BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DESPITE his adamant stance that the Beacon Heights Report issued to Cabinet would not be made public, calls are still being made for Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas to allow public scrutiny of the report by releasing it.
Elsroy ‘Toonai’ Dorset, former member of the defunct United National Empowerment Party (UNEP), went through the streets of Basseterre late last week publicly voicing his concern and view over the Beacon Heights saga, specifically calling for the report delivered to Cabinet to be made public.
The Beacon Heights project is a Social Security Board (SSB)-funded initiative which is to see the construction of 191 homes over a number of years. The first phase (10 houses) was to have been completed in July 2011. However, concerns became abundant after the deadline had past and the homes still in a state of incompleteness.
Further to that, public outcry was heard after information about the SSB’s major investment in the programme with minimal return was circulated and confirmed.
At his last monthly press conference, Dr. Douglas reiterated to the media that the Beacon Heights Report was submitted to Cabinet and because “Cabinet papers” are not for public consumption, he would not release it.
“I will never do that, because the Social Security Board has issued its own press release…You don’t make public Cabinet papers unless there is something that you want to report on, as Minister Nigel Carty does every Cabinet session. He brings items from the Cabinet decisions to the public but I brought to the public what the Cabinet position was. It accepted the report that came from the Social Security Board that was brought to the Cabinet by the Minister responsible for Social security and we are satisfied as a Cabinet that the Social Security Fund is very, very sound. We do not think that there is any threat to its soundness. We think that the Beacon Heights Project was in fact a very good project…”
Dorset, speaking with SKNVibes, explained that he is in total disagreement with the Prime Minister on this matter and believes the people of St. Kitts and Nevis – the main investors in the Social Security Fund – should be given an opportunity to peruse the document.
“There is a report out that Social Security issued but the Prime Minister is saying he is not going to issue that report. I think something is wrong with that! The Prime Minister is saying there is nothing to hide. Well, if you don’t have anything to hide in the report, issue it to the public. It is the people’s business to know what the report says. It is the people’s money. It is the public’s business to know about their money. It is not Douglas’ bank account we are speaking about here. We are speaking about Social Security’s money, the people’s money! We are the investors in that!”
In strengthening his call for the report to be made public, Dorset pleaded, “If this is a democratic country and democracy is really at work, issue the report... if we are dealing with transparency and accountability. That is what the people want.
“If the Prime Minister still refuses to release the report, the public should take a stand. Do like me, take a stand and go through the streets of Basseterre calling for him to issue the report. What’s wrong with my people?”
