Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves’s brother-in-law, Cecil Harris, is the person in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) with a contract that pays him EC$40,000 a month.
Harris, a civil engineer with training and experience in civil engineering, law, and project management, is the Government of SVG’s project manager for the Taiwanese-funded US$125 million Strengthening Health Resilience Project.
Opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) candidate for North Leeward, Kishore Shallow, mentioned the contract on Hot 97 FM on Tuesday, but did not name Harris.
However, independent sources identified the contract holder to iWitness News on Tuesday.
Shallow told Hot 97 that contrary to the ruling Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) campaign slogan, “Labour is Working fuh We”, the party is actually “working for their circle”.
The project that Harris manages includes the construction of the 135-bed hospital being built at Arnos Vale, comprehensive health system reforms and management of consultants.
According to Harris’ LinkedIn profile, he obtained a first degree in civil engineering from Southampton University in 1979, and was trained in construction engineering and management, civil engineering by the University of the West Indies from 1980 to 1982.
He also holds a degree in law from the University of London, which he obtained in 2005 and in 2015, he was trained in geothermal energy basics by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Before he took up his current post on Jan. 1, 2025, he was the program manager for the Caribbean Development Bank Natural Disaster Management Projects in SVG, from Jan. 1, 2022.
From 2013 to 2021, he was the consulting senior engineer for the Government of SVG, responsible for technical reviews, project development, project implementation and project management support to the Central Planning Division and Ministry of Works, on World Bank Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Projects, in SVG, a US$68 million portfolio.
Between 2009 and 2013, Harris was the chief technical officer/chief engineer on contract with the Commonwealth Secretariat in charge of planning, development, implementation and management of all public sector building and infrastructure projects with the Ministry of Works, Government of Grenada.
The profile says he has lived and worked throughout the Caribbean but mainly in Trinidad, Dominica, Grenada, SVG and Tobago in various capacities as resident engineer, design engineer, and chief construction engineer.
‘ULP is working for themselves’
Shallow, who is also president of Cricket West Indies (CWI), is making his first outing in partisan politics and is hoping to defeat the ULP’s Carlos James, who won the seat by one vote in 2020, on his second attempt.
Speaking at the NDP’s rally in Biabou on Nov. 1, Shallow held up a brief bag and said he had files on members of the ULP administration and might disclose them after clearing with party president, Opposition Leader Godwin Friday.
He took the bag with him on his appearance on Hot 97 on Tuesday and pulled various envelopes from it, including one marked “Oney” and another “ULP Treasury”, adding that he had other papers in the bag but was saving some for the NDP’s rally in North Leeward this weekend.
“ULP keep talking about ULP working for we. What we could safely say is that the ULP is working for themselves — as in the party. The leadership of the party is working for their circle,” Shallow said.
He said he had done his investigation and had facts to show salaries and benefits given to “the people in that circle”.
Shallow said he had the name of the gentleman but his lawyer had not given him clearance to reveal it.
“… but he’s very close to the Prime Minister,” Shallow said, adding, “I even have the contract number,” he said as Luke Boyea, the manager of Hot 97, on seeing the document, remarked, “Jeez!”
Shallow continued:
“While poor people are here struggling, while we here being oppressed, people can’t even afford — based on the poverty assessment report, they’re making $9 a day and less, you know how much this man making per month, right here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines? … Over $40,000 every single month. That is an annual salary of … nearly half a million dollars in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Shallow asked listeners to consider the number of people that EC$40,000 could employ.
He, however, said that what was worse was that the person was also receiving transportation, travelling, telephone and housing allowance in addition to the EC$40,000 salary.
Shallow said that in addition to that man, there is “a set of people who are just there. And it is not that they are employed only, but they are not doing anything related to government business. They are just on the payroll.
“So, you have he family, don’t want to call the man name, because he ain’t doing too well in health. I ain’t go call that name dey,” Shallow said, apparently referring to another person who has a contract.
“In fact, the two ah dem ain’t doing too well,” he said in the Vincentian vernacular, he said, apparently referring to a third person.
“But what this shows is that people are making close to $10,000 per month by just being in the circle of the ULP.
“So, in addition to this man who making over $40,000 a month, you’re talking about others just there being paid a salary from the treasury, not the ULP treasury [in] this case, but the national treasury. They’re getting paid money for just being in the circle of the Unity Labour Party.
“And most importantly, while other Vincentians are suffering, when we go to the supermarket, we can’t afford meals, we can’t afford to buy our groceries so that we could go home and cook our meals.”
Shallow said that on Nov. 27, “Vincentians have the opportunity to really be part of a historic change, to be part of a new dispensation that brings new and fresh ideas to St Vincent and Grenadines, who takes us beyond just a one-man show, and we all have a say in how we build an advancing country”.
Contract amount ‘very high’ — source
On Monday, a source familiar with how compensation packages are arrived at for people who work on contract for the government, told iWitness News that people who are awarded certain contracts are often paid at a particular level because they do not receive certain benefits to which permanent workers are entitled.
These include pension and group health insurance, the source said, noting that in the case of the Government of SVG, health insurance does not arise.
The source, however, told iWitness News that people on contract are often paid gratuity of up to 25% of the value of their contract.
They, however, commented that EC$40,000 per month is “very high”.
The source said that in determining whether the contract represents value for money, one has to know if the process was competitive and what other qualified applicants had requested as their compensation package.
‘an incorrigible liar’
Shallow’s revelation on the radio show came three days after the prime minister challenged him to reveal the contents of his bag.
Gonsalves said Shallow had shown himself to be a total failure as president of CWI.
“I’m not going to get involved about conversation which he and I had, but what I can tell you, this, Kishore Shallow is an incorrigible liar.”
Gonsalves said Shallow must “come clean” and say whether he has links with a company in Barbados and whether that company and you had a link with former NDP candidate for Central Leeward, Ben Exeter, which company tried to be an agent to sell St. Kitts passports and when the government of St. Kitts and Nevis realised what was happening, they put a stop to it. Is it true that you are bigging it up?” Gonsalves said.
The prime minister was referring to citizenship by investment, which he opposes for SVG and which the NDP, including Shallow, supports and has pledged to implement a programme in SVG, if elected to office.
“Answer the question, because you wanted to have a big contract with this company?” Gonsalves said, adding that he was “not making any suggestion about anything.
“But you have a briefcase? Open the briefcase? Because I have a lot of things to talk about. If you have a briefcase, I have a trunk,” the prime minister said.
On Tuesday, Shallow said he was not involved in any business that sells passports.
“Absolutely not! Absolutely not! … In fact, I didn’t even know these businesses they’re talking about.
“… What PM needs to do is come forward and provide facts to people. Because he has been getting away with this for a long time, coming in front of people and blatantly telling mistruths…” Shallow told radio and social media audiences.
“I think he has concluded in his own mind that Vincentians … are fools, so anything he says, we just accept. … the difference between the PM and I, when I speak, I going to provide facts.
“So, whenever you come in with these things, tell them, bring the facts to the people. Because know that when I come and I speak, when I pull things from my briefcase, they’re going to be factual,” Shallow said.
I hope he’s had all his covid shots.
We couldn’t hire two vincies for this job? One a civil engineer and the other a lawyer? That’s nepotism and corruption at it’s highest. We have to stop listening to the pm’s explanations about anything,period. He can’t keep bull shitting us and getting his way. We the people are the ones suffering while this leader and his family are living like lords over us. This nonsense needs to stop.