 … Ma'am shpeeker, …the member of the newand of Infotainment to state that this practice was done before. And the member of Brazil, …he can handle himself. You have seen that he can handle himself, he will deal with that. Madam speaker, let me use this quote. Marcus Thuleus Cicero reminds us the wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and the brute by instinct, Madam Speaker, was it shared brute instinct that guided the member for denrinof? Was it? Maybe Madam Speaker, that was the instinct for the member for denrinof to do as he pleases with state funds. The people money for ease of reference, using his ministerial power and authority for expediting projects. That's the job of the board, should never have been your job. Madam Speaker, I said in opposition, okay, and let me just share this experience with you very quickly. I said in opposition, I was asked time and time again by the member for denrinof to submit to him proposals for competition in my community. Madam Speaker, just from where it came from, that couldn't have never been right, never. And you talking about being smart, when you get a chance you will discuss that. Madam Speaker, on the outside there was something wrong, I observed that there was something wrong with what was happening. What do you think I did Madam Speaker? I said never, a minister, okay, should not be the one responsible for doing that. And I never presented a proposal. Now, my new Madam Speaker, leading today elections, I was a little fearful that this member would have gone on the platform and blast me about, you know, offering me money for my young people and so on and so forth. And I said, let me go and get my defense, okay. I went to, which is right, okay. I went to the youth and sports council and I asked them for a proposal to send to the minister. Now, for whatever that is happening in January south, okay, I did not get that proposal. Now, I am even thankful for that because a minister should not be responsible for directing and dictating what money is I used for and where money is a spare. So Madam Speaker, you know they want to talk about the Taiwanese funds. The Taiwanese funds. I have already said that whatever that was presented in that report, I mean, it's modern damage, it's modern. Now you compare that, the Taiwanese funds report whatever it's called. But that's happened at the national notaries and then we are told that, you know, we're not doing anything. One day you will get smart and you will learn how people operate as ministers. One day. That day was not when you directed the funds of the NLA. That day is coming. That day is coming. You see Madam Speaker, when you see people are there and they are quiet and they are taking the time to get their work done properly. When they put in systems and structures and policies in place so that this nonsense trying to be very careful with my words, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, like I said, some people will learn and the day is coming. Okay. Even if there is this to be done and that to be done and this to be done that way. We're just going to bypass all procedures and policies and just get it done on your own. That cannot be right. So Madam Speaker, from my subjective viewpoint. That was the action of one who is reckless, thoughtless, drunk with ministerial power and as such things that he is fearless and ruthless. I spoke to this Madam Speaker. I was not aware that or comprehensively aware that this was taking place at the NLA. And just the behavior of the man. Just his behavior. Just how we behave. Just how we talk. There was something wrong. And what is it I said? I said there was in the campaign. In the campaign I said, you know, I said this is the action of a pharaoh. That's a friend pharaoh. That's a friend pharaoh. So I said this is the action of a pharaoh. So you have a senior pharaoh, junior pharaoh and a friend pharaoh. And a friend pharaoh coming to battle with me in Denri South. But you see how they behave. And even when during the debates they talk about that same member for Denri North talks about, you know, they should recognize him as the member, as the rep for Denri North. And, you know, it's just around the corner. It was just last year. It was just last year. You came to Denri with pharaoh. You did whatever you wanted. You know, the projects here and the health escalator. I mean, because I don't talk about that. That cannot affect me. I'm a man of the people that cannot affect me. That cannot affect me. Never. Never. That cannot affect me. That's right. So Madam Speaker. The member for Denri North told us in this Honorable House when he was referring to the minister's account, and I quote, I directed expenditure to expedite projects, unquote. He directed expenditure to expedite projects. In effect, Madam Speaker, what the Honorable Member did was to abuse his authority as a minister and directed that he be given total control to be given to a special account. So that a special account to be opened so that he can direct the expenses from it. No, you say what you want. Okay. That just proved that it was not open. That's not proven yet. Okay. I don't know what you're drinking, but you're not drinking well. So Madam Speaker, this member directed expenditure as he pleases according to his fancies and delights. Hence, Madam Speaker, you have a minister of government saying to his board, I will take control and you just have to robust on what I say because I am the boss. Madam Speaker, this is tyrannical, this is totalitarian, this is dictatorial. This is simply bad, bad, bad governance, Madam Speaker. It is maladministration. Madam Speaker, it is my subjective viewpoint that when you do that, Madam Speaker, when you engage in this type of bad governance practices, you are in effect ripening the conditions for maladministration. And this is corruption at its core. And I remember, Madam Speaker, when I will come back to that, what they said about Taiwan is money. And they still are trying to say what they want to say about Taiwan is money. They call it corruption. So Madam Speaker, the businessdictionary.com defines maladministration as a situation where the individual or group is just, unjust, dishonest or ineffective in their leadership. In many cases, maladministration means that the circumstance is so bad that it must be investigated. It must be investigated. Madam Speaker, I vehemently condemn the actions. And I didn't just do that coming into ministerial position. I did that long before that while I was in opposition. I said this could not have been right, even without the facts. And you come in and talk about knowledge and being able to be a minister. And then always want to look down on people as if they are second-class citizens. The people know. Shame on you. So Madam Speaker, this is a matter that warrants serious probing and investigation. And it will get to the bottom of this to ensure that such a practice is permanently terminated. Madam Speaker, again, you know, some people look at you and they judge you. They are the tip of the iceberg, as I have said. On the surface, you think they are something, but go deep and you will find maladministration in the system. I thank you Madam Speaker. Honourable Minister for Equity, Social Justice, Empowerment, Youth Development, Sports Culture and Local Government. Member for Groza Lake. Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution allowing the Minister of Finance to raise in the first instance $103 million for the financing of the budget. And Madam Speaker, I anxiously do so because I am, as a parliamentary representative and a Minister of Government, more than prepared to get on with the business of the people in executing the plans and policies that we have outlined in our budget for the benefit of our people and our country. And in the second instance Madam Speaker, $262 million for refinancing of existing debt. And Madam Speaker, we know the situation that we now face as a country with debt. I am also anxious to see us begin to address that situation with a view to reducing and minimizing the incurring of debt as a country. In so doing Madam Speaker, I just want to add my voice to the debate that has been taking place. And I want to say even as a member of this team here who has presented this budget and who are now looking for the financing to bring that budget to reality, I believe that at the core of whatever we do as a government, we must acknowledge and recognize proper governance practices at all times. Now Madam Speaker, during the course of even this debate today, there was a lot of mention about handling of finances, whether it be directly through ministries or statutory bodies. And in the process Madam Speaker, an attempt was made to malign the member for Bruce Lee to suggest and to impute improper motive. And that was done Madam Speaker with inaccurate information. And Madam Speaker, if you will permit me in my deliberation, I will just take a few moments to clarify the matters surrounding and pertaining to good governance and in particular the matters that have been raised in this Honorable House concerning the National Lottery's Authority. Madam Speaker, I suspect that this matter has to be brought to rest once and for all because if not, I rather suspect it will be a recurring subject from time to time. Madam Speaker, I do not know how successful I will be in bringing the matter to rest. But if nothing else, I want to clear the air on what the actual situation is. Madam Speaker, a reference has been made on several occasions to a minister's account. On one occasion, the minister in question indicated that there was never a minister's account. On another occasion, he is ascribing blame to someone else for opening the minister's account. However Madam Speaker, if I may take a historical view of what has brought us to where we are in that situation, let me just indicate. And Madam Speaker, I am reading from the Lottery's Board of Directors' Meeting of Thursday 23 July 2009 When Madam Speaker, at the time I was the minister responsible for youth and sports and as a result responsible for the National Lottery. I want to preface my contribution by saying that I fully understood the provisions of the Act of the Lottery and I recognized that as minister, though I was in a position to give policy direction I did not have the authority to interfere directly with the day-to-day running of the Board. That is inappropriate and I think that is the observation that I made that sparked off all of this debate that is going on on the subject. You would recall Madam Speaker in the first round of debates on the estimates. The member for Denry North stood beating his chest about how he was able unilaterally to deliver funds to members of parliament, parliamentary representatives without having to go through the Board for approval. Madam Speaker, during my contribution I sought to point out to the minister that that should not be something he should be proud of that is in fact inappropriate and contrary to good governance and a violation of the National Lottery Act. Rather than take good counsel, the members seem to have taken offence. But let me just say that there was a member from Kastry Southeast who elaborated on a number of other acts of impropriety. Madam Speaker, I do not assume what the reason is but it appears that rather than respond to the member, the member from Denry North felt well by virtue of my silence perhaps that my fence is perhaps lower that he should jump over my fence and start to ascribe blame and cast aspersions and make allegations. So let me just clear the air. Madam Speaker, I referred to this Board meeting of July 2009 where Director Reid expressed disappointment on behalf of the Department of Youth and Sports and the analysis inability to contribute towards the efforts to attend the Winwood Islands Inter-Schools Championship. Honourable Minister, are you going to make this a document of the House to members? I am prepared to make it a document of the House, Madam Speaker. Yes, and we will need to get the copies, please. Sure, Madam Speaker. Let me just see. Madam Speaker, as soon as I am done, I will make it a document of the House. You make it a document of the House now and we will make copies. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the correction. And Madam Speaker, Chairman Mathre suggested, and I quote, that the National Lottery Authority make preparations for such annual events since the National Lottery is responsible for making contribution towards them. He proposed that a new account be opened at the Bank of St. Lucia Limited for the purpose of these events. The Chairman of the Board Mr. Mathre proposed that the Minister, Mr. Mathre, not Montu, proposed that a new account be opened at the Bank of St. Lucia Limited for the purpose of these events. It was agreed that an amount of $5,000 be deposited on that account every month. And that is to ensure that the following year, because in 2009 they were unable to meet their commitment to sponsor the team to sponsor the team so that come the following year that they would have the requisite resources available through that account that was set up and designated for that sole purpose. Madam Speaker, fast forward 2012, the member for Bruce Lee was no longer in this honourable house, neither was he minister responsible for youth and sports. There was a new minister responsible for youth development and sports, and on the 29th of May, I will read to you from a document that has already been made a document of the house, what the minister said that gave rise to the discussion that is taking place here, and I quote, so in an effort to create a more equitable distribution of funds to the various stakeholders, the following mode of operation shall come into immediate effect as it pertains to the allocation of funds at the National Lottery's authority. The following formula should be applied with regard to the allocation of funds. These are directives coming from the minister. A, one third grants on contribution to youth and sports organization by the board administration, and that is the primary purpose of the board by the way, to provide resources for youth and youth development and sports. B, one third support to facilities, ministry of youth development and sports, and support to national players for trials and special events, and the reserve fund, still within the ambit of the scope of the National Lottery's, and C, one third for the minister's request and support services. Don't ask me what that mean. One third to be allocated for the minister's request and support services. I challenge anyone to point out to me in the National Lottery's Act, the document that governs how the national lottery operates, where this can be justified. That letter was written by Honorable Sean Edward, Minister