Gonsalves must not be trusted with our future

By *Jomo Sanga Thomas

(“Plain Talk” Sept. 27, 2024)

Early in the ULP tenure in power, a popular slogan was “Do it (vote comrade Ralph) for your children’s future”. As Gonsalves’ power grip pushes towards a quarter century, the words “children”, “Gonsalves” and “future” have a hollow ring. With the national debt galloping towards EC$3 billion and no clear visible signs of sustainable development on display, it is long past time that citizens take a long, hard look at what they have bought into. Buyers’ remorse is long past due.

There is increasing evidence that Gonsalves is more of a snake oil salesman than the economic guru he and his clansmen make him out to be. The national economic record is replete with evidence that our prime minister is recklessly extravagant with the people’s money.

His most recent outrage is his decision to give away EC$27 million to farmers and fisherfolk, supposedly to deal with losses caused by Hurricane Beryl. To put this in context, EC$27 million was the exact amount allocated in the 2024 budget for agriculture and fisheries.

This government had squandered nearly a billion dollars from the generous PetroCaribe oil agreement with Venezuela — with nothing to show for it. It will be remembered that when $6 million became due, Gonsalves, who had gone along with the punitive and illegal American sanctions against Venezuela, salted the money away at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank. Gonsalves could have easily asked President Maduro to send a plane for the money to help his long-suffering citizens. But no, he had other ideas. Rather than pay over the money to Venezuela, he borrowed it, sinking our country into more debt.

There is a pattern. Some years ago, the opposition disclosed that Gonsalves was not paying the National Insurance Service (NIS) money it withheld from civil servants’ salaries. He “solved” this problem by borrowing money from the NIS to pay off the money he owed the NIS. 

In 2022, Gonsalves borrowed EC$10 million and boasted that he gave it away. The 2024 budget allocated EC$15 million to prepare SVG for the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup. Before a single ball was bowled, Mikey Findlay told the nation that preparatory cost had ballooned to EC$50 million. Determined to have the last word in everything, Gonsalves contracted Mikey with the unverified claim that the actual cost was EC$38 million and might be a little more. We learned that it is the government’s responsibility, not the ICC’s, to pay the security cost for police protection during the games. 

What kind of economic wizard budgets for EC$15 million and ends up with a cost overrun of 300%? This quackery, in which the final cost is two to three times the projected cost, is also seen in rehabilitating the iconic Girls High, St. Vincent Grammar, Thomas Saunders Secondary, and Sandy Bay Government schools. 

And this is not all. Does anyone remember the 2010 “masterstroke” when we sold the National Commercial Bank in a fire sale after capitalising it with an EC$100 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank and repurchased it in 2017 for $32.3 million? A few months ago, there was another “masterstroke”, only this time executed with less fanfare. However, the long-term effect would be much more devastating since it places a bigger hook in the nation’s gill.  We speak of the financing for the new hospital. For years, there was the idle boast that the World Bank agreed to fund the construction. Recently, Gonsalves announced that a US$125 million loan for the hospital construction was now with Taiwan and no longer with the World Bank. This loan amount is US$$27 million more than estimated. On Aug. 9, Finance Minister Camille Gonsalves, in disclosing the World Bank Loan, said the Acute Referral Hospital would cost US$98 million.

The official excuse for switching from the World Bank to Taiwan is that construction would have been delayed for another year because of World Bank conditions. Another year!? We were promised a new hospital more than a decade ago. Another year would not radically change the health conditions. 

Keen observers know that Taiwan has few or no conditionalities on its loans except loyalty to Taipei. More importantly, Gonsalves wanted the money to spend freely and extravagantly as we enter the home stretch to the next elections.

These policies are particularly ruinous to our nation, as spendthrift Gonsalves saves not even a cent for rainy days. As we have seen repeatedly, it had to borrow the money when the government had to put up matching funds, in this case, $3 million, to secure the Taiwan loan. The national coffers are bare. Yet in 2023, we found upwards of $500,000 to hold a fete to mark CARICOM Day. Compounding our problem is the government’s stiff-necked resistance to accountability and transparency. 

Meanwhile, the Colonarie Government School in Gonsalves’ constituency has to send children home when it rains, and there are not enough chairs and benches. Other schools face similar challenges. Police stations and other public institutions and facilities are in a state of chronic disrepair. Disease-causing mould and falling ceilings have taken over the main courthouse and the electronic interview room at the Central Police Station in Kingstown. And in the stifling heat we have been experiencing of late, there are no functioning air conditioners at the Calliaqua, Bequia, Barrouallie, Kingstown, Layou and Georgetown courts.

What do we have to show for Gonsalves’ lack of financial prudence? A few brick-and-mortar monuments, a burgeoning national debt, a 40% poverty and unemployment rate, skyrocketing cost of living, a road network in disrepair, spiralling crime and violence and unprecedented levels of hopelessness and helplessness.

As the young people say, “We nah dey good.” For their sake and generations yet unborn, we owe it to ourselves to ensure an end is brought to this national tragedy. Gonsalves must go.

*Jomo Sanga Thomas is a lawyer, journalist, social commentator and a former senator and Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

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