by John A Peters – St Lucia
Recently, a letter sent under confidential cover between two regional Prime Ministers was “leaked” to the press.
I refer to a letter from Honourable Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines to Honourable Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. Firstly, what is striking about the content of the letter is the phrase found towards the end, “Without doubt, this matter will rightly enter the public domain for public discourse,” which seemed to telegraph that leakage to the media was a foregone conclusion.
The said confidential letter by the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines expressed shock that the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) had gone on a frolic of his own and expended $22 million on a “veritable palace” which he intends to occupy soon. He described his findings as only conveyed a few hours ago, as relayed by his son, who is the Minister for Finance. In an effort to put this statement into context, one has to understand the organisational structure of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.
The ECCB has a governance structure of a Monetary Council, which consists of the Ministers for Finance of all 8 member countries. The Board of Directors has as its Chairman the Governor and the Directors of Finance of the various member states. Each member state, either through the Monetary Council or the Board of Governors, participates in every decision of the ECCB.
It is incredulous to suggest that a decision to construct a building to house the Governor of the ECCB was solely pursued by the Governor, and this building, which sits upon a hill in a small island like St Kitts, was being constructed in total secrecy for close to 2 years.
Dr Gonsalves’ letter made no mention of engagement of the Monetary Council or the Board of Governors being involved in the decision to construct this building, but states that the “extraordinary sum of $22 million is being expended by the Governor.” He further went on to state that this information he received for the first time a “few hours ago” shocked him as an “absolute scandal.” He opined that this absolute scandal occurred due to insufficient transparency by the Governor and the absence of the oversight expected by the internal review mechanism of the ECCB, notably the Board of Directors of the Bank and the Monetary Council.
Let us pull the threads together. Dr Gonsalves has blamed the Monetary Council on which his Minister for Finance sits, the Board of Directors on which the Director General of Finance of St Vincent and the Grenadines sits, and has also conveyed that there was insufficient transparency on the part of the Governor on the cost of the project. He places full blame on the Governor for his appalling lack of judgement in his pursuit of apparent vainglory, a total lack of sensitivity or prudence, and the basket of failures warrants disciplinary action to be taken by the Monetary Council. His position on the future of the Governor seems to be dismissal, as he stated that the ECCB cannot afford an appetite for such unaffordable opulence.
Dr Gonsalves then proposes that the building be put to other uses as that is the only way to rescue the Governor’s job, or alternatively, the Governor should consider resignation. We are now in a situation where a sitting Prime Minister is calling for the resignation of the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. The core principles of natural justice which were espoused by Dr Gonsalves in his last contribution to the debacle of the former CDB President, should not be applied in this case,
The OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) has done an outstanding job in isolating the various institutions from political interference. Whether it is the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, or the OECS Secretariat, we have seen the maturity of our leaders in avoiding interference. It is here that I am profoundly disappointed in Dr Gonsalves, whom I view as a regionalist.
This matter could have been dealt with differently at the Monetary Council level. Presenting this to the public as an “absolute scandal” and passing judgment on the Governor without even allowing the Board of Directors an opportunity to provide the details is wrong.
Timothy Antoine is a fine individual; he is, as Dr Gonsalves admits, a rare quality. It would be very sad that an accomplished economist is lost due to this unfortunate decision of Dr Gonsalves. The Monetary Council must therefore act promptly and provide clarification on this matter, which has now sadly entered the public space as a scandal. We are now sitting on the slippery slope of the politicisation of our OECS Institutions, and immediate action is required to stop the slide.
The entire board including the governor must be sacked.
Politics or biasness should play no role and how this info entered public domain should be a non-issue. In fact, information like this should be more accessible to the public.
It’s an absolute outrageous of the opulence and those who thought it was okay. It sends a bad message of the lack of constraints in such dire economic times.
Corruption got no bounds
It has been days now since this exposure. And not a word from the Monetary Council or the Board of Directors about this issue?
Surly, they should have made a statement by now!
Much has been clarified in this commentary, thank you Sir. To lay the blame for this issue on Mr. Antoine is idiotic, if such is the case Mr. Antoine was the only one not asleep at the wheel he was left all alone to do his thing. All will agree that this incident was devoid of proper oversight and the members of the monetary council only attends meetings for the food and money. I might not be in agreement with some of the submissions of Mr. Gonsalves but thanks to him for making this issue public
Were he not Grenadian would this response be so apologetic? This is scandalous and certainly the various organs of the ECCB must be fully transparent.