Former speaker of the House of Assembly Jomo Thomas says that the “political elite” “snatched” $4.2 million that he had negotiated for the Social Investment Fund (SIF) that was to go to projects directly benefiting poor Vincentians.
He disclosed this in his Plain Talk commentary on Boom FM, as he said that he opposes Ralph Gonsalves politically but has no malice toward his former political leader.
Thomas returned to St. Vincent in the early 2000s from the United States, where he had lived for decades and underwent training in journalism, political science and law.
Since then, he has moved from a critical supporter of Gonsalves, to a senator and candidate for Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party (ULP), to speaker of the House of Assembly, to advocating that Gonsalves and his government be voted out of office.
Thomas said in 2003, he responded to an advertisement for the executive director of SIF and was successful.
Thomas said he applied for the post because he loves St. Vincent and the Grenadines and wanted to return home.
“If I really wanted to make money as a lawyer, I would have stayed in the United States, but money has never been my primary motive. Accumulation of profit, assets have never been my primary motive. It may be surprising for some people to know that I don’t own a single square foot of land anyplace on this Earth,” Thomas said.
Thomas said that during the three years he spent at SIF, he applied to ALBA, a Venezuelan initiative, which contributed $4.2 million to the fund.
“It came to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and it was snatched by the political elite. It never got to the Social Investment Fund,” Thomas said. “The money was never given to the Social Investment Fund. I don’t know where it went to.”
He said that when he was fired from SIF in 2007, “it was said that he “never did a single thing for the poor”.
“In fact, the 3.2 million euros that were given to a Social Investment Fund never came there under my watch,” Thomas said.
“So there was little that we could do except for a subvention from the government until the money from the European Union was released. … But I did mobilise $4.2 million from the ALBA Fund, which never came to the Social Investment Fund.”
Thomas was speaking in response to Gonsalves’ most-recent threat to sue him over comments he made in his radio commentary on Boom FM.
In the pre-action letter, Gonsavles’ lawyer, Grahame Bollers accused Thomas of having malice towards the prime minister, an assertion that Thomas denied.
Thomas noted that since returning to SVG, he accepted a position on the National Heroes Committee but resigned after Gonsalves gave a lecture advocating for former prime minister Milton Cato to be made a national hero.
“I was, in principle, opposed to it because I thought if the Cabinet would be the place where the decision would be made of who ought to become national heroes, you shouldn’t have the head honcho, in this case, the prime minister, going to bat for any person.”
He further pointed out that in 2013 he accepted the position of chairman of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Reparations Committee.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in St. Vincent — and I say this quite with modesty — who has studied the issue of reparations as much as I have,” Thomas said, adding that he had been doing reparations work since he lived in the United States.
He said that in 2000-2001, his firm in the United States joined up with a Jewish lawyer Ed Fagan to bring a reparations case.
“… in 2005, we formed the St Vincent and the Grenadines Reparations Movement, which was eight years before the Prime Minister’s national reparations committee.”
Thomas also gave insights into why he accepted a senatorial appointment under the ULP in 2013, later becoming the candidate for South Leeward in 2015, when he lost by 118 votes.
“Because the prime minister said, ‘I am tired’, and I want the transition to a new set of leaders’,” Thomas said.
“That’s a time when Camillo and Luke Browne — so I went for the okey-doke, thought the man really wanted to retire. I want to transition. And that proved not to be.”
Thomas said that after being appointed a senator, Gonsalves told him that he had to begin canvassing if he wanted to become a candidate.
“I went on the ground. I campaigned. I won the candidacy, I contested the election. I lost by 118 votes,” Thomas said.
“… people don’t like to hear me say this, but primarily because I did not get the kind of support that any candidate for any party should have received. But I don’t want to dwell on that; that’s passed,” Thomas said.
I often wondered why the government is borrowing so much money from foreign entities, why the economy remains under developed and most of our people remain un employed and under payed. My conclusion: the government is not working for the interest of its citizens but for foreign entities who reap the rewards of all this borrowing.
In my opinion it’s Corruption to t he bone. Will love to see some people bank accounts.
Saint Vincent is a family-owned business that has a 100,000 black slaves. Remember Jomo telling the truth is not malice, it is simply highlighting corruption in government.
The man trashed his own reputation/character mercilessly and now he is blaming others. What a blatant lie on others for trashing his reputation.
There is nothing left to trashed. He did it himself.
PercivalF2, either your head is very deep in the sand or, you’re a political prostitute