BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has declared that his Cabinet has agreed to offer the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) EC$10M as budgetary support to assist in its governance of that island.
“Today, I am pleased to advise that the Cabinet has agreed that we should offer historic budgetary support to Nevis Island Administration the first instance of EC$10 million. This sum, of course, will be transferred to the account of the NIA once our Financial Secretary has been advised by the officials in the Ministry of Finance in Nevis how to effect this particular significant transfer.”
Dr. Harris, who is also the Federal Finance Minister, made this declaration yesterday (Apr. 2) during his first Monthly Press Conference as Prime Minister of the twin-island Federation.
He also declared that the transfer to the NIA’s account would be done in the coming week, which is in keeping with one of the agreements of the Charlestown Accord.
“Next week, we intend, with the help of God, to make a very special payment to the Nevis Island Administration in keeping with the Charlestown Accord which we signed on the eve of the Elections. We want the people of Nevis to know that we will keep every word that we have made to them. Many of you may have heard me saying throughout the campaign that an injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere. And it is even more a tragedy when good people see injustice and do nothing. My Government, the Government of National Unity, has seen an injustice and has decided to do something about it, because we are committed to work for the people.”
Prime Minister Harris was high in praise of Premier Amory, whom he claimed has been fighting a good and courageous fight over the years for the people of Nevis, noting that “he is not a man to get easily flustered” even when he failed in his bid for assistance from the former Federal Government.
“…He found in the leadership of the rejected Administration a leadership that would not listen to reason and a leadership that wanted to overturn, through the backdoor, the decision of the people of Nevis to put in place a CCM Administration. That leadership is now gone and we committed to the people of Nevis certain things in the Charlestown Accord. And what we recognised from the information, then publicly available to us, is that Nevis was not getting its fair share. And we said while we could not go back and undue every wrong that have been done, as a sign of faith, as a measure of commitment to a new order and a fairer order, that we will make a gratuitous payment to the Nevis Island Administration as soon as was convenient.”
In his brief remarks, the Hon. Vance Amory intimated that the formation of the tri-party alliance Team Unity is the best thing to have happened in the Federation.
“I want to assure members of the press and the people of St. Kitts and Nevis that the evolution of Team Unity and this Government which the people have elected is the best thing to happen to Nevis and St. Kitts for a long, long time.
He, too, spoke to the EC$10M transfer and thanked his Team Unity colleagues for making it possible.
“I think we have seen that there is a common policy and a common purpose that the people can achieve great things. And the announcement made by the Prime Minister this morning of the impending and the decision to make a transfer of $10 million to the Nevis Island Administration is something the people of Nevis and the people of St. Kitts can feel good about. Because it is part of a promise which has been made by the Team Unity Government when we did the Charlestown Accord, the agreement which we signed to signal our first commitment to the unity concept that there was that lack of cooperation from the outgoing Government, a Government which has been removed by the people, to commit a fair share of the SIDF funds to the people of the Nevis Island Administration.
“And so today we are seeing a reversal of that trend and I want to thank my colleagues, the Prime Minister and other colleagues in the Team Unity Government in the Cabinet for that fair decision and that transfer which will be made.”
Premier Amory noted that Nevisians’ perception of the relationship with the Unity Government and the way they intend to do business in going forward would ensure things would be done in a way different to that of the past.
“And we need not to worry about that, because we are committed to ensure that this new Government, the Team Unity Government, remains intact, that it goes on as long as the people want us to go,” he added.
The Charlestown Accord is an agreement that was signed at the Red Cross Building in Charlestown, Nevis on Wednesday, December 17, 2014 among the Concerned Citizens Movement, People’s Action Movement and the People’s Labour Party Nevis; the three political parties that formed the Team Unity Government.
According to Team Unity, the goal of the agreement is to “guide the process of healing between the people of St. Kitts and of Nevis and to ensure that all the people of the Federation are permitted to equitably enjoy the full benefits of their citizenship, and to access any and all resources of the nation of St. Kitts and Nevis”.
Among the many commitments and promises agreed on is that “Revenue from the Sugar Investment Diversification Fund (SIDF) or its successor agency shall be shared equitably with the Nevis Island Administration on a pro rata population basis”.
A promise that was also made to the people of Nevis during the election campaign is that EC$300M would be given to the NIA.
