BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AN increase in the level of transparency and accountability that currently exists regarding the Federation’s Citizenship By Investment (CIP) Programme is expected to take effect.
This was the promise made by Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas yesterday (July 8) during an address to the nation via national radio.
In recent times, the local CIP has been under intense scrutiny with an abundance of unanswered questions being thrown at officials of the Programme and the Prime Minister concerning control of the fund into which the proceeds are placed and the number of passports sold, etc.
Following the conclusion of a recent meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government where Prime Minister Douglas submitted a report on the local CIP, CARICOM issued a communiqué which stated that the body acknowledged “the importance of such programmes in improving the fiscal position of some Member States at a time of acute economic and financial stress...”.
However, CARCOM urged countries with “such” programmes to “co-operate and co-ordinate their regulatory systems with respect to both the CIP and to financial services generally given the imperative of enhancing the security of the Region while ensuring the protection and expansion of their revenue base”.
And according to Dr. Douglas, the local CIP is “the most reputable programme of its kind in the world”, but noted that work would be done to increase its level of transparency and accountability.
“Indeed we are already hard at work in responding to the strengthening of our Citizenship by Investment Programme. Although our programme is still the oldest and most reputable programme of its kind in the world, and although our due diligence procedures are rigorous and second to none and second to no other country, we intend to raise the Citizenship by Investment Programme to an even higher level of transparency, accountability and regulation than already exists.”
The Prime Minister said his Cabinet has already approved an action plan to facilitate enhanced cooperation and collaboration and a team has been set in place to execute it.
“In this regard, we intend to enhance our cooperation and collaboration with regional and international governments to ensure that we maintain and even exceed the most rigorous international standards. Already, the Federal Cabinet has approved an action plan involving enhanced security regulatory compliance and administrative strengthening. To achieve this important objective, an especially appointed implementation team has been given the responsibility of executing the action plan in keeping with the policies established by the government.”
Dr. Douglas however gave no details about what these additional checks and balances to be implemented would entail and by what time the enhancements would be applied to the Programme.