of Youth Development and Sports. Madam Speaker, at a board meeting, at a board meeting of this, no, I've already presented that, at a board meeting, Madam Speaker, of October 22nd, 2012, the board at the meeting held with the minister, the Honorable Sean Edwards, on October 5th, 2012, the minister indicated that he need to assist various financial requests, sometimes instantaneously. He indicated that he is unable to solely depend on the one third allocation to the fund he requests. The minister requested that the board consider providing a minimum of $200,000 on the minister's account. Now, Madam Speaker, I want to make it clear here that I'm quoting from an official document which is the minutes of the board of the National Lottery's of October 22nd, 2012. So, if you have any mention of a minister's account, I am not the one saying it, Madam Speaker. The board of the National Lottery's are saying here and making reference here to a minister's account. I further quote Madam Speaker that this would not only facilitate the funding of sudden requests but also assist any other ministry that may come to him for assistance, that may come to him for assistance. Madam Speaker, again, Madam Speaker, I make reference to the act, the National Lottery's act and to suggest to you, Madam Speaker, that is highly inappropriate and contrary to good governance. Madam Speaker, further, I want to refer to another meeting, board meeting of the National Lottery's November 16th, 2012, where reference was made to the minister's one third allocation. It was suggested that the disbursement into the minister's account. Here we go again, official reference being made to the minister's account. So, when people talk about the minister's account, it's not a figment of their imagination. It's not an invention by anybody on this side here. It is documented in an official document of the Lottery's board that there was a minister's account and I indicated when that minister's account came into being. Upon request of the minister that the account set up by the Lottery's board for the purpose of providing funds to Winwood Island Games be transformed that his one third, the minister's one third be placed in that minister's account. Madam Speaker, this may have been a communication error and Director James stated that in a conversation with the minister, the minister indicated that on a minimum deposit of $200,000, he may agree to a review of his allocation from a one third to a one fifth share of National Lottery's fund. So, the minister, the then minister, had a share of the National Lottery's fund. The minister had a share of the minister and I don't know if this is already a document of the house but I am prepared to make it if it is not. Madam Speaker, I am here standing and saying emphatically that there was a breach of the National Lottery's Act. I don't expect anyone to take my word especially if you're not familiar with the National Lottery's Act. Madam Speaker, I'll quote from the National Lottery's Act. Policy directions. The minister may after consultation with the chairperson give to the board directions of a general character as to the policy to be followed in the performance of its functions in relation to matters appearing to the minister to concern the public interest. Not his interest, the public interest. The minister may direct that the principle of equitable geographical distribution be observed by the authority in the application of its funds to youth and sports projects and programs. In accordance with the minister's directions, the board shall develop such specific policies. The specific policies, Madam Speaker, shall be developed by the board. So they shall develop such specific policies, guidelines as it may deem necessary and may circulate and disseminate such policies with the consent of the minister. At no time have I seen here, Madam Speaker, where it is said that the minister can unilaterally approve of projects. This boosts resources and make decisions on his own as to who should get what and where what should go. Madam Speaker, application of funds quoting again from the National Lottery Act. The funds of the authority shall be applied for the purposes authorized by this act. So where are you quoting from exactly? Where are you quoting from exactly? Section. Okay, sorry Madam Speaker. Section 23 of the National Lottery Act. Okay, thank you. And I will make it a document of the House, Madam Speaker. It is not already. Applications of funds. That's the subtitle. It says, and I quote, the funds of the authority shall be applied for the purposes authorized by this act. And sorry, I'll say what I have to say. I have to shout. Madam Speaker, we have a situation where the powers of the board was being usurped by the then minister responsible for the National Lottery Authority. And he stood in this honorable house and boldly and proudly proclaimed that he was doing so. That he cannot deny because it is already a document of the House. And if he wishes, I will quote him, prove at him. Now, Madam Speaker, you ask yourself. Let me hear what you say. Madam Speaker, from the onset, the minister seems to have had some issues with the facts. And when the member for Ansleri countries in his presentation some time ago in the House said that the National Lottery was broke, the member for Denver North in his presentation indicated that that could not be so because the National Lottery is the most liquid of all of government's statutory bodies. Madam Speaker, I concur that it should be. But it was not. Now, Madam Speaker, I'm not just speaking in isolation of facts. Madam Speaker, the operating account balance of the National Lottery when I assume office in 2006 and became responsible because at the time the National Lottery had been handed over whole sale to CBN. In exchange for that whole sale handing over, all we received monthly was a meager $25,000 out of which running the office, running the took to the airwaves and said that the former when he had to pay bills at the National Stadium, he said the former minister is responsible for this. I put the blame slowly on his shoulders. It was brought to my attention, but in his exuberance. All right. I've just been informed that the sitting is not been taped. So we're having problems for the stenographers. So can we ask the technicians to look into that please? Please bear with us. It is very important for hands-on purposes. Yes, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I hope not too much of my contribution was lost. Sorry. Honourable member, okay. I'm told the tapes are back running. Can we can we look back please stenographers to see where it is you last heard and perhaps the Honourable member can repeat for record purposes please. Honourable minister, you are asked to start all over again because we have we have breaking in that cannot be is not decipherable and for the purposes of record we need to get it on the record. Yes, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I may not be sorry about that. I may not be able to reproduce my contribution for the team, but you'll get the essence of it nonetheless. Madam Speaker, I indicated that I stood here in support of the resolution before us and that I am very anxious Madam Speaker for those funds the 103 million dollars to be raised so that for my part and on the part of my colleagues that we can get on with the business of the people and implementing the plans and policies that we articulated that the people and dust at the last general elections. I'm also interested in ensuring that we can raise the 262 million dollars for the refinancing of our existing debt, Madam Speaker, because we know our debt situation as it stands is not an enviable situation and that we can begin to address the reduction of that debt and the control of that debt. Madam Speaker, I also indicated that I stand here today because I recognize that in the dispensation of our duties we have to bear in mind as we spend all of those millions of dollars that we do so in an appropriate manner that we observe good governance at all times and the debate here made reference to practices of good or not so good governance and during that debate issues put it into the national lottery came to the fore. Now Madam Speaker, I believe what gave rise to all of this was that during the member, the member for Denry Norf's contribution, he stood up beating on his chest and proudly proclaiming that he, when he was minister responsible for youth development and sports, he naturally approved, endorsed and disposed funding to other parliamentarians and organizations and my turn in making my presentation. Madam Speaker, on a point of order, citing Standing Order 45, the Honorable Member is misleading the House. I never said that I unilaterally approved and disposed funds and I want that struck off the record please. I never said that. If I may, my understanding is that he indicated that you were speaking sort of beating your chest, being proud of what he determines to be beating his chest. Honorable Member, can we get some clarification on that please? Yes Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, at the time I was not quoting Vubatim, but I was in essence giving a gist of what the minister, the former member, the former minister said. Madam Speaker, to clarify the matter, I will quote directly what the member said. I begin at the point where he said, so that when the member for Miku North can come with proposals at the last minute and ask for $7,000 for the Gil Rigorbat Netball Competition for Miku North, I will not ask her to report to the Board. Madam Speaker, it was said here that when the member for Miku North would come with her last-minute request to ask for $7,000 for the Gil Rigorbat Netball Competition for Miku North, I will not ask her to report to the Board, where the Board will take three months to approve the proposal, her proposal. I will approve it right there on my desk and give a directive to the lotteries that they have to facilitate that for the honorable member. That suggests to me, Madam Speaker, without the involvement of the Board as he stated, he unilaterally approved $7,000 for the member for Miku North for her Netball Competition. Okay, so if you prefer your words than mine, go ahead. If you prefer your words than mine, this is already a document of the House, Madam Speaker. It goes for the doing. So, Madam Speaker, I tried to indicate to the honorable member that that was not proper practice and that is not something to be proud of, that he had in fact violated the provisions of the National Lotteries Act and that he contravened what we consider to be good governance. And like I said earlier, if rather than take good counsel, he took offense and that is what precipitated all of what is going on on this debate. And Madam Speaker, in the process, the member denied that there was ever a minister's account from which he had overall unilateral jurisdiction and he suggested that I am the one who opened that account. Madam Speaker, I will go back to my documents to indicate how and why the account was set up. Do you have it? You have not taken my documents because I like to quote directly. 2009 document I am looking for. I have it. Thank you. So, Madam Speaker, I quoted or if I am quoting from a meeting of the National Lotteries Board of Thursday the 23 July 2009 to indicate that then there was one account and a board member Mr. Victor Reed who then represented the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports suggested that a separate account be established for the sole purpose of putting funds aside to sponsor the Wynwood Island School team for Wynwood Island Games and Madam Speaker, I will quote from the document to show exactly what it is that Mr. Reed said at the meeting. Under any other business, Madam Speaker, Mr. Director Reed expressed disappointment on behalf of the Department of Youth and Sports in the National Lotteries inability to contribute towards the airfare to attend the Wynwood Islands into school championship. Mr. Matre that is the chairman of the board then suggested that the National Lotteries Authority make preparations for such annual events since the National Lottery is responsible for making contributions towards them. He proposed that a new account be opened at the Bank of St. Lucia Limited for the purpose of these events. That was the purpose of the account. It was agreed that an amount of $5,000 be deposited on that account every month Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I had no path to play in this because I do not interfere in the daily the day-to-day running of the board. I understand that that is not my role. Madam Speaker, the account was opened on suggestion by one of the board directors and for the express purpose of saving $5,000 a month to avoid a situation that they faced in 2009 when they were unable to meet their commitment to sponsor the team that it will not happen in future. Very right. Madam Speaker, in a board meeting of October 22nd 2012 here was no but before I come to that Madam Speaker let me indicate to you what give rise to the minister's account and the suggestion is that that same account was transformed into a minister's account but what give rise to the minister's account is a letter from the minister written to the chairman Mr. Michael St. Catherine of the National Lottery Authority and the letter reads Sir, in an effort to create a more equitable distribution of funds to the various stakeholders the following mode of operation shall come into immediate effect as it pertains to the allocation of funds at the National Lottery Authority. The following formula according to the minister should be applied with regards to the allocation of funds. A, one third grants on contribution to youth and sports organizations and board administration. One third support to facilities ministry of youth development and sports and support to national players for trials and special events and the reserve fund. C, one third is the minister's request and support services. I would be grateful if you could indicate the amount projected for each area as outlined so as to provide us with a platform from which we can plan in the months ahead anticipating your support honourable Sean Edward minister. Madam speaker in response to this at a board meeting of October 22nd 2012 on the matters arising subhead in allocation of NLA funds at the meeting held with minister the honourable Sean Edwards on October 5th 2012 the minister indicated the need to assist various financial requests sometimes instantaneously. He indicated that he is unable to solely depend on the wanted allocation to fund these requests. The minister requested that the board consider providing a minimum of $200,000 on the minister's account. This would not only facilitate the funding