Photo: Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas
Press Release:
By: Erasmus Williams
BASSETRERRE, ST. KITTS, April 19th 2017 – Former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and current Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said he would not be surprised if his successor, Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris, has given instructions to public servants not to provide certain economic and financial information to the team of IMF officials now in the Federation to conduct the annual Article IV Consultation.
Dr. Douglas, during his weekly radio programme “Ask the Leader” on Kyss 102.5 FM on Tuesday, was asked by the host of the programme that based on the widespread practice of “deception” on the part of Prime Minister Harris, whether he is “concerned of the possibility that Dr. Harris will coerce officials in both the public and private sectors to colour or present inaccurate or false information to make him, as Minister of Finance and his Team Unity Government, look good and if he was confident the visiting IMF officials will not be duped.”
“Dr. Harris practices deception at all levels and I would not be surprised if he has already given instructions to the public servants with whom the IMF authorities would mainly be in contact with. I believe for example, when they go into the Development Bank (of St. Kitts and Nevis), he would have instructed his brother and his brother will ensure that certain files are not available to the IMF. This is what I expect will happen as a result of the practice of deception, so that a full and accurate picture is not presented to the IMF authorities for them to do as a complete assessment as they would wish to have and thus give a true picture of what the economic and financial situation is in the country,” responded Dr. Douglas.
Dr. Douglas is however of the view that the information is there and it will only be a matter of time.
He recalled: “When we were putting together the (home grown) IMF programme together in 2010/2011, one of the requisites that they built into the programme is that they would not allow in the programme that they were monitoring, any arrears to businesses and entities that were providing goods and services to the government.”
Dr. Douglas further recalled that when Dr. Harris was appointed Minister of Finance between 2008 and 2010, he refused to pay small creditors to make the books look good to make the books looked good.
“Millions of dollars were in arrears and most of that was owed to ordinary small business people who had provided goods and services to the government, in order to give a (false) picture that looked rosy and to make him look good as the Minister of Finance,” said Dr. Douglas, who indicated that the IMF picked it up.
“(They said) it was wrong. This programme you are going to enter into, although it is your home-grown programme, we would definitely insist that you do not accumulate any arrears,” said Dr. Douglas, adding that now that Dr. Harris is Prime Minister and Minister of Finance “I expect he would try to hide information from the IMF.”
The Washington-based financial institution noted that the St. Kitts and Nevis economy recorded strong growth at about 5 percent, recording the strongest growth in the Caribbean region during 2013 to 2015,” the same year the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration of then Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas left office.
The IMF predicted growth to moderate to 3.5 percent in 2016 and 3 percent, on average, over the medium term.
However, the Basseterre-based Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has twice reduced the growth rate of St. Kitts and Nevis for 2016. The ECCB in its January 2017 update, estimates the growth rate for St. Kitts and Nevis at 2.84 percent.
Based on the policies of the then St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party administration the Debt to GDP ratio would drop below 60 percent in 2017, below the ECCB’s Debt-to-GDP target of 60 percent by 2020.
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