KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC -St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves stated Wednesday he would neither affirm nor deny sending any correspondence to his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Gaston Browne, concerning the development of a multi-million greenback (One EC greenback = 0.37 cents) official residence for the Governor of the St. Kitts-based Jap Caribbean Central Financial institution (ECCB), Timothy Antoine.
“I don’t need to say greater than I’ve stated there, and I’m not confirming or denying any correspondence I’ve despatched or alleged to have been despatched till I contemplate the suitable time. I attempt to not get forward of myself,” Gonsalves stated on his weekly program on the state-owned NBC Radio.
However within the letter, Gonsalves means that “the Governor of his movement might want to contemplate whether or not or not his continued occupancy of his Workplace is tenable in all of the circumstances.
On February 17, 2025, Gonsalves wrote to Prime Minister Browne, “This’s prone to be a painful, private determination. ”
In response to the letter, a duplicate of which has been obtained by the Caribbean Media Company (CMC), Gonsalves wrote to the Antigua and Barbuda chief, indicating that he had grow to be conscious of the matter by means of his Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves, who can also be a member of the Financial Council of the Jap Caribbean Forex Union (ECCU).
He stated the finance minister had suggested him “concerning the extraordinary sum of EC$22 million being expended by the Jap Caribbean Central Financial institution Governor to assemble an official residence for the Governor.
“This act of extreme spending is outrageous,” Gonsalves wrote in his letter to Prime Minister Browne, including, “It’s an absolute scandal.
“Cleary there was an inadequate transparency by the Governor on this matter, and the oversight anticipated by the interior assessment mechanisms of the ECCB, the Board of Administrators of the Financial institution, and the Financial Council has been under acceptable or prudent requirements.’
The ECCB serves as a central financial institution for Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Kitts-Nevis, the international locations that, along with the British territories of Montserrat and Anguilla, kind the ECCU.
Prime Minister Gonsalves informed Browne, the chairman of the ECCU Financial Council, that the spending on the residence “rests on the ft of the Governor” and that “such an appalling lack of judgment, pursuit of obvious vainglory, and a scarcity of sensitivity or prudence, invitations disciplinary motion.”
Within the three-page letter, Gonsalves stated that the ECCU couldn’t countenance an expenditure of a minimum of EC$22 million on a ten,000-square-foot “mansion of veritable palace proportions,” particularly at a time when the area’s individuals are dealing with substantial financial challenges, together with rising meals costs and the haunting specter of elevated poverty or immiseration.
“The ECCU can not afford a Governor who has an urge for food for such inexpensive opulence,” Gonsalves wrote, including that he has been suggested that the “palace venture is so superior that it must be accomplished.”
Gonsalves stated that he had supported Antoine’s appointment and stays against the Governor occupying such a residence.
“I recommend that the Financial Council contemplate promoting it to the Authorities of St. Kitts and Nevis for use for no matter objective it divines,” he stated, including that “this suggestion, after all, depends upon the magnanimity of the federal government of St. Kitts and Nevis to save lots of the face of the Financial institution from ignominy.”
Gonsalves additionally advocated for “appropriate and comfy lodging” for the ECCB governor, including, “I’m attempting to rescue the Governor, whom I like vastly, from this monumental blunder.”
Gonsalves stated he’s conscious that this matter will enter the general public area, however he informed his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart that as prime minister and aware of the individuals of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he’s “unable to defend this wholly indefensible venture.”
The prime minister informed radio listeners that whereas he’s not a topic he would need to remark upon at this stage, he’s conscious of a “journalist who might need a letter who needs me to substantiate whether or not or not I wrote that letter.”
He stated the best way the query is framed. He’s “not ready at this stage to remark,” including that if he wished the matter to be ventilated “publicly about any subject as alleged, I might have already executed public air flow.
“Authorities includes realizing when to do sure issues within the public house and when to not do them Within the public house. These are issues of judgment. Nevertheless, there may be certainly a dwelling that the Central Financial institution is constructing for the Governor, the place the value tag is wholly extreme and doesn’t replicate a specific stage of prudence.
“And that may be a matter on which I used to be lately suggested, and it’s a matter on which I’ve engaged my colleagues, and it’s a matter which I’m hopeful could be resolved in a way which is passable to the individuals or the forex union, and in addition, very a lot the individuals of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”
