CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - IN response to the accusation of mismanaging Nevis’ finances which has made thing difficult for the Concerned Citizens Movement-led Administration, Leader of the Nevis Reformation Party and former Premier Hon. Joseph Parry told Members of the Nevis Island Assembly that his Administration was faced with a global recession and the temporary closure of the island’s major revenue-earning entity.
The accusation was made by Premier Vance Amory during his presentation of the 2015 tax-free $164M Budget on Tuesday (Dec. 16).
“Here is what NRP faced, I don’t know why the gentlemen don’t accept it and move on. We faced a recession, but in addition to that we faced a hurricane that closed the Four Seasons for 18 months, Hurricane Omar. Do you know that Omar was a blessing in disguise? It was a blessing in disguise because when Omar came we were able to use the insurance money to restore the hotel and keep it open,” Parry said on the following day.
He said that the hotel would have been permanently closed were it not for divine intervention.
“The hotel was on the brink of bankruptcy to be closed down and, most likely, never to be reopened under the name of Four Seasons. That is where we were when God sent Hurricane Omar and saved us....but people don’t know, and those who know don’t say.”
In his contribution to the Budget Debate, Parry intoned that the CCM-led Administration needs to come to grips with the reality of challenges to the global economy and postulated that the island could not only depend on the Four Seasons Resort for the growth of its economy.
“The Minister of Finance says what he says and keeps on blaming the Nevis reformation Party. He better understand what is happening in the real world and where the Four Seasons stands.
“I told them year after year Nevis cannot run on one hotel. I remember in 1990 I spoke to my leader Dr. Simeon Daniel. Dr. Simeon Daniel said he wanted independence for Nevis. I said to him, ‘Dr. Daniel I am not against independence for Nevis, but how are you going to sustain yourself? He said, ‘The Four Seasons.’ I said, ‘Do you think one hotel can sustain Nevis, you think one hotel can keep Nevis independent?’ And think about it...Nevis can’t go on, because Nevis has one hotel. It is so naive, it is so ridiculous, it is so embarrassing.”
He also commented on the termination of a number of government employees, claiming that it was a political decision by the CCM Administration.
“When the Government changed and the Minister of Finance said that there were pigs’ snouts in the trough. When he made that comment and he had to, I can’t quote him but what he was saying is to let off people because they were sucking the economy of the country. That was not an economic decision; that was a political decision to satisfy his friends and his supporters.
“If you are a serious politician you don’t hurt a family. You don’t hurt family to satisfy your friends, your colleagues and your amazon! Because, I will tell you something, in the end when the rubber meets the road they going to say to you, ‘I know nothing about you, you didn’t have to do it, I didn’t hold your hand and make you do it.’”
The Opposition Leader lamented that when those employees were sent home the decision of so doing had killed the confidence of the Nevisian people, and that the former employees had lost their energy and hope.
On Thursday January 16, 2014, Opposition Senator in the Nevis Island Assembly, Hon. Carlisle Powell had accused the CCM Administration of wanton widespread victimisation on government workers and employees of statutory corporations and even the private sector on the island.
He was at the time a guest on Freedom FM’s ‘Good Morning St. Kitts-Nevis’ hosted by Maurice ‘EK’ Flanders, where it was alleged that near 200 workers were sent packing.
To the many statements, in which names of persons allegedly victimised were called, co-host of the programme, Austin Edinborough remarked: “It is despicable that a government would commit these acts to their own people. Now that is a clear indication of dictatorship!”
Since the alleged firing of the employees, there had been much debate on talk shows on both islands of the Federation, in which representatives of the CCM said the number claimed by the NRP was exaggerated.
Deputy Leader of the CCM, Hon. Mark Brantley, who is also the Deputy Premier of Nevis, and the Hon. Alexis Jeffers were very vocal on the issue, stating that the CCM Administration could justify its action and noted that among those sent home were individuals who were in receipt of a monthly salary but did nothing to earn it.
