Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, says House Speaker Rochelle Forde is trying to “block” two questions he has submitted to Parliament about the government’s use of public funds.
Leacock, a member of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), said he submitted the questions for the meeting of Parliament slated for Wednesday.
“… the Parliament that’s coming up, I wrote some questions, and as I could have anticipated the speaker done write to block me from asking the question,” he said at the NDP’s campaign event in Campden Park on Tuesday.
“What am I asking? You got $28 million from ALBA and neither the director of audit nor the accountant general could say where that money went,” Leacock said, referring to monies received from the government’s former oil initiative with Venezuela.
“All they could say, it did not go into the Consolidated Fund. It went straight to where he wants it to go. That’s Ralph and St. Vincent for you,” Leacock said, adding, “It’s unlawful, and it’s among other things that they’re doing.”
It was the second time that Leacock had raised the issue in days, having done so in Layou on Saturday.
General elections are widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
Leacock, who will seek a fourth consecutive five-year term as an MP, told NDP supporters in Layou that he did not believe that there would be another session of Parliament before the vote.
He said that in writing the three questions that he is allowed to submit, “it brought home forcefully to me how bad a state we’re in”.
Leacock said he addressed a question to Minister of Finance Gonsalves, noting that every year, the law allows the minister of finance to spend money by way of special warrant but has to bring those warrant to Parliament for subsequent approval.
“‘Tell me when the last appropriation bill came to the Parliament for special warrants’,’” Leacock said, quoting his question.
He said he asked this because the last time, the government had spent over EC$100 million without parliamentary approval.
“So, none (special warrants) came last year, and we are in the 10th month of 2025 and none has come yet,” Leacock said.
“And so, I skillfully asked, ‘Tell me how many did you issue in the first quarter of the year? Tell me how many did you issue in the second quarter of the year. Tell me how many issued in the third quarter of the year, and tell me where we are now in October,” Leacock said.
He said he deliberately framed the question that way “because they are so busy emptying the Treasury that their hope and expectation is that by the time they are swept out of office, we would not have the monies to kick-start and get the country going.
“Wheel and come again. We know what we are about, and we will hit the ground running,” Leacock said.
He said the other question noted that it is the 10th month of the year and Parliamentarians are to receive the director of audit’s report to carry out their parliamentary oversight to ensure taxpayers’ money is spent properly and accounted for.
“You know why we can’t have it? Because if we got the 2023 audit report, you may not have to have an election because everything will be there in the wash of how they have, again, mismanaged your moneys of the country,” Leacock said.
“So, I said, ‘If you had brought the 2023 reports’ — but this is what I’m insinuating, because I don’t think the Speaker will allow my questions to be answered – ‘have you paid back a single cent to the government of Trinidad and Tobago, who you have owed $11 million in 2017?’
“Not a cent has been repaid,” Leacock said.
“I said, ‘If I had the 2023 report, it would show me that, just as I have said to you before, that they spent $180 million unlawfully without the approval of the Parliament.
“‘You would see that the director of audit asked the accountant general to account for $29 million of ALBA monies.
“Ralph, put this in the pipe and smoke it. And the accountant general, says, ‘Madam Director, I can’t answer that, because I never received that $29 million, it went straight to IADC.’
“In other words, the government got those ALBA monies and it went straight to an account, not into the Consolidated Fund. You see, those are the issues of misbehaviour in public office,” Leacock said.
“A good friend of mine in the audience said, ‘Don’t say anymore that if they lose you going jail dey thing.’ So I ain’t saying it. I stopped saying it because ah frightening them, but I’m saying it to whet the appetite. There is enough misbehaviour in public office for every one of them to be examined and found, wanted and dealt with by the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,” Leacock said.