Last Updated on May 17, 2024, 4:45 AM AST by Anthony Morris
Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr Terrance Drew expressed his concern for the critical condition of the Development Bank with over $333 million debt, which is a result of previous government’s inaction.
PM Drew has strongly condemned and highlighted the corrupt “peace” program, due to which the revenue was going into the pockets of comrades of former leaders instead to the individuals who were willing to help.
Due to the downfall of the development bank, no recognized financial institution now wants to cooperate with the bank, which is affecting the entire country. Apart from this, the leader of St. Kitts and Nevis has also shared some excerpts, which states that the last audit of the bank was done in 2018.
“I now share an excerpt of the original forensic audit. It is important to reiterate that we are undertaking a financial audit at this time as the last was one was done in 2018,” added Prime Minister.
In the excerpt, a sum of $22 million is completely untraceable, which highlights the mismanagement of the previous regime. PM Drew further said that the bank has taken a loan of $100 million from social security, however, the then ruling government halt repaying social security in 2021.
He has also accused the former Chief Executive officer of the bank of filing a case against the bank, which has severely affected the audit process. The current ruling leader highlighted, “the former CEO under whose watch all of this took place has outrageously brough a case against the Bank, and following the forensic audit the Bank has countered.”
The current ruling Labour Party understands the importance of social security, which is why they immediately restart the payments to them, reflecting their commitment to saving the existence of the bank. Unfortunately, the bank is unable to meet its monthly obligations due to the debt.
“This Labour administration, understanding that we could not afford for social security to fail, immediately restarted making the payments to social security. However, the Development Bank debt is so great ($333 million) that it cannot meet its monthly obligations in full,” remarked PM Drew.
The student loan program has also been highly affected due to the heavy debt. The government of the Twin-Island Federation responded to the matter and approved $10 million of assistance for the benefit of students.
Under the leadership of PM Drew and Labour administration, the Development Bank is working diligently to heal the shortcomings through productive marketing strategies and innovative good governance practices.
The government of St. Kitts and Nevis has already started working to stabilised the refunctioning of the bank by resuming payments to social security. Furthermore, the leader of the twin-island Federation is committed to implement every possible measure to bring back the development bank to its place.
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.
