monday were visibly surprised at the PM’s rebuttal with dates, facts and figures.
But the veteran in me wasn’t — especially as, in the past five years and the first eight months of this administration, no one (including the Opposition Leader) has been able to pin a lie on this Prime Minister.
As the PM also pointed out, as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Assembly, the Opposition Leader had every opportunity to raise the issues raised in his letter on the parliamentary floor, but he elected not-to.
So, what’s next?
Nobody knows, but I would strongly suggest that PM Pierre will go no-further than he has to, as it’s definitely not in his nature to engage in activities that can be successfully described as biased to the Opposition Leader.
Indeed, as PM Pierre said on Monday, he is “Prime Minister for all Saint Lucians” — bar none – which is why, he also disclosed, the Opposition Leader, as his party’s lone parliamentarian, has always received his allocations for STEP (Short Term Employment Program), “because constituents of Micoud South (represented in parliament by the Opposition Leader) are also Saint Lucian citizens.”
It’s also for this reason that when and since he took office in 2021, this Prime Minister didn’t dismiss and has kept in office senior Public Servants his administration inherited.
Now, it’s left to be seen how the Opposition Leader will respond to the PM’s response.