$165m spent on Beryl relief — Camillo

Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves says EC$165 million has been spent so far on recovery from Hurricane Beryl, which impacted the country on July 1, 2024.

He told Parliament on Monday that the central government spent EC$120 million, and cash and in-kind contributions from NGOs and other entities amounted to EC$45 million.

“This is an unprecedented amount of expenditure in the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he told Parliament as he responded to a question from East Kingstown MP, opposition lawmaker Fitz Bramble.

“We’re less than one year removed from the passage of Hurricane Beryl, and we’re already approaching $200 million in expenditure. And much of the housing expenditure, particularly with the prefab housing and the like, is yet to come,” the finance minister said.

He told Parliament that EC$88.3 million of the EC$136.4 million supplementary budget that lawmakers approved for response to Hurricane Beryl had been spent. 

Gonsalves said that while the overall implementation rate of the EC$136.4 million supplementary estimates was 65%, the implementation rate on the recurrent side was about 80%.

“There were greater challenges,” the minister said, noting that the supplementary estimates were approved two weeks after the July 1, 2024, hurricane, and that the government was operating on several assumptions about the work required and the resources it would receive from third parties.

He told lawmakers that the government had overestimated some elements of the supplementary budget.

“So, we ended up spending less than we needed to spend to get some of the work done,” he said. 

Gonsalves said some elements were delayed by contractor availability or logistical challenges in the wake of the hurricane.

“Some elements that we budgeted to pay through government funds ended up being covered by bilateral grants, NGO support or third-party assistance, and some funds from pledges or development partners were not forthcoming in as timely a manner as we desired, causing delays in the commencement of some of the projects.”

Bramble had noted that Parliament approved in July 2024 a supplementary budget of $136,446,00 in response to the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

He asked the finance minister to say how much of the $136,446,000 was spent and to highlight what factors/issues, if any, prevented the full implementation of the supplementary budget.

In response, the finance minister reported that while EC$2.5 million was budgeted for the purchase of land, mainly in the Grenadines in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, at this initial stage of the rehabilitation, no significant land purchase was required.

“Instead, the main focus has been on rehabilitation of damaged properties — level 1 and level 2,” Gonsalves told lawmakers. 

“We also had in the supplementary budget $1.9 million for the purchase of aggregate,” he said, adding that this was based on the assumption that there would have been an insufficiency of aggregate to meet demand.

“But, in fact, for those first few months, there was not an aggregate shortage in the context of the Grenadines construction,” Gonsalves said, adding that the government did not have to spend EC$4.4 million of the supplementary estimates.

He said that while EC$10 million from Taiwan was allocated to phase 3 of the Ministry of Housing’s home reconstruction efforts, only EC$2.7 million was spent during the first six months after the cyclone.

Gonsalves said this was because the Housing and Land Development Corporation, which was contracted to do the work, took more time to get going because of the magnitude of the assessments that had to be done.

The government had allocated EC$3.5 million to the Ministry of Urban Development for building temporary jetties in the Grenadines.

This was ultimately reallocated and reassigned to the Port Authority, which then entered into partnerships with other third parties, like the Gumbo Limbo group,  to complete a lot of these works under the auspices of the Port Authority.

“So that was again money that was budgeted that didn’t need to be spent by the central government, because it was dealt with otherwise.”

In the Ministry of National Mobilisation, EC$4 million was budgeted for the provision of relief supplies such as generators and tarpaulins.

“However, NGOs grants and donations covered the majority of the tarpaulins, generators and the like that were necessary.”

Gonsalves said the Ministry of Tourism was given EC$1.5 million for the improvement of tourism sites affected by the hurricane.

BRAGSA, a state agency, has to do those evaluations but was “so swamped with the cleanup in the Grenadines and the repair that the assessments necessary to unlock the resources to do those improvements didn’t take place until much later in the year.

“So, we roll that money into the 2025 budget and those things will be completed this year in 2025,” the finance minister said.

EC$1.3 million was spent in 2024 to rent apartments. However, more than that was incurred, the finance minister told Parliament, adding that some of the money was spent this year.

The government had budgeted EC$13.4 million from the Caribbean Development Bank to repair government facilities.

“That money did not become available as quickly as we would have liked, so we’ve just unlocked those resources now, so that money was not spent last year.”

The government had allocated EC$2.1 million for the restoration of Salt Whistle Bay, but the repair was done for EC$750,000.

Gonsalves said $500,000 was budgeted for the ON-SITE internship programme, but there was insufficient uptake or expressions of interest in the Grenadines in that regard.

For the PRYME, $500,000 was allocated, and 89 persons have received PRYME grants to date.

The minister said that so far in 2025, in addition to that $88.3 million, the government has spent an additional $32.2 million on hurricane relief.

EC$9.6 million has been paid essentially through bank cards for various supports, with a further EC$1.4 million paid to ferries that were providing free service to the Grenadines and EC$11.9 million for the purchase of building material for homes.

Gonsalves said that some of the money spent so far this year has not been journalised, but the amount on the books so far is EC$32.2 million.

“For example, the money that has been paid for the prefab homes is not yet reflected here,” Gonsalves said.

“But even if we use the number on book, it would say that $88 million was spent in 2024 another $32 million was spent thus far, in 2025 and we know the number is higher, but we can say that the government has spent more than $120 million in the Beryl relief efforts since the passage of the hurricane, and that third parties and NGOs, by our own assessment, by what they’ve reported to us, have spent roughly another an additional $45 million in cash and kind,” the finance minister said.