Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said Wednesday he was not confirming or denying any correspondence he might have sent regarding the construction of an EC$22 million official resident for the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Is not a subject at this stage that I want to comment upon. That sounds like a journalist who might be in possession of a letter who wants me to confirm whether or not I wrote that letter” Gonsalves on NBC Radio in response to a question read to him by the host from iWitness News.
“I’m not prepared at this stage to comment. If I wanted that matter to be ventilated publicly in relation to any issue as alleged, I would have already done a public ventilation,” the prime minister said.
He said government involves “knowing when to do certain things in the public space and when not to do them In the public space”, adding, “These are matters of judgment.
“But it is true that there is a dwelling which is being built by the Central Bank for the governor, where the price tag is wholly excessive and does not reflect a particular level of prudence.
“And that is a matter on which I was recently advised, and it’s a matter on which I have engaged my colleagues, and it is a matter which I am hopeful would be resolved in a manner which is satisfactory to the people or the currency union, and also, very much the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
The prime minister said he did not want to say more than he had said.
“And I’m not confirming or denying any correspondence I’ve sent or alleged to have been sent until I consider the time appropriate. I try not to get ahead of myself.
“I think that is a fair position, but I reasonably suspect how the question is framed, that a journalist wants to do a story, but I think I’ve given him a story in the way in which I spoken without giving him, necessarily, the story which he wants,” the prime minister said.
However, multiple sources have told iWitness News that Gonsalves did write the Feb. 17 letter, suggesting that Timothy Antoine, governor of the ECCB be disciplined or resign over the construction of an EC$22 million “palace” as his official residence in St. Kitts and Nevis, where the bank is headquartered.
The “confidential” letter was addressed to Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, chairman of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) Monetary Council, suggesting that the 10,000-sq-ft property be sold.
“This palatial official residence of the Governor will undoubtedly be furnished in a manner and circumstance not incongruent with its grounds, landscape, ambience, architecture, sense and sensibility,” Gonsalves said.
He suggested that the cost for the upkeep and staffing for “this grand, but ill-conceived residence for the Governor is likely to be significant, if not excessive.
“The poor and working people of our region are being called upon to foot the bill. It appears as though the unelected Levites and Mandarins have gone stark mad!” Gonsalves said.
He said he is opposed to the governor of the ECCB occupying such a residence.
“I suggest that the Monetary Council give consideration to selling it to the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to be used for whatever purpose it divines: Perhaps as the official residence for its Governor General or as a high-level, exclusive tourist accommodation. This suggestion, of course, depends on the magnanimity of the government of St. Kitts-Nevis to save the face of the Bank from ignominy.”
Gonsalves said the Governor of the ECCB needs, and deserves, suitable and comfortable accommodation.
“Accordingly, the Monetary Council may consider starting afresh this exercise, completely outside the remit or control of any Governor,” the prime minister said.
“I am trying to rescue the Governor, whom I admire greatly, from this monumental blunder. The Governor of his own motion may wish to consider whether or not his continued occupancy of his Office is tenable in all the circumstances. This is likely to be a painful, personal decision.”
Gonsalves said that the matter would “rightly enter the public domain for public discourse”.
Copies of the letter began circulating on social media Tuesday night and have generated some discussions.
“As Prime Minister, I am both responsible and responsive to the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I am unable to defend this wholly indefensible project, ‘the Governor’s Palace’. It cannot be spun in any manner which does not engender derision,” the prime minister said.
He urged Browne and other ECCU leaders “to grant this submission urgent and favourable consideration.
“Of course, the decision resides collectively in the Monetary Council,” Gonsalves said.
However, some commentators pointed out that Gonsalves said that the official residence was nearing completion.
“If it’s near completion, how come they’re just finding out?” one commentator said in a WhatsApp message to iWitness News.
In the letter, Gonsalves said his finance minister, Camillo Gonsalves, a member of the Monetary Council of the ECCU, advised him about “the extraordinary sum of EC$22 million” being expended by the governor of the ECCB to build an official residence for the governor.
“This act of excessive spending is an outrage! My Minister’s report shocked me to the core; it is an absolute scandal,” Gonsalves said.
“Clearly, there has been an insufficient transparency by the Governor on this matter; and the oversight expected by the internal review mechanisms of the ECCB, the Board of Directors of the Bank, and the Monetary Council has self-evidently been below acceptable or prudent standards.”
He said that the responsibility for the “over-the-top, unacceptable extravagance” rests at Antoine’s feet.
“Such an appalling lack of judgement, pursuit of apparent vainglory, and a total lack of sensitivity or prudence, invites disciplinary action,” the Vincentian prime minister said.
The ECCU countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and SVG and the British territories of Anguilla and Montserrat.
Gonsalves said the ECCU member-countries “cannot countenance an expenditure of at least EC$22 million on a 10,000 square feet mansion of veritable palace proportions, especially at a time when the people of our region are facing huge economic challenges, inclusive of rising food prices and the haunting spectre of increased poverty or immiseration.
“The ECCU cannot afford a Governor who has an appetite for such unaffordable opulence,” Gonsalves said.
He said he had been advised that “the ‘Palace Project’ is so far advanced that it has to be completed. But it ought never to have come to this”.
The PM noted that he served as the member of the Monetary Council for SVG from March 2001 to late 2017 and has followed the history of the ECCU from its very beginnings.
“A hallmark of previous Governors of the ECCB has been their modesty in comfortable accommodations, and their concomitant aversion to ostentatious living,” Gonsalves said.
He said he supported unequivocally the appointment of the current governor.
“I was impressed not only with the rare quality of his mind, his skills, and his Chrisitan virtues, including prudence and modesty. To aver that I am disappointed in him in this venture is an understatement; as I write this, I am shaking to the essence of my being.
MILLIONS BY WAY OF OVERDRAFT ARE LAVISHED IN SVG YEARLY WITHOUT PARLIAMENTARY APPROVAL AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND NO ONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE. RALPH PEEP IN YUH OWN BOWL.
Pot ah tell kettle e bottom black, r is it a distraction from his own wastefulness and unaccountability?
So ,is you alone supposed to have nice things? Black people can’t have nice things too? If a relative or somebody close to you lived in the property you won’t say what you’re saying now,I’m sure. Look at it as an asset of the ECCU.
The AIA had all sorts of cost overrun (Vincentians not even sure what the real cost is) without accountability. Maybe the mansion had similar overruns. Is it that the trend setters not liking the trend set because they not the one benefitting?