Central Kingstown MP St. Clair Leacock has noted that St. Vincent and the Grenadines can now see how the government is managing the nation’s money while that administration is still in office.
“In the earlier years, you’re forming a government and they were coming out of government without being audited,” Leacock told a New Democratic Party campaign event in Green Hill.
“In other words, you have to wait five and seven years to know if they were speaking the truth. But time has caught up with them,” he said, noting that the latest audit report is for 2022 and shows “we ain’t they good”.
“This country is in a mess, and the guys running this country have been getting away with murder,” Leacock said of the ruling Unity Labour Party.
“Left to me, they woulda gone long; long time ago. But alyo say Major too aggressive and he too this and he too the other.
“We shudda done get rid ah he long, long, long time ago. He 10 years overdue, but nutt’n before yi time,” Leacock said, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.
He gave an insight into what the audit report said about the government, which Leacock said, “some people holding on to for no good reason.
“And they have to be careful, because their grandchildren will ask, ‘Papa, why did you allow all of that nonsense to happen and you did nothing?’”
He noted that in the report, the director of audit said:
“Four significant observations ultimately impact the financial discussions were noted during the audit of the financial statements. These factors are deemed critical and their unresolved status will influence the accuracy of the financial statements and the finance that can be placed upon them to assess the government’s financial position at the end of the fiscal year.”
Leacock pointed out that saying the factors were deemed critical meant, “if you don’t do something about it, something bad will happen” and “‘unresolved’ means this thing has been going on and on and on and on, and it’s time to bring it to an end”.
Noting that the director of audit said the unresolved status of these issues influences the accuracy of the financial statements, Leacock said, “In other words, the director is not so sure that the financial statements that are coming before her are accurate.
“And she highlights some very specific things … She says, delayed communications of revenue and expenditures transactions external to the government’s accounting system, SmartStream, by respective ministries or departments to the accountant general.
“It taking too long to get the information,” Leacock commented.
He said that in the report, the director of audit said that the recording of debt is also a problem.
“… is not consistently reflected in the books of the government. I précis it for her,” Leacock said.
“So, even the debt of St. Vincent, we don’t know it to be true. And most likely — and you will see in this — it is more than was revealed and is being revealed at the moment. We’re drowning in debt,” he said, holding up the audit report.
He pointed out that the report said there was insufficient disclosure on capital revenue and capital expenditure to evaluate their alignment with the purposes approved by the Parliament.
“The records of this country are not being properly kept,” Leacock said, adding that when opposition lawmakers go into Parliament “and we get up man after man, and speak and speak and speak and explain and explain, they get upset on the other side of the house.
“Every one of us from [Arnhim] Eustace on to [Godwin] Friday now as the leader of the party. Fitz [Bramble] as our economic spokesperson, Daniel [Cummings] as an engineer, yours truly is a management consultant, Nature [Stephenson] from his vantage point, we say that this paper presented to the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is not worth it’s salt,” Leacock said, apparently referring to the budget.
“And we speak specifically and expressly of the bogus nature, the dishonest nature, the lying nature, the stealing nature, the rotten nature of this government.”
He said that the government said in 2022 that they would collect EC$265 million under other receipts.
“And we said, ‘How on God’s earth that could happen? Why are you doing that to our people?’ And he skin up he face, he round he face, and he ring up and he twist up, and he prance up, and he rude up, and he said, ‘I will do it. I am the Prime Minister’, ‘I am the Minister of Finance.’ …
“You know what they get? $1 million under other receipts. They fall short by $264 million,” Leacock said and told the meeting that was why the roads they have travelled on could not be fixed.
“… when, as Doctor Friday say, you’re going in the hospital and you’re going like you camping, you got to walk with your own pillow, your toilet paper; when you have to buy, thing to wipe your bottom in school, when the roads can’t fix, you can’t get medication, it’s because the guys are lying through the teeth,” Leacock said.
“And I say it in a way that they get upset. But I say, if the people in the public service who present this would do it for the Greaves, the Bonadies, VINSURE, OT, Laborde or any businessman in town, they would be fired immediately. Fired for unprofessional work. That is what many are holding on to and are holding their hand to the fire,” Leacock said.
“Let me say it this way. It’s bad enough that there are people in the Ralph Gonsalves administration who know these things to be untruths and remain there. But it’s worse for those who are coming in with wide eyes, open eyes and ears… They should be beaten with many stripes…”