of sudden requests but also assist any other ministry that may come to him for assistance. Madam speaker this is damning. I hold here in my hand an official document of the national lotteries authority the minutes of their board meeting of October 22nd 2012 and here they are making reference to the fact that the minister is asking for $200,000 to be placed on the minister's account monthly that is on the minister's account and further that this would not only well if you don't know what use listen i'm not making it up this would not only facilitate the funding of sudden requests made to you but also assist any other ministry that may come to you for assistance. That is highly inappropriate madam speaker a contravention of the national lotteries act a violation of good governance on the part of the minister then madam speaker they can they should not be coming to the minister for assistance and if they do come to the minister for assistance you should channel the request to the national lotteries board okay that is what should have been done not the minister having his special account and unilaterally approving and deciding who gets what when how and where madam speaker there is also another the another set of minutes of a meeting held by the national lotteries board on November the 16th 2012 on the matters arising the ministers subheading ministers one third allocation it was suggested that the disbursement into the minister's account now madam speaker i'll stop here for a moment because i want to make the point clear that here we had a member of this honorable house standing before us and taking umbridge to reference to a minister's account suggesting that it is a figment of our imagination that we invented the minister's account he said further that there was no minister's account later came to say that it was someone else who opened the minister's account however we have official documentation that there was some minister's account as indicated by the minutes of the national lotteries board on two separate occasions madam speaker i continue and i quote this may have been a communication error and director james stated that in a conversation with the minister the minister indicated that on a minimum deposit of two hundred thousand dollars he may agree to a review of his allocation from one third to one fifth share of the national lotteries fund so now the minister has a share of the national lotteries fund madam speaker the minister has a share of the national lotteries fund whether it be one third or one fifth but it must be at least two hundred thousand for him to agree with the share that he has of the national lotteries impropriety of the highest order impropriety of the highest order if you want to be personal we can be you know yeah it it was agreed that the board would seek further clarification from the minister on this matter madam speaker i say all of this and members here are probably wondering whether i'm just making while allegations and i'm sure they are doubting that the national lotteries act does not make provisions for such actions because they don't think that the minister was out of his mind but madam speaker let me quote from the national lotteries act section 18 policy direction according to the national lotteries act the minister may after consultation with the chairperson give to the board directions of a general nature of a general character sorry as to the policy to be followed in the performance of its functions in relation to matters appearing to the minister to concern public interest two the minister may direct that the principle of equitable geographic distribution be observed by the authority in the application of its funds to youth and sports projects and programs three in accordance with the minister's directions the board shall develop such specific policy guidelines as it may deem necessary and may circulate and disseminate such policies with the consent of the minister yes it says with the consent of the minister but it is the board that will develop specific policy guidelines and as it deem necessary and disseminate those guidelines madam speaker madam speaker further i want to make reference to another section of the national lotteries act section 23 which deals with the application of funds and it says i quote the funds of the authority shall be applied for the purposes authorized by this act and towards youth and sports projects and programs approved by the board let me read that over again madam speaker and programs approved by the board with the consent of the minister madam speaker it did not say programs approved by the minister madam speaker leading up to the last general elections the national lotteries authority or i'm i'm not sure if i'm correct in saying so but funds from the national lotteries authority was youth were utilized for a number of infrastructural projects i challenged the former minister to provide evidence to show that those projects were endorsed or approved by the national lotteries board i challenged that because because that was never done madam speaker and you know in you sit on the side and you will make a comment i i don't want to take you on your tune because a lot of comments were made here madam speaker that could be debunked that were untrue for example in his presentation madam speaker he made reference to a current court madam speaker there's no court in current there is no court in current and trust me if i tell you there is no court in current if there was i would know okay the member for denry north said so stand up an object the member for denry north said so i recall in one of the debates the member for ancillary canrys was lamenting the fact that the national lottery had so little funds and how come that was the case in response the member for denry north indicated that the member was office rocker so to speak because everyone knows that the national lottery is the government statutory body with that is the most liquid and has the most money almost to suggest that he left a lot of money there so let me give you a little history on the national lottery when the national lottery when i became minister in 2006 with responsibility for national lottery madam speaker i inherited an organization that was given wholesale to cbn because the national lottery has the responsibility for paying for the national stadium at boseju that's darin that darin semi stadium at boseju and they were unable to meet the payments they were in trouble with the banks and as a result they handed over the national lottery to cbn and in return all they received on a monthly basis was 25 000 out of which administrative costs had to come out and the balance would be used for youth and sports purposes 25 000 dollars that was that is what i inherited and madam speaker when i became minister in 2006 december 2006 to be exact the national lottery had a balance of a monthly 8 768 dollars and 98 cents 8 000 dollars madam speaker that is all that was there madam speaker fast forward when i left office because i am not in the business as i said earlier of complaining lamenting because we i asked for the job because i know i could do better and so if you give me the job i will do better madam speaker when i realized this dismal situation that grim picture that we were facing i knew our hands were tied that we could do nothing for youth development and sports with 25 000 dollars a month and so we embarked on measures to increase the revenue of the national lottery's authority and madam speaker i'm proud to say that by 2011 november 2011 when the member for denry north assumed the portfolio of youth development and sports and became responsible for the national lottery he found a healthy 552 696 dollars and 92 cents compared to 8 000 dollars that's what he found that is what he found there and madam speaker you are giving me a little time for the time that would be 5 million not 500 000 i assure you of that but madam speaker you would think because you know at the time at the time the taking the takings of the national lottery raised from 25 000 dollars monthly after paying the debt on the stadium they had an average of 500 000 dollars sometimes 600 000 dollars monthly that is what you inherited that is what was left behind for you madam speaker in june 2016 my colleague member for denry south assumed the portfolio of youth development and sports and became responsible for the national lottery's authority and i asked him expecting him to tell me millions i asked him what was the balance on the account of the national lottery's authority madam speaker an organization that collects in excess of 500 000 dollars a month that we found with a balance of over 500 000 dollars had only 86 000 dollars 496 and seven cents and owing and owing over a million dollars in election projects that had been undertaken by the national lottery over a million dollars that had been that had been expended in executing election projects just before the national election that is the situation that we inherited when you left and so when the member for ancillary countries asked what is the situation with the health of the national lottery and he was alarmed that the national lottery didn't have any money he had every reason to to be alarmed and to say what he said okay you know so madam so madam speaker so madam speaker i say all of this i say all of this to say that when people are casting aspersions making allegations and trying to impute in proper motives be very careful because i came into politics first and foremost my biggest asset was my reputation and my integrity and i will not sit idly by and allow you or anyone to be supposed my character to to to solely my name or to do anything well when you did it to me i objected and you had to withdraw it if i am doing the same object object and make me withdraw it and make me withdraw it that's a problem you have you see i i deal with facts and i substantiate the facts that i that i present before this honorable house i don't come here and make allegations and while accusations and twist the facts and and spread propaganda you know but when i speak when i speak i can substantiate what i said and you talk about fields that were abandoned when i left office as minister of youth development and sports the grozily playing field was upgraded with lights the vg playing field that they called a desert was upgraded as one of the best surfaces in the country here where you where you represent and and view fought who upgraded with EU funds the the the marigold playing field was upgraded and we had a number of facilities such as sufre that was completed so when you and on top of all of that on top of all of that the two the two collapsing stadiums that are inherited will both give an attention and repair to the tune of millions of dollars where we were able to host the character games in view fought at the george adlam stadium and got accolades as the facility being one of the best in the region and the games being one of the best organized throughout the history of character and the board says you now darin summy stadium over three million dollars was spent during my time for the upkeep and repair of it after you demitted office we have a stadium in view fought where we have to rebuild we had no choice but to put the hospital there but you spent four and a half years you spent four and a half years in office and after let me delete that let me delete that you talked about a hospital was put there because we had no choice we did not have a choice after one year one of your operatives called on me as minister of sports to return the people's first plain facility to them after one year you came into office you came into office and spend a term almost five years what did you do the hospital is still at the stadium if you give me five years i will not only give you a hospital give you a new stadium on top of that so at the end of the day at the end of the day you all do not can should not have the audacity to sit here and open your mouth and try to to bring up those subjects not because i don't talk about it to think i'm not mindful of it okay so madam speaker madam speaker it is rather shameless on the part of the former sports minister to try to suggest to try to suggest that he left any record of repeat of repeat consequence that anybody should talk about the only thing you could beat your chest about is what you have done before a bit your chest about improper priority malpractice inappropriate bad governance that is what you could be your chest about that is what you could be your chest about yes improper priority that is what you could be your chest about so madam speaker madam speaker i have made my case i'm speaking on a point of order on a point of order madam speaker i'm citing standing order 35 the member is accusing me of impropriety madam speaker and in much the same way i was deemed out of order when i figuratively referred to a member as a political hitman i'm asking that this statement be withdrawn because it is an attempt on my reputation and my character impropriety i will i will trust me and um honorable member you raised on a point of order 35 and said sorry everything i said madam speaker that the member is accusing me of impropriety and i said this is an attack on an attack on my character and in much the same way this morning when figuratively i referred to a member as a political hitman i was asked to withdraw i'm asking that the member withdraw that statement or that allegation honorable minister and member for grozily yes you use the turbine property as regards the honorable member yes you did and understanding orders 35 for it shall be out of order to use offensive insult in no no member shall impute improper motives to any other member of either chamber of this parliament that is impropriety the word impropriety is being used against to unconcern in him honorable member so can you madam speaker i am fully cognizant of the provisions of the standing orders but i would just like to indicate that i did not impute improper motive i established i established throughout my my contribution that in fact the member had practiced bad governance impropriety and what else my bad administration madam speaker i established that my citing from official documents that he in fact did so and i also used his own words that was quoted from a document of the house where he admitted to impropriety so i'm not imputing proper motive improper motives i merely highlighted establish patterns of behavior that are highly improper so madam speaker if you permit me to continue i was short to i am honorable member i need to respond so that both of you are clear on the matter i sort of i saw this coming um honorable member for denry north the minister and member for grozily what he did he stuck to a path to show a result to show a