Grant calls $50M loan to Government “Voter shopping with houses”
Claims some should be for crime fighting…

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

Lindsay Grant: Leader of  the People’s Action Movement

The political party’s Leader made this pronouncement during his monthly press conference held yesterday at the Ocean Terrace Inn.

Grant addressed five issues, which he claimed are urgent concerns to the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, and among them was the $EC50m that the Labour Party Government borrowed from the Social Security Fund.

 “At the moment in our nation’s history when it is clear that we must begin to rethink the strategies of crime fighting, in order to confront the crisis now facing St. Kitts and Nevis the Labour Government instead chooses to borrow $50 million from Social Security and announces that houses will be built, which is in effect, voter shopping with houses,” Grant said.

Grant was however quick to explain that he did not mean money should not be spent to build homes, but it should also be allocated to crime as a matter of urgency and priority. He noted that 13 murders have so far been witnessed in the Federation and new crime-fighting strategies must be implemented to combat the upsurge in crime. ~~Adz:Right~~

He pointed out that the government is obligated to create a safe environment, but residents are saying they do not feel safe.

Grant also pointed out that guns are obviously entering the Federation through its porous borders and “yet the Labour Government has not placed an officer from the Customs Agency on the Defence Council”. 

“This sort of government inaction,” he continued, “is exactly the lack of transparency and accountability in decision-making that puts us all at risk during the surge in violent crime we now face in the Federation.”

He holds the view that the Labour Government is failing in its role of good governance and it is apparent that the nation is facing a collapse of institutions.

“From the problem of crime, resulting from our under-resourced Police Force, to the current situation where our prisons have inadequate staff while they are filled to capacity, to the Solid Waste Management and Port Authority, which must together have financial difficulties in order to explain the problem in garbage collection, the collapse of institutions due to the failing Labour Government is therefore evident all around us,” he said.

The Political Leader claims that the EC$50m loan would negatively impact residents when they become pensioners. Additionally, he stated that contributors to Social Security would have better off if the Board were to lend that amount at an eight or nine percent interest rate rather than lending the Government at six percent.