BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DEPUTY PREMIER in the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM)-led Nevis Island Administration (NIA) the Hon. Mark Brantley, has described the scheduling of the latest Emergency Sitting of the Federal Parliament as an attempt to embarrass the NIA.
Word of the sitting began circulating on Monday (Sept.15) however, the reason for the scheduling of the meeting – according to some Parliamentarians – was unknown at that point.
The sitting, scheduled to convene at 10:00a.m., got underway shortly before midday and the Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas informed the House that the purpose of the meeting was to lay a resolution before that body for the guaranteeing of $1M for the NIA to assist with meeting its wage bill.
It was subsequently withdrawn after Premier of Nevis the Hon. Vance Amory indicated that the sum was not necessary.
Prior to the commencement of the sitting however, Premier Amory was summoned to a meeting with the Prime Minister which he attended.
On his “On the Mark” radio programme last evening (Sept. 17), Brantley said “there was only one problem…nobody asked the Prime Minister for any guarantee. There was no discussion between the Federal Government and the Nevis Island Administration…”
Brantley has concluded that entire incident was nothing short of an attempt to embarrass the NIA, the party in which he serves as Deputy Leader.
In explaining his point-of-view, he informed that sometime prior to the scheduling of the emergency sitting of the Assembly, the NIA’s Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary made contact with the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank seeking $2M as a safety net, just in case they were unable to meet their wage bill.
He said the sum was subsequently revised to $1M but they were told by the bank that they would have to check with their major shareholder.
He also said the NIA was able to honour its commitment regarding the payroll without the aid of the $1M which they sought from the bank.
Brantley indicated that the situation could have been easily remedied if the Prime Minister had simply called the Premier of Nevis to ascertain what the problem was or if there was any.
“Let me tell you all what the plan was. Radio stations and the blogs and everything already started up and what they wanted to say is that we cannot pay civil servants…because an election is close… So the problem now is that they seeking every way….to embarrass the Nevis Island Administration. Because they want to say to people that the CCM don’t know what they doing, notwithstanding that for nearly two years in government now, we have run this island on revenue and while doing so have brought down our debt.
The Deputy Premier described the incident as a “manufactured emergency”.
“This was a discussion…between our Permanent Secretary in Finance and our banker… There was no discussion, I’m told, between the NIA and the Federal Government. There was no discussion between the Hon. Premier as Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister as Minister of Finance at the Federal level; none whatsoever…”
