CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The St. Lucia authorities Wednesday stated it had obtained an audited report into the controversial preparations relating to the acquisition of 100,000 doses of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine that left Castries nonetheless awaiting the supply of the product regardless of having paid seven million EC {dollars} (One EC greenback=US$0.37 cents) upfront.
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Phillip J Pierre stated that the report will likely be launched “when the federal government sees it match,” as he criticized the earlier administration for paying the funds “upfront” with out receiving the vaccines “as much as at the moment.
“If correct process had been used to buy these vaccines, that will by no means have occurred. St Lucia is the one authorities that paid cash prematurely. St. Lucian taxpayers are the one taxpayers who’re up at the moment nonetheless affected by the recklessness of that motion,” Pierre stated in a press release.
“The purpose at all times forgotten is that it’s not my cash. That’s the taxpayers of St. Lucia, the individuals who pay taxes; a few of it’s grant cash that different folks’s taxes pay. How will you take seven million {dollars} prematurely and pay to a provider, and as much as today, the folks of St. Lucia haven’t obtained their seven million {dollars} again, and that case now’s within the courts of america,” Pierre stated.
Pierre stated he has nothing in opposition to the provider, “my enterprise is the individuals who took seven million {dollars} of taxpayers cash and went in opposition to all the foundations.”
On July 1, 2021, the St. Lucia authorities of then prime minister Allen Chastanet issued a press release stating that together with The Bahamas and Barbados, it initiated a bulk buy of Astra Zeneca vaccines by Radical Radical Investments, owned by Barbadian developer Mark Maloney, as a part of a regional bulk-purchasing association between the Caribbean international locations.
“St. Lucia’s contribution in direction of this association was seven million 300 and thirty-five thousand, 600 and thirty Japanese Caribbean {dollars} and fifty-six cents (EC$7,335,630.56) to safe 100 thousand (100,000) vials of the vaccine.
“The federal government of St. Lucia, by the Ministry of Well being and Wellness, permitted this buy by Radical Investments Restricted, following verifications by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Well being and Wellness to make sure the provider’s capability,” the federal government assertion stated.
“On the time of the transaction, there was a lot uncertainty in regards to the provide of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, and the federal government was actively in search of dependable sources. The partnership with two different CARICOM international locations offered the perfect avenue to take action,| it added.
Radical Investments had filed a lawsuit in opposition to Good Vibrations Leisure LLC, the purported provider of the vaccines, and several other different companies and people concerned within the try to buy the vaccines.
Radical Investments Ltd.’s court docket declare is that it was deceived and lured into an elaborate rip-off to advance US$10.2 million for a million non-existent doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
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