Dissenting Justice of Appeal Gerhard Wallbank on Wednesday revealed that the St Vincent government received US$600k for vaccine roll-out from an unnamed source whose identity was withheld.
Justice Wallbank also revealed that the terms and conditions for the various financing sources for the vaccine campaign, including in respect of funds supplied by foreign ‘friendly government sources’, were not put into evidence.
The Government of St Vincent allocated a budget of US$1,369,380.00 to its vaccination roll-out campaign according to the judgement handed down on Wednesday by ECSC.
According to the document, US$234,380.00 was budgeted to come from the government’s own funding; US$460,000.00 from external sources, including US$410,000.00 from an unnamed ‘friendly government source’; and the balance of US$789,380.00 was to be financed further.
The document further disclosed that the government strategy to address the gap of $789,380.00’ included raising a bank loan of US$100,000.00, a payment of US$368,000.00 from a trust known as the Mustique Charitable Trust, a payment of US$200,000.00 by way of an ‘Alba Grant’ and a further US$600,000.00 from a ‘Friendly Government Source’, the identity of which was also withheld.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld the government’s argument for a so-called vaccine mandate in 2021, which left hundreds of public servants jobless.
