BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has slammed the previous administration for alleged mismanagement of monies which formed part of the SEAF (Small Enterprise Assistance Fund) project, and for allegedly failing to impose proper and strict repayment regulations.
Dr. Harris made the comments at his monthly press conference held at the Parliamentary Lounge, Government Headquarters on Tuesday (Oct. 13).
He said some EC$11M was squandered prior to the February 16, 2015 General Elections as a “pre-election gimmick”.
“In the same way we regret the behaviour of the former government with respect to the SIDF and the disadvantage at which our locals had been put, we have concern over the squandering of EC $11million just before the General Elections in a project called SEAF. This project was managed by Ambassador at SKIPA Rosalyn Hazelle. It was a pre-election gimmick to win votes.”
The Prime Minister said candidates, their relatives and friends were beneficiaries of the SEAF programme, presumably with a view to opening a business or businesses. He however indicated that “no viable business is there to show for the largesse to any of these beneficiaries”.
Dr. Harris, who is also the Finance Minister said while “collections have been horrible” and “no serious effort was made to hold beneficiaries accountable for repayment”, “we intent to recover the people’s money, all $11M of it”.
Three hundred individuals were beneficiaries of the programme, according to Dr. Harris’ records. And as of October 6, 2015, only 75 of them began repayment which amounted to 1.55 percent (approximately EC$171,000) of the principle amount.
“We thank those who, since the new day dawned on February 16, 2015, have begun repayments and we invite those who are delinquent to urgently take steps to repay before the strong arm of the law takes hold. We are not opposed to publishing the names of those owing under that programme and are yet to make proper repayment arrangements.”
The Prime Minister said issue has also been taken with the amounts paid to the administrators of the SEAF project.
“While SEAF collections were disastrously almost non-existent, we are hard pressed to rationalise the need to pay persons already in the public sector hefty sums while they presided over this SEAF programme that was neither meeting the test of accountability nor transparency. We have difficulty with the payments to such public officials as Ambassador Steve Wrensford of $50,000 and Rosalyn Hazelle who the record would show earned $76,000.”