result and what he did he articulated his positions and to show where it is he was going and so proved as far as as far from where he's standing and with the documents quoted and whatever there were in an impropriety on your part in the administration of national law madam speaker i think the language is offensive and it ought to be withdrawn in much the same way this morning i was asked to withdraw a statement which was deemed inappropriate the member cannot be allowed to stand here and referred to me or been guilty of impropriety that is that is more than that is that is more than than debating a matter that is before us that is an attack on my character and my reputation i was stopped this morning i will i was asked to withdraw it it was i used figurative language to refer to you but because of your inability to understand figurative language i didn't want to leave any doubt i withdrew the statement and i'm asking you to do the same use the use of the word hitman i i i i i deemed offensive honorable man honorable member for grossily honorable i think my mic is on honorable member for grossily i think you made the point you came across and you made the point that you wanted to make and actually the use of the words of the member in propriety i wish you to withdraw it because i think you set out clearly on a path that you wanted to prove something which i'm sure in your mind you did okay you did i wish on that point too to to ask honorable members to be mindful of the implications of your words when used as regards other honorable members of this house and i think um whilst i may whilst i may allow certain um certain amount of latitude i i think it is really getting out of control because we will not know it's opening a flood gate and i will not know how to control it to be honest i think in order in order for us to have order decorum in the house that is befitting of this honorable house we need to abstain from these things you want to make a point to make your point an honorable member for minister and member from grossily i think you have made the point that you wish to make and we can do so you can do so without the use of saying in proprietary on behalf of the honorable member so i would like you to withdraw please madam speaker i yield to your request despite the fact that i've established beyond a doubt that what i said was not out of order not out of place sorry but as one presiding over this honorable house madam speaker i humbly exceed and withdraw this the would improperly i will use it elsewhere madam speaker so having established madam speaker that all of these wrongdoings took place under the watch of the former minister of youth development and sports i would like going forward madam speaker that it takes cognizance of good counsel from those who know better and that he do not seek to justify his behavior by making allegations accusations and unfounded statements about others and madam speaker as i did today i assure you that on any occasion especially when i'm attacked i will stand to defend my good name i will ensure that if i cast any aspersions i will substantiate it and defend it and madam speaker that i will continue to uphold the highest standards of good governance and ask my colleagues who i know already engage in such a practice to continue to do so and that they should not believe for a moment that the bad example that have that has been cited on the part of the member for denry north is anything to go by madam speaker i thank you honorable member for castries south thank you very much madam speaker madam speaker like most of my colleagues who have spoken before me i did not intend to speak on this resolution thought that our political leader leader the opposition raised some questions and the member for you for south asked some very putinian questions there was no mention of minister's accounts there were no accusations made and we thought as debates would go that the honorable minister finance when he speaks would seek to answer the questions which raise madam speaker a lot has happened today it is four o'clock and finally madam speaker you said what i was hoping you would have said since morning that the floodgates which will open should have been closed a long time the member for you for north madam speaker pointed out that there are young people out there watching us and expecting from us highest standards of behavior and conduct in the house this debate madam speaker has degenerated and madam speaker what was simple questions on the resolution raised by the member for you for south madam speaker led to the honorable member for ancillary canaries and the member for castries south is to go down a road that was totally unnecessary and madam speaker the member for denry north use the word political hitman and you rightfully although i in my i shouldn't say rightfully in my view i thought it as figurative language ask him to withdraw it because it was offensive and before i say anything or describe anyone in any manner which might be offensive can i ask for your guidance because if an honorable member of this house has said in public that he commits crime by himself and he sends nobody to commit the crime for him should we consider him a political hitman or criminal how should i refer to him because if he says he commits his crime on his own and he sends no one to commit it for him am i allowed in this house to refer to him as the criminal from castry south is is that if he has to commit if he has to commit that's what he said i didn't have the if part but or it was used oh it was used all right madam speaker order 34 34 a 34 is madam speaker the member is saying that i said i am committing crime and he is using the term figurative language i was very clear that if i want to do something i do it myself i do not ask other people to do it for me or i do not pay other people to do it for me to be more precise okay okay madam speaker i accept the correction and i will face my question differently if an honorable member in this house says that if he has to commit crimes he will do it himself and not ask people or pay them to do it for him would you refer to him as a criminal or would you refer to him as a political hitman so i left out the word if i will add it now but the point is made madam speaker because madam speaker and i am saying that to make the point that in this honorable house madam speaker we may come and question where the persons follow the right procedures the right processes but madam speaker it goes in it goes along with madam speaker to start suggesting that honorable members are involved in property especially when it cannot be proven madam speaker there are it can be proven when madam speaker if the honorable member says he can prove in property which suggests corruption which suggests dishonest actions madam speaker then he should provide evidence and i have not heard the evidence but madam speaker let me take you back to where this this whole journey started in a presentation in this house it was suggested by another honorable member that a member for denry north had an account in his name and that the honorable member was signing checks that the honorable member was signing checks the honorable member stood up and made the point that there's nowhere in any bank can you find any account in his name sean edwards and that there can be no proof that he has ever signed any check from the national authorities this is how this issue started in this house the honorable member did not say that there was not an account which was used for youth and sports purposes he never said so he never said so and madam speaker you are lawyer all the evidence that was presented by the honorable member for grozily and denry south speaks of minutes of the national lotteries referring to an account that they termed the minister's account not one letter has been produced from the honorable minister referring to any account that he has deemed or he has named the minister's account those would names used by a food party honorable member you are lawyer isn't there something called a client's account in your office is that client's account owned by your clients honorable member here it is not my place to be lawyer or use my lawyer's hat i am an officer so that is not my role to be a lawyer here madam speaker when you ask the madam speaker a question in this house you don't expect her to answer you you're speaking to the public for the for the speaker for the spirit of the officer so the point is man speak i won't ask you if you have a client's account there are lawyers offices and they have accounts called clients accounts i've said to you go and sue richard fedrick go and deny that you try to bribe the minister the honorable member from cash is not with five million dollars but madam speaker those accounts madam speaker those accounts madam speaker madam speaker those accounts refer to as clients account is not owned by the client it is for the purposes of your clients for your clients business there is no evidence that the member for denry north has any ever referred to any account as a minister's account it was in the minutes of the national lotteries but madam speaker let's go further the minister said proudly and the member for grocery said he bit his chest he said there was an account it was used for youth and sports it was used to finance activities that were of urgent nature that were needed in sen mousha and he said to show him evidence of any activity any project that was funded under that account that was not related to youth and sports show him anyone and he listened to that madam speaker they claim that the account was opened by the honorable minister but today today all of a sudden we're finding out that the account the same account was actually open during the tenure of the member for grocery north i am not saying i'm not saying it was he who personally directed it or whether he gave instructions so we do not know in his honorable house but it was open during this tenure but madam speaker listen to this carefully listen to this carefully listen to this carefully the honorable member finally admits it was open during his tenure but he says it was open to put in monies for national lotteries games that was the purpose listen to that madam speaker that was the purpose i want the honorable member to say to me that the letter that was the letter that was presented by the member for denry north asking for monies to fund scholarships where were those monies deposited you don't know you not listen to this madam speaker listen to this madam speaker we must be really foolish in this country as a minister you wrote asking for monies to pay for scholarships the monies were given to you but you do not know as minister whether monies went to and which account it was placed in and i suspect the minister the member for grocery will also say he never knew why the money what the money was used for the money was placed in the same account but madam speaker what's even more illustrative that letter was written three weeks before elections three weeks before elections of 2011 the honorable member for grocery writes a letter asking for money to pay for scholarships the date is november 2nd by den the first semester of all universities about to end follow me madam speaker follow me universities open in july august so the semester is about to end exams about to start and the minister is writing a letter to the national lotteries for about two million dollars it's not stated but my information tells me it's about two million dollars so he can deny it if that's the case to give scholarships three weeks before elections now that's same minister madam speaker his basis for proving impropriety on the part of the member from then we know is that the act was the the national lotteries are used for purposes which the act did not provide madam speaker does the act provide for two million dollars to be used to pay university education for certain people when when the honorable member for grocery north claims that the minister was involving mal administration and bad governance when he requested that money is be put in the existing account the account that yif on there the account that had two million dollars on a point of order now madam speaker can it be another point of order yes it is 355 where he's in beauty in proper motive i never i never i never ask the national lotteries to put any money in any account i never did the letter he has before him clearly states what i did i asked for consideration for for resources to be provided for a number of scholarships that is what i did so i'd like the member to withdraw that statement madam speaker i repeat what i said the honorable member for grocery made a request for monies to pay for university education and i asked him to indicate to us where would those monies deposited he whispered he did not know and i asked the honorable house i asked the honorable house that a minister three weeks before elections when the first semester of university is about to end is asking for about two million dollars to pay for university education for certain people and he does not even know if the money was given where it was deposited and how it was used i rest my case on that point madam speaker if if you say to me that's what happened honorable member for grizzly enough i am that foolish i accept your explanation madam speaker let's continue so what's not the truth i am asking you a simple question you said you did not know you did not know where the money came from okay he did not know where the money came from but he wrote a letter to national lotteries asking for the money but he didn't know where it came from i didn't know which account it came from it's not account it came from you okay madam speaker let's continue so madam speaker he is saying that the honorable member from denry north the honorable member from denry north was involved in impropriety which suggests corruption and suggests actions which are of a dishonest nature and on the basis of that is that he used national lotteries resources he unilaterally directed how it should be used now i do not see how even if you had established that he unilaterally decided on the use of it how was that impropriety and madam speaker i asked the honorable member from grizzly to give me one instance madam speaker where any monies were used by national lotteries under the leadership of the member of denry north that can show it was not for a youth and sports purpose madam speaker i want him to show it to me because i have confidence in my comrade from denry north and if the honorable member from grizzly can show me one instance where monies were used for purposes other than youth and sport madam speaker then i will have to have serious questions in my comrade madam speaker that is where you prove your