On the court ruling and the unconstitutionality spoken of with respect to the vaccine mandate, opposition MP St. Clair Leacock said it is so easy for Vincentians to conclude or come to the belief that this is a one-off experience or just a slip in administration attention to detail.
“The fact of the matter is that the unconstitutional way is the way for the Unity Labour Party government, not just the vaccine mandate; you must have heard about the PetroCaribe company”.
Leacock’s comments came while speaking at the NDP’s virtual rally last Thursday, March 23.
“We brought this to the parliament already by way of a question and had the answers. They were an unlawful government to spend over $100 million worth of money without the express approval of Parliament; the Minister of Finance apologized and said it won’t happen again”.
“Dr. Friday came right behind that and asked them to account for the overdraft monies. Up to today, they are still unable to present a proper explanation for their actions, and when they have gone sky high with the overdraft, they just convert it into a loan without the approval of the parliament”.
Leacock said he had stated multiple times, on the NDP platform, on radio, and at various public places, that if the ULP had lost a general election, they (the NDP) could have brought them to court for misbehavior in public office.
“We could have brought them to court for misbehavior in public office because they spent over $100 million in Petrocaribe money without the lawful authority of the parliament of St Vincent. Even worse, think about it: up to today, the largest single project in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Argyle International Airport, has never been audited by the Director General of Audit. Think about that, the largest single project”, Leacock stated.
Leacock said a document passed in the parliament last week called “Petrocaribe St Vincent and the Grenadines” was just laid; however, he could not have let it go unnoticed.
“They just laid it down; I got up and said, Madam Speaker, not so fast. I read the document; the document says that this company is no longer a ‘going concern.” Now, that’s an accounting expression, but basically what it means is that it’s broke, it’s no good, it shouldn’t even exist, it can’t pay its debt, and it is literally out of business”.
“Just imagine that in the first instance they never brought the terms and agreement of this company to the parliament. The view was that ‘me go show you my title deed.” That’s how they treated us: with contempt. “Within a quick time, a $100 million dollar company has disappeared”, Leacock said.
