BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Political Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay Grant, stated yesterday (May 20) that his party would have no interest in spending treasury funds on Commissions of Inquiry against the current Labour Government if elected into office.
With the officers of a Commission of Inquiry by the Nevis Island Administration being sworn in this morning, the topic of spending public funds to investigate a past government’s actions is currently a hot-button issue in the Federation.
Grant stated, however, that his party views Commissions of Inquiry as a “waste of time, a waste of resources and a waste of money, the people’s money”.
“When we have a Commission of Inquiry in this country, it costs us millions of dollars…and at the end of the day, no one is convicted, no one is charged. Really it is just…a political stunt put on by governments, and we are not going to take part.
“You have to bring down [Queen’s Counsels] from all over the world at a tremendous cost, when you have one in every four persons in this community poor, and you spend millions of dollars on a Commission of Inquiry. It is a waste of time,” he said.
The Political Leader said that, in the past, Commissions of Inquiry have often been instituted over miniscule matters and could have been prevented with proper legislation.
“I think the time now is to look forward in terms of putting the systems in place that would make it absolutely unnecessary for a Commission of Inquiry. We need to put in place the Freedom of Information Act to give people information. We need to put in place the Integrity in Public Life Bill to ensure that politicians and civil servants are held to the highest standards.
“Right now, you have a lackadaisical system and people are saying after the fact that they are trying to find out what happened by spending millions of dollars,” the Constituency Four candidate said.
If PAM were to be elected into office in the next General Election, Grant said that the party would spend public funds on pressing social matters rather than investigations into the current Labour Government.
“Our government is forward thinking. Our government is looking to see how we can get more money into the people’s pockets. Our government is looking to see how we can improve the healthcare of our country. Our government is looking to ensure that urgent and critical need of the abundant crime in our country is curtailed.
“These are the matters that need urgent attention, and that is why we are saying that a change has to come. Not just a change for change’s sake, but a change for the better, ensuring that St. Kitts and Nevis continues to have [economic] growth like we did from 1980 to 1995 with a six percent growth per year,” he said.