case when he can show such not when he quotes from the national lotteries minutes where directors of a board refer to account as the minister's account and account that was opened before the minister then had even become minister and when there is a letter the same member for grizzly north for grizzly that says that the monies should not be used for those purposes he writes a letter asking for money for education purposes madam speaker two million dollars three weeks before elections when the first semester of university is about to end madam speaker madam speaker the honorable member for grizzly says when he left office he left five hundred thousand dollars but did he inform the honorable house that they were over two million dollars in liabilities to wasco lucy leck and no n ic had been paid madam speaker again i rise on a point of order thirty five five because the member here is miss lili in the honorable house and suggesting something that is not accurate there was no two million dollar debt to wasco or lucy leck by the national lotteries authority that is incorrect to use parliamentary language that is not true madam speaker and i can use other words to describe what he just said there and the member is making an argument based on falsehood madam speaker i will put it differently i will put it differently madam speaker i'll put it differently the honorable member for grizzly says that when he left office there was five hundred thousand dollars modern earth you said five hundred thousand okay he said modern five hundred thousand i am going to ask five hundred thousand i'm going to ask the honorable member to tell the house what was the outstanding liabilities when he left office and i want him to cite the amount that was owed to wasco to lucy leck to n ic the workers that bosses you and in the stadium were not even covered because the n ic would not been paid madam speaker the honorable member from grizzly can prove me wrong the same way madam speaker he was able to cite all the documents from the national lottery and he has a file that is as thick and taller than me he can go in that file and provide all the figures what was the liability i was about to say taller than another member madam speaker but you might have told me i was offensive but madam speaker madam speaker he can can he indicate what were the outstanding liabilities when he left office when he left office because he's given the impression that there was such maladministration madam speaker and that's not the case madam speaker madam speaker on a point of elucidation i was asked to provide information as to what were the liabilities i indicated that when i left office we had over five hundred thousand dollars and if i could get the document i'll quote the exact figure fine let me know fifty and ninety eight cents six hundred and ninety six dollars and ninety eight cents and ninety two cents that is what i said madam speaker so his his question has already been answered that was the position of the national lottery authority who had no liability to wasco or no select madam speaker maybe something is wrong with my memory the honorable member from brookley said how the member from denrinoff was boasting how he left behind all those bills he said so that the member from from denrinoff when he became minister of sports was all over the place saying how all the bills he left behind that was not paid madam speaker okay madam speaker madam speaker madam speaker this is becoming you know it's become a little ridiculous now madam speaker so let me just let me let me just end it madam speaker i do i tell you go and talk to richard um madam speaker the honorable member for denry south man be the point madam speaker that it is wrong for minister to direct how funds should be used madam speaker now i'm not sure exactly what that is supposed to mean madam speaker i'm not sure but the honorable members will recall that if the amount of taiwanese money that will place in their care madam speaker and there was a report on the use of those funds but would come and try to be self righteous and pontificate as to how money should be used madam speaker in the coming weeks i think more and more that story will be told madam speaker just a matter of time madam speaker but madam speaker i believe madam speaker that what started off as a routine debate on borrowing on simple points raised by the political leader the leader of the opposition and by the members of the fourth south was allowed to degenerate and you know what it tells me madam speaker it tells me what's at the core of the individual some of the individuals on the government side this what happened today was totally unnecessary it was totally unnecessary madam speaker madam speaker i join madam speaker out of an obligation to speak on behalf of my colleague from denry north madam speaker and to condemn to condemn the conduct of the members on the other side madam speaker because madam speaker in the presentations this morning there was no suggestion of any of the issues that were brought to the floor madam speaker you listen to the member from library the member for castries is the member from the fourth south madam speaker it was not about this but you listen on the other side madam speaker and then you heard how it degenerated madam speaker i shall i really intended to speak on the tourism authority bill so i shall reserve some of my energies for that presentation madam speaker thank you very much honorable minister for infrastructure ports energy and labor member north madam speaker to fear that my silence is misconstrued this afternoon though it was not my intention to speak on this particular motion because i thought it was simple and it was quite normal in parliament for such a resolution to come before for members consideration but i think i'm obliged to say a few words on this matter because having listened to all of the contributions made from both sides i think my conclusion to my contribution will be to conduct a commission of inquiry because madam speaker when we started this morning you indicated that you needed some time with members so as to discuss certain matters in as far as the parliamentary processes and behavior and actions as far as members are concerned but i believe this is a precursor to whatever it is you may want to discuss with us but more so a precursor and a dry run to the debate that i really wanted to participate in and that is the the debate on the public finance management act i understand that it is not for today and so i won't have the opportunity today to address it but probably at the later date madam speaker the importance of the motion that we have come here today to debate pertains to the administration and management of the finances of this country it pertains to the planning and programming of the work that we are to deliver to the people of this country but it also pertains to the responsibility of parliamentarians particularly ministers of government but madam speaker as i listened to the debate and the contributions being made i have learned one new lesson not that i'm not aware of it but i've learned and reinforced rather the lesson that i've always ensured that i stick to and that is when we are elected by the people of this country to undertake the business of the people we must do what is right do what is right according to the laws of the land and today there was so many lessons in all of the presentations made do we follow the laws when we conduct our business as ministers do we act when we ought to act do we see power as being one where you can do what you want when you want how you want do you ensure that you conduct yourself as policymakers rather than administrators and technocrats and madam speaker it is one which speaks to understanding that at all times you have to be diligent in the exercise of your business and this is not to the opposition or to anybody on the government side it's to all of us in the conduct of our business sometimes we go about our business as parliamentarians and even some of the things we say for example some things i often say some would say the minister of the ministry minister four because you are responsible for you're not an expert of and so it is the minister for x y and z even if you are an expert in the area you don't advise yourself or instruct yourself you take advice and you act based upon advice and there are times madam speaker there are times madam speaker in all that happens in the administration of government that we must be careful as to what we write how we write it and the connotations of what we write because invariably what we write says the wrong things and i'm so happy that this debate has taken place madam speaker because we have come here with other pieces of legislation dealing with some of the very historical issues that we all lament complain and question over the period of time amending legislation here and amending legislation here and introducing new legislation like what we will debate in the next few weeks hopefully that is the public administration act and the landscape of all that we're talking to today madam speaker speaks about the quality of boards that we elect how they conduct the business how they record the business what they say about what they're discussing it's about our own interpretation as ministers and as parliamentarians about what we do and what we say madam speaker this is about responsibility and so when we are brought to the parliament to represent the people we must understand we have one simple responsibility and that is to account to the people of this country in a manner that the people will respect and understand what we do madam speaker in this small country where we live and we hope that we'll continue to live happily despite all the crime and all the social problems that is taking place there's one thing that resonates in my mind and keeps reverberating on a daily basis and that is for those of us who were called upon to serve the days when there were the godfathers on the international stage are over the days when we could have looked north to the united states of america for assistance is probably gone the door is shut the days when we could have looked to europe for assistance it's all over and we are called upon ourselves we are called upon ourselves to stand up and to take responsibility for the affairs of the people of this country that is what we are called upon to do and i would hope madam speaker having gone through this experience today of this debate which has brought out so much and who is responsible for and who is not responsible for i believe that the answer to what we have debated on today and the contents rather of the debate is to get to the basis of the problem and to deal with the problem we often put boards in place madam speaker to deal with the affairs that we believe we can entrust them with and it's a matter of trust we give them that leeway that latitude of dealing with those situations and we then face each other here and we destroy one another in the hope that we'll be able to achieve the objective for which we have set ourselves to madam speaker the budget which was presented a few weeks ago and which was passed calls on the prime minister to raise the necessary resources to fund that budget in fact mr speak madam speaker we are running in way behind time in as far as implementation of the budget the prime minister in the resolution presented to the parliament is asking for this honorable house to approve the amounts of one hundred and three million dollars for finance for financing the two seventeen to eighteen budget and a sum of two hundred and sixty two million dollars for refinancing the existing debts on the regional government securities market sums totaling three hundred and sixty five million dollars madam speaker the fact that we sat here and approve the budget is an indication a first indication that we have agreed with the decision or rather the intention of going to the market and to raise funds to finance the budget it is for us now on this side the government side having agreed to raise those resources with the intention of growing the economy and to bring about the necessary results that our policies and programs will do just that in one of the presentations made early on madam speaker i believe it was the member south indicated as to whether in one motion you can deal with bonds and deal with treasury bills at once madam speaker what this motion calls for is that the government to deal or rather to raise the resources from national savings and development bonds the act cap 15.25 i do not believe madam speaker for my own experience that there is any real conflict in the arrangement to raise the resources i believe that it is fair that the source of funding is coming under the national savings and development bonds at cap 15.25 and as broken down it is to finance the necessary programs of the government one hundred and three million one hundred and three million dollars and the the other amount of two hundred and sixty two million dollars for refinancing existing debts on the regional government securities market and that is the essence of the request being made so madam speaker my support for this resolution is to ensure that the budget which was presented together with the programs enshrined in in in the budget and the program intended to deliver the services goods and services to the people is fulfilled by our commitment not just to borrow but most significantly and i believe one other member said so this morning to manage what we borrow and very often very often we tend to believe that borrowing is a dangerous thing in fact the member for Cassie's often says that you must borrow you will borrow and you you are almost compelled to borrow because the business of the people must continue to be attended to by the government and once we have the fiscal ability to do it madam speaker it is for us to borrow but most importantly to be able to manage what we are borrowing if we borrow now and we return to this parliament in a year's time and the records demonstrate that we have failed to manage what we have borrowed we have failed to manage the resources of the state we have failed to deliver to the people then that will be another issue but for now madam speaker on the heels and on the passage on the heels of the passage of the 2017 2018 budget and estimates of expenditure i stand to support this motion for the borrowing of 103 million dollars and 262 million respectively i thank you honorable prime minister leader of government business madam speaker it's always very difficult when one comes to the house and if we call this an honorable house and that we see members deliberately try to misguide the general public madam speaker i'm i'm trying to contain myself in that two gentlemen who have