Last Updated on February 21, 2020, 3:32 AM AST by Anthony Morris
A call has been made for Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris to give an account for the millions of dollars generated from the sale of St Kitts and Nevis passports and placed into a hastily-established Hurricane Relief Fund within the Office of the Prime Minister following the two hurricanes in 2017.
“It is now 2020 and our parliamentarians have not received any disaggregated information that would tell us how much money was received into the so-called Hurricane Relief Fund, what else the money was used for and how much have been used. That is why we have called it the “Harris Re-Election Slush Fund,” said Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon Dr Denzil L Douglas during his weekly radio call-in programme on Tuesday night.
A Roof Repair Programme has operated out of the Office of the Prime Minister instead of the Ministry of Human Settement which has responsibility for housing.
Dr Douglas said scores of persons are still suffering extensively as a result of varying degress of damage to the roofs.
He said nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars was collected by the Harris-led Team Unity administration for the purpose of fixing roofs, but as when he walked through and visited several persons are still living “with leaking roofs and with tarpaulins over their roofs, yet, Harris boasts of a three-quarters of a billion dollars Hurricane Relief Fund.
Dr Douglas noted that the Citizenship By Investment Unit announced that the Roof-repair programme had attracted the “most money ever” which on a good year under my Administration would mean upwards of $400 million dollars.
“So where is the rest of the money? How is it being used? There is no accountability for the monies received in the CBI programme because it is being run entirely from the Office of the Prime Minister,” said Douglas, the political leader of the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP).
While several roofs have been repaired, Prime Minister Harris has been accused of replacing the roofs of family members, friends and supporters and ignoring scores who support the opposition SKNLP. Although some SKNLP supporters have been helped others who support even the PAM have complained bitterly of living in homes whose roofs have been damaged by the two hurricanes in 2017.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