been in this house for as long as they have been member from castries east and the member from view fort south the member from from view fort south in particular who has been the minister of finance for 15 years member from castries east who has been self proclaimed the deputy leader and has been signatory to all of the things elected in your party but there's no such thing as deputy as deputy prime minister so the two people would come to this house madam speaker and ask the kind of questions that they ask today it shows great disrespect it shows a level of maliciousness i'm gonna get there to ask questions that you already know the answers for to come to this house and to suggest that this motion there's something wrong with the motion to take the words from the member of view for itself and i'm always disappointed when he leaves i want the public to know he's not here again missing in action comes and cast all kinds of things and then leaves what kind of fisherman is that would suggest there was something illegal something improper and asking us to take a reflection reflection on what are you meaning am i to believe that they were genuine questions of great concern concerned about how we were conducting the affairs of the people of san lucha words are written for a reason it says here whereas it is provided by section three of the national savings and development bonds act that under the authority of parliament the minister responsible for finance may raise by the issue of savings bonds inside and outside san lucha money up to the amount of 1.8 billion and whereas it is further provided in the section four of the national savings and development bonds act that the bonds the bonds shall be issued in such a form and on such terms and conditions as the minister responsible for finance may direct where does it talk about treasure bills how could it even be interpreted for one minute for one second that this was referring to treasure bills am i to believe the two gentlemen that put together how many budgets 15 15 budgets over the last 20 years could not read this and understand this basic language but no would come here and try to suggest that we are doing something illegal and even ask such a ridiculous question as to how we are going to finance the rest of the budget how do i know that madam speaker i want to make it i want to make it circulated because obviously some of the members have forgotten that's forgotten may i give this to that there's a treasury bills act and section three of the treasury bills act reads as follows the authority to issue treasury bills subject to the provisions of this act the minister is hereby authorized to borrow monies for public issue of the state by the issue of treasury bills the treasury bills issued under the subsection one may be issued within or outside the state as the minister may direct the authority to issue treasury bills under subsection one also extends to the issue of such bills as may be required to pay off the maturity treasure bills already issued the minister of finance has the responsibility to deal with treasury bills parliament has to deal with bonds but the minister of finance deals with treasure bills now how do i know that they know that because the act was amended so if you go to section four it says the principal sums represented by any treasury bills outstanding at any one time shall not exceed in the aggregate 30 percent of the estimated annual revenue of the state for the last proceeding financial year as shown meaning the government minister finance cannot issue more treasury bills in 30 percent of the budget of the previous year but this was amended it was amended to allow that number to go up from 30 percent to 50 percent we then also go madam speaker and we look at the social and economic review i go to table 39 madam speaker in the 2016 economic and social review total public sector outstanding liabilities under section a which says central government underneath it it has outstanding debt domestic and external but more importantly it has the treasury bills and the bonds and loans clearly identified so in 2006 madam speaker we had 18 point 18 almost 19 million dollars in treasury bills and we had 359 million almost 400 4 360 million dollars in bonds as of 2016 madam speaker treasury bills now stand at 438 million so we've went from 18 million in 2006 and just to be very clear that when we left office in 2011 the amount was 42 million dollars in treasure so between 2011 it went up by almost 400 million dollars in treasures and bonds went from 341 million in 2011 to 287 million so the member from view for itself the former minister of finance is asking why as if he doesn't know the answer the fact is that the economic policies and the management of the economy by the labor party from 2007 sorry from 2011 to 2016 is dismal a dismal complete utter failure did it not contain cost and all they did was increase debt and the worst part about it madam speaker is unemployment increased businesses went out taxes went up and in fact they had a greater deficit which brings an interesting point madam speaker the minute the the member from castries south and now the same misinformation that he has now become a claim to i heard the minister i heard the representative from castries east repeating it that we presented the largest deficit in the history of our government but as i said we don't even have to go back that far madam speaker in 2015 2016 and i want to make the point that 2015 and 2016 was the third year of the administration so you would expect that a new government coming in that the deficit would be the highest in the beginning and that they would work their way through it to be to have a recovery but no they did it the other way around they got consecutively worse at managing the economy so in 2015 and 2016 as my colleague from cats answering canaries indicated they had an overall surplus of 226,850,000 madam speaker this is from the budget summary of 2015 2016 and i'm comparing it to the budget summary of 2017 2018 the overall balance as a percentage of GDP 2015 2016 minus 5.8 almost 6 percent madam speaker compared to this year's at 4 point minus 4.7 percent the financing requirement in 2015 2016 madam speaker 346,454,000 compared to 345,431,000 so all i'm seeing madam speaker sorry one million difference but you said you said it's the highest ever i'm taking your words you said it's the highest ever you said you've basically come here and attempted to paint a picture as if we're doing something that is so irresponsible that it's never been done before and all solution is in a disastrous place this is a budget you presented in your third year in your third year of government but you know it's also very interesting madam speaker is that when you now look at the fact that what we took over as the approved budget in 2016 2017 and asked the question how did we perform so in 2016 2017 they had projected an overall surplus or a deficit of 128 million we ended up at minus 62 million almost 100 percent a 50 percent improvement as a percentage of the overall balance the percentage of GDP they had projected a minus 3 3.2 percent we ended up at minus 1.4 percent they had projected a total financing need of 252 million we ended up with 185 million on their budget on their budget so i want to see that i find i have no difficulties in coming here and being accountable to a parliament but it's very disturbing when members on the other side would ask questions that they already know the answers for so let me continue i learned a friend my honorable friend asked why to delay in the budget and he always talks about convention as speaker we sat with you before the beginning of the budget and we agreed that i would speak on the tuesday that we would come back wednesday afternoon and i have to say to the leader of the opposition that he was gracious enough to allow us to start that afternoon on the wednesday afternoon because normally convention would have been that we would have started on the thursday but indicated that we were trying to finish before a certain time we did not want to go into the friday and we agreed that after i spoke that he would speak and then two members of our side and after that the member from castries east was going to speak that same night as it was castries east did not speak in fact castry south my apologies castry south we came back the following day two more speakers spoke on our side and finally the member from castry south spoke and then three more speakers spoke again in fact the the third speaker speaking that afternoon was the member from miku north who came here with expecting to speak the following day with no notes spoke spoke i then asked for an adjournment in order that we can rectify the situation i was told there was no control on the other side and that if they chose to speak they would if they were not that's they're not going to i accepted that as a madam speaker that same night after the adjournment the honorable guy joseph who was again not supposed to speak that night agreed to speak and i believe before he even spoke the intention of the speaker i don't want to impute thoughts in your head but i believe that you were very close to closing the budget out of frustration so when we came back and when we looked at how with the option that night i had i had two options i could have gone and done what the labor party has done in the past close the budget on two occasions while we were in opposition the then government closed the budget prematurely on the third occasion there was no debate in fact they came in here in the morning i was speaking to the member from castries north told me that he was half we up the stairs when he met the members to say it's over said what do you mean it's over there was no budget presentation by the minister of finance there was no opportunity for the leader of the opposition to rebut and and what they came to the house and they closed the debate madam speaker so he ended the day i said i have two choices we can close the debate but i knew that we were not happy when that happened in the house so we chose not to close the debate and after consulting my members and looking at our time schedules that the earliest time that we can come back to the house was the date that we chose yes because we had already preordered madam speaker on a point of order in accordance with time in order is 34 a madam speaker you may wish to correct the prime minister because madam speaker you you would recall on that night you sent a note you sent a note across on this side indicating that you wanted a guarantee from us that we would speak first the following morning on friday the honorable member from castries office was speaking then i took the note down to the leader of the opposition he wrote on it yes i agree i brought it back up and i gave it to the one of the police officers who gave it to you and we were fully under the impression haven't given you our assurance that we would speak first on the friday morning that that would have been the order so for the prime minister to say to the nation and to the honorable house and present the version he did madam speaker he may believe what he is saying but it might be useful madam speaker if you indicate to him that we had agreed with you on the order and we under the impression that we had an agreement on the speaking order thank you very much madam speaker my my learned colleague is making in reference to the third the thursday night the honorable member from castries south yes not so learned it not so learned but much more on a thursday evening on the thursday evening yes but we had already agreed previously to a talking a talking which we had already broken and wait a second i hear you i know no no at the point we adjourned there was no agreement there was no agreement there was no agreement there was no agreement it was when the member from castries southeast was speaking a note was sent to me saying could we postpone and and start up again the following day of which it is my prerogative i did not participate in that dialogue and i said no no it's not about what i'm going to do so rather than close the debate rather than close the debate madam speaker we postponed it in fact a great inconvenience to the government so it wasn't to say it was something that was easy and there wasn't a consequence to it but we discussed it and we said rather than close the debate we would rather postpone the debate and when we came back to the house madam speaker they are ready we already had seven speakers and they only had two speakers and so it was very clear that they had to be able to speak but you know madam speaker something came out today when the member from view fort north indicated that he has always spoken before easy kill we know exactly what was going on but i keep reminding members on the other side that they are in opposition that they are in opposition and when we were in opposition the same respect that ought to be of given to a leader of the opposition so the leader of the opposition generally generally gets to be the chair of the public accounts committee in addition to that it is generally convention that the leader of the opposition gets to speak at last if they choose to at no occasion was that that that permissible but i digress madam speaker i digress i want to say we keep talking and i'm so happy to see that today they were able to find their voice madam speaker because i thought it had been lost forever i want to take a little time madam speaker again because again the members on the other side are very quick to leave and so they would have missed the presentation and i know that they probably did not go back and look at the film to repeat what we said that in opposition we were critical of the nice program that state funds were being used through an independent agency that was out of the prime minister's office and that literally people were being handpicked and certainly the impression was being given that it was very political and that the intention of the program was it was supposed to take young people and provide them with job experience so the goal was is that you were supposed to employ them for one year and after that year hopefully they would have found another job we came in we found out that 90 percent of the people that were being employed madam speaker were the same people so in fact they had been they're getting the same job to do over for the last three years which is not the intent of the program but the problem that the labor party again could not deliver because they were suffering from labor pains is that while you're going to create a program to provide job training the other aspect of actually creating jobs for those who are trained to go into they forgot that part so what happened was is that the same people had to stay in the same program so it was the same 1100 people but again we were very clear in opposition to say that the caretaker program was something that we liked and we felt that this was a good part of the project but we said madam speaker that the only problem that we had with the caretaker program caregivers my apologies thank you very much caregivers was that it was for five days a week in eight hours a day and that many of the caregivers were being asked to also take money out of their pocket to pay for things for the elderly people and the intention of our government was to broaden that program but that we were going to change the employment the short term employment part of it and make sure that people were going to get jobs in businesses in which they could be come full-time employees it's interesting to note that the leader of the opposition's concern madam speaker with regards to artificial intelligence i would suggest maybe that he can go and watch the 60 minute show that was just played this weekend okay and the fact is that artificial intelligence is on the cutting edge of technology and is now being used in a multitude of different ways and the fact is is that mr rubin who he makes reference to was actually in business in san lucha already madam speaker imagine he had a business here called yodel in fact the former minister of investment in trade had a meeting with them of which they never follow up on anything so here was 150 young people were trained by yodel to be able to make cold calls to the states to sell what we call online optimization programs and he was very impressed so when it gives the impression that i just went to austin on a women fancy i went to austin because he had pulled out of san lucha i know but you but you see but in typical form madam speaker the leader of the opposition likes to interpret things because he has a very vivid imagination i think it's this thing with smoking mirrors that continuously comes in fogs his head so i was never lining that's one thing i do is when i travel i do a line i'm not like you i went to i went to dalis to meet with american airlines and in dalis i then went to austin to meet to meet mr rubin no that's how he said that's not how he said it okay so when i went there i didn't go there on a fancent winds a person that i kind of knew by accent this is a gentleman who actually had a company in san lucha madam speaker that was already had been employing 150 people and the company was sold and the and the office in san lucha was shut down and it was merged with their office in novaskosha i did see so but you see you you convenient you only hear what you want to hear all right that's that's that's the thing about the labor party is what they like to do madam speaker is they like to create a sense of chaos when they're in opposition what they do is when they can't explain things they just try to create enough chaos and then so it's sufficient it's sufficient for the general public of san lucha to just say boy you know what all those politicians do the same but i want to make it very very clear that all politicians in san lucha madam speaker are not the same in fact there are some very distinct differences between them and we will talk about some of them today so when we talk about the management of the economy and our speaker we see that the largest amount of debt that this country has incurred since 1997 has been that of the labor party when we look at the issue of t bills and let us talk about what happened because of the bad policies the lack of confidence that the market had in the labor party they could not get any bonds madam speaker and the price of bonds were going through the roof so what did they do they turned to t bills and that is why they amended the act to allow them to borrow even more t bills you didn't move it from 30 percent to 50 percent oh the bond market was bad it just so happened it was bad for you but you see that's the problem madam speaker when you when you try to blame everybody else for your own problems the fact is is that people had no confidence had no confidence in the management of the economy of this country and that has reflected in the fact that they could not get bonds okay could not get bonds so as a result of that they went to treasury bills and what happened was is that we went from having a turnover of debt every 10 years to a turnover of debt to every 4.3 years and that's why i came to the house and i talked about it in the budget that there are things that we wanted to do in this year's budget we couldn't do because all of us said we realized we had to turn over 800 million dollars in bonds and treasury bills in fact what we came here to request for was for the 256 million dollars in bonds the remaining amount is in treasury bills and ministers the members on the other side know particularly the two gentlemen that brought it up that is within the purview of the minister of finance to handle that but no ask the question as if there's something wrong when this is commonplace but you know it's a young government but thank god we have some experienced people on our side that know better so because of the lack of confidence madam speaker because the lack of confidence madam speaker that the debt situation of our country got even worse and it also now affected the ability of the country to be able to implement projects because it couldn't depend on the level of financing it's okay so they got no growth and unemployment went up and in fact in order to try to get financing to reverse the situation around they increased all the taxes and as a result of it the middle class got even further deteriorated from what it was before madam speaker that is the legacy of the labor government and the same labor government are gonna get there who want to bring up things so i want to bring some things up to bring some clarity to them i've answered it before but i'm happy to answer it a thousand times because when it's the truth it's easy to repeat black bay as well as honey moon beach when we got into government the labor party had already agreed and signed a contract with a company called roboc to sell the black bay lands and the lands that the government owned at honey moon beach but not all the lands were owned by the government at honey moon beach and they were selling it for i think it was something like 30 000 or less than that per acre ec a peppercorn price for there for the land and we felt that that was the wrong way to go and so we got the developers to agree to change the agreement and what we did is we increased the price of the land from 30 000 i think we took it to 70 000 and we took it is a preferred shares in the company and we took it preferred shares madam speaker because we did not want to be at risk for any operating cost loss the mistake that we made madam speaker is that when we transferred the shares over and then the bank the developer went to borrow the money from a company called singer freelander which is a nice landing bank that we relinquish the first charge on the property meaning that if there was any defaults on it that the government would not have the first charge and we did that we did that on the preliminary loan of 25 million and we could have done that if it was on the loan for the 300 million dollars and what happened was madam speaker is that roebuck international didn't go bankrupt but that's what everybody wants everybody to believe that roebuck went in in bankrupt it was singer freelander the bank that went bankrupt and at the same time it coincided with the meltdown financial meltdown in the world okay always always always talk about it and so what happened and so what happened this is 2007 way before your time so what happened was is that the developer roebuck could not find anybody else to replace singer freelander and eventually singer freelander called the loan on roebuck and took over the shares of the company prior to that happening madam speaker we had a situation in which there was some 66 acres at honeymoon beach in which we did a compulsory acquisition that land was land that was owned by a jamaican company that was sold to them by sir john in the early 90s on the promise that they would have developed the property okay the government to send on the promise that they would have developed the property and that never happened and they could not arrive at a price and we felt it was impeding the progress of the project so government agreed to do a compulsory acquisition so what happened was is that the receivers now recognizing that government was a shareholder in the company said to the company look we are owed 11 million dollars there's interest that i think it was another million and a half dollars we're prepared to sell you the whole company back for eight million dollars and in buying back the company government got back the land from black b that he had invested but there was also a land at black way that was bought by the developers can't remember the family but the northern part got government got control of that land as well eight million dollars and then in addition to that the lands in honeymoon beach which were invested into the entity will return to the government so we had eight million us dollars to pay but in addition to the eight million us dollars government had to pay for the acquisition of the 66 acres but remember when it did the acquisition what did it get in return it got land and it went to arbitration i think what's it called a tribunal in order to be able to determine the price if i'm not mistaken the price was somewhere between nine and ten million dollars but the point here is that government for the money that it put in got land in exchange and in fact it is the same land today madam speaker that because government did it the way it did that it was able to regain the control because let me say this too madam speaker let us assume that we had not changed the agreement let's assume that we had left the deal in place that the former government had put in and that we would have sold the lands to robot when the project would have gone into receivership because of the bank and the receiver would have taken control of robot guess what would have happened we would have lost the land no we lost if in fact we had sold if we had sold it and then no we vested it in we had an investment you see but i know madam speaker there's members on the other side that continuously don't want to understand what the reality is but i'm going to get to some other examples so in fact when members of the public hear the opposition talk about how much money the robot i mean how much money black bay costs all i'm saying to you is when you look at the numbers government of sen lucha turned out to be much better for it and in fact we we have control of all the black bay lands and also honeymoon beach and it's those same lands that were used now to bring range and also to bring a new development into canals so i want to say the dihermal another very interesting one you know madam speaker and again but you see the opposition's job is to muddy the waters is to try to make something that's simple making it overly complicated by the speaker so when we came into government a bank an international bank owed owned the dihermal and they came to the government and they said look we would like to relinquish control and we would like to get you to be invested so here's what we're offering you madam speaker we said we're going to offer you a loan for 27 million dollars for you to be able to buy the building and in addition to the building which was now free and clear that we're also going to give you lands of north in rodney bay and also if i'm not mistaken 10 acres of land at union in addition to that madam speaker the bank said that they would find a loan to be able to fix up the building of which it was estimated to cost 60 million dollars to fix up the building and government agreed that if in fact we did that government would occupy the building and in fact letters went out madam speaker offering ministries space in the dihermal if i'm not mistaken i don't want to be misquoted i think it was 20 lower than what they're currently we're paying and if we did that it would be sufficient money to be able to finance them all but all the time madam speaker government never assumed financial risk of the development meaning madam speaker there was no guarantee the money was being lent on the value of the building the building is what was being mortgaged there was no share there was no money going in by government and there was no government guarantee and what happened was is that the the bank went out and could not raise the 60 million dollars and had it on and had it on a syndicate was attempting to do a syndicate but guess what happened madam speaker we lost the elections we lost the let's who is playing their loan on amazon and guess what that was the only risk that we had and the accumulation was about two and a half million dollars but i want to i want to make that point i'm so happy you brought it up so when when we lost the government the same bank was prepared to lend the government to sund lucha 130 million dollar loan i remember when it came to the house and included in that loan was 30 million dollars to buy the building so what they did madam speaker is they took the bank off the risk and they assumed the loan so it became now real debt for the government and they had no more obligation on the bank the bank was off but that is good fiscal management on the other side i want to bring up another matter madam speaker i'm sorry to have to go through this but there was a lot of discussion with regards to the minister's account and i must bring this up because it's very personal for me when i was in opposition madam speaker the then government did what they called a constituency audit the audit was not done by the accountant general the audit was not done by the auditor in fact neither one of those entities were included in the automatic speaker cabinet hand selected three people to do the audit the audit revealed all kinds of disparities but the one disparity they decided to focus on was a person called alan shastney i would like to believe it had nothing to do with the fact that alan shastney was the political leader of united workers party because i think that that would really be causing i was i was so let's let's what happened madam speaker the government the government the government claimed madam speaker the government claimed madam speaker that i used my influence as the minister of tourism to cause the sufrer town council to spend 36 000 they claim in order to support my campaign the fact was is that there was an opening ceremony that day madam speaker in which the beautiful lights from sufrer and fonce jack were opened in fact i'm so proud to have been involved in getting and assisting the people from sufrer and fonce jack to have what i consider to be the best lights in san lucha and we did the opening ceremony and after the opening ceremony madam speaker on the same stage there was a public political meeting by united workers party in fact that political meeting madam speaker was to outline all the things that the government had done in sufrer and fonce jack after tomas and we felt it was very important that given the lights were up and the bridges had been repaired and the roads were fixed and a lot of other things had been done in sufrer that we on a political basis highlight at the end of that political meetings madam speaker there was then a free concert put on by third world third world was paid for by me and by friends of sufrer the trip from dominica because they were over at dominica's creole festival the airfare for them to come over to san lucha was paid for by me they stayed at a hotel the hotel arrangements were paid for by me the transportation to the site for the soundcheck and back to the hotel and back to the site again and then back to the airport was paid for by me in fact the only thing that it showed the sufrer development foundation or the sufrer town council had paid for was the catering and i think it was around two thousand three hundred dollars but the allegation was that the stage and the lights that were put up for the opening ceremony and then used for the political meeting that somehow that they were kept up and i should be bearing the cost for what it was what's amazing madam speaker is that the then attorney general gave cabinet an opinion to say they should not take me to court should not take me to court because the sufrer town council is what we call a body corporate so in the early days the town councils used to have their own elections they had their own elected town councils they were separate entities meaning these were entities that were allowed to have their own bank accounts and they functioned as a separate entity and therefore the first thing the court will ask is for standing who was harmed the attorney general tried to explain that to them that the entity that's harmed is the sufrer town council but you see it would be very difficult for the sufrer town council to have sued allen chastney or taken me you know why because i don't they don't report to me i have no authority over the town council now i bring this up because what is going on now with the lotteries is incredible that i sat here and listened to the fence on the other side that you establish a bar that was this loop that's how high it was in terms of spending are you ready for this close to a half a million dollars in legal fees in fact when it was at the high court the high court said there was no standing but the government of the day not being satisfied with that madam speaker chose to spend more money again and appealed and on the appeal the judge said that he believes the case should be tried and did what sent it back didn't pass judgment said it needs to go back to be retried okay that's not a judgment what he said was is that the case should have been heard in its fullest and contested but also admitted that the fact is that there was no standing but that is for that is legal talk but all i'm saying to is we are no better off today than we were before but but here's the interesting thing madam speaker the same political party that can justify taking me to court on those very loose terms remember there was no letter from me to the town council to say to the town council to spend the money i was not the minister who was there accountable to fact i was not the minister of local government at the time and you found reason to go against even the attorney general's advice but yet but yet you will sit there and pat the minister responsible for youth in sports who through his own admission and the evidence that was presented here today sent a letter of instruction and that letter of instruction madam speaker carries a tremendous amount of weight you know why because he's the responsible minister he's the one responsible for oversight and he sent them a letter that is evidence that was presented here today that the board acknowledged receiving that letter and reacted to it by acquiescing to what he asked for that money's be set aside in order for him to be able to make the discretionary decisions as to what it should be spent on now what is also very interesting about coming on and i applaud minister king minister from castries north and what he was saying we do not have the evidence as yet to inculcate the minister at anything for now but the process is that the board of directors madam speaker who have a responsibility to make sure the money was spent properly they are the ones who are accountable and the next question that we must ask ourselves and this is where an audit will prove how much money was spent over the five years and that when that money was spent madam speaker what was it spent on and then the next question you want to ask is what level of due diligence madam speaker was done to determine if the cost that are being associated to the project are right okay and that's where we're going to start from the beginning but you see there was no money to begin with because what is interesting madam speaker and you know i kept on chastising my colleague from grozily for many years that he did not bring into light to the people of st lusia the great injustice that was done in the negotiation of the transfer of the loan from the lottery to canadian bank so in fact when canadian bank note took over the loan madam speaker all that was agreed is they would pay 25 000 but there was no subsequent deal that said after you've made the payments how we're going to share the money there was no requirement for canadian bank note to report anything in fact all they gave us 25 000 but now what do we know in hindsight that canadian bank note is no longer paying the loan so the responsibility of paying the loan has been taken over by the lottery through cage and so canadian bank note now is paying the lottery 400 000 a month so the question becomes how much money were they making and remember that when they first got that contract there was no competition so in fact the lottery was being exclusively run by canadian bank note so it's only when we came in as a government and we were able to change the terms of that agreement that in fact now the lottery got money and how much money i hope the public is not numbed by the amount of 600 000 dollars in a month 600 000 a month is 7.2 million dollars a year 7.2 million dollars a year of which the minister requested one third be put aside in order for him to be able to make those discretion decisions so you're talking about approximately 2.5 2.6 million dollars a year and then what i'm also looking forward to madam speaker is the further inquiry into the fact that there was a sinking fund that was established for the commonwealth games and i you know i always thought it was very strange that given the importance to sports and youth to the labor party that they were so quick to abandon the games and were so quick to say we don't have enough money but apparently that account had almost 6 million dollars in it and that money was all spent before the elections so what is interesting and i'm so happy that members on the other side talk about timing as to when things are happening how much of that money was spent as we got closer to elections who got the contracts who identified the contractors who substantiated the amount of the contracts so the member on the other side is is is right in saying maybe all the stuff was being used for sports but when you hear the story of a a changing room madam speaker for 500 000 dollars what is it on the point of order madam speaker citing standing order 35 the honorable prime minister is misleading the house in suggesting that the minister at the time of course making reference to me was the one who unilaterally approved projects and he also gave the impression that i was the one determining the cost of the projects the projects the projects that were executed madam speaker example the larisus community facility was costed it was designed it was supervised by the architecture unit in the ministry of physical development and it is only after the accounting officer or the permanent secretary in that ministry signed off on the completion of work certificate the lottery's board could have paid the contractors now i will go further to say madam speaker that on occasions when the staff of the ministry of physical development were not available notwithstanding there no engineering staff in the ministry of sports we used engineers from the ministry of infrastructure and on occasions we also outsource private entities to provide the professionals of this contract so to give the impression that the minister or people who are not of an engineering background in the ministry of sports were the ones costing projects is wrong and it is grossly misleading madam speaker i'm so happy that the minister stand stood on the point of order because i don't remember making any such allegation in fact i think i cleared the minister from the beginning i said that it's impossible to hold the minister accountable for anything at this point the persons that i was holding accountable were the board of directors of the lottery and i said that what there needs to be is an inquiry and i i simply went down the line of questions that an inquiry would ask simple questions if you had a minister's allocation when the minister made the recommendation that that project be done did that recommendation also come with a contractor who is the person who is the person that's responsible for determining the amounts because when i went and did my own investigation madam speaker i found that it was only when the labor party came in and the new minister came in that in fact that in fact the lottery's commission got involved in capital projects and i asked the same question if they were going to get involved in capital projects did they have the requisite expertise and who was the person that was doing it for them and all i'm saying to you is i don't have the answers to that question yet but i'm i'm hoping that as soon as that inquiry and the audit starts that we will be able to come back to this house and be able to do exactly what they did and reveal it in fact who did it but one thing i will assure the other side is i will give them justice i assure you that they were not going to hire any squad to go and do it that it will be done properly and it'll be done through the same authorities so even when the minister not the minister the member from denry north indicated that it's stuff that should go through the dpp we haven't gotten there yet there has to be an investigation we have to find out what happened but i will say to madam speaker that we've started at the wrong end but we started the wrong end because of a slip of the tongue because the member from denry north indicated that there was a minister's account and while the account was not in his name and i accept that it was not in his name was it under his control that's what needs to be established and what i'm saying to madam speaker in the sufer case and i brought it up not to to to be able to say my story but to say that if in fact that members on that side could find that a minister of tourism who they love to use to say was selected and not elected was selected and not elected it was a fact i mean i'm just saying i mean i'm being i'm being i'm being truthful they said that he was selected that this same minister could with no letter with no nothing caused the council to have spent the money but yet in this particular situation we have a situation in which the minister himself has admitted that he caused influence and in fact there's a paper trail so what we now must determine is did in fact that the board do the requisite due diligence to ensure that the funds of the state were managed properly and we will and we will we will find out the answer to that question very very soon we had a situation where we talk about coming to the house to be transparent we talk about what's that their favorite word again um not accountability convention convention okay we've answered the question and i will answer it again for you i will so the question then becomes out of convention where was the convention drink rhymeberg i know it's it's amazing to me madame speaker that the former prime minister continues to shrug his responsibility to be accountable to the people of sun all the people of sun lucha want to know is why give an explanation what was the rational what was the rationale why have you allowed it so much time to go by that we spent so much money and you don't feel that you have the right you don't feel it obligated in any way to account to the people but here we are talking about how are you going to finance the budget how we're going to be accountable but it's always good on the other side but it's never reciprocated you talk about the ramshaw hoid report the ramshaw hoid report wasn't united workers party was an independent audit to review nca cost overruns on highways as well as the highlight project i'm not it's not my words i listened to the members of this side as if they did nothing wrong the member from labry who clearly is not picasso attempted to paint a picture of the former minister of finance and their political leader as being this great visionary this incredible person but yet he is left a trail of disasters behind them of which all he is his answer to all these things is to pretend it's not there in fact the labor party should probably change the star to the ostrich because every time they have a problem what they do is they stick their head in the hole and that's how they dealt with the economy you know in fact madam speaker i've heard them talk about that they want to go in march again let me help them save some money carnival is going very very well this year my recommendation to y'all and i'll help facilitate it through miss bell rose as we can give you all a section in the road march it can be a t-shirt section and y'all can have it okay so all i'm saying to you is that that is continually what's going on in this side all they want to do is ignore what they have done in the past madam speaker don't want to be held accountable for it but all of a sudden throw dust in everybody's eyes to say that things are so bad the member from castries east came to the house madam speaker for the budget and said this is the worst thing to happen in se lucia that we're going to be in debt that we're it's going to be a complete disaster but guess what only two years ago they presented a deficit that was even greater when you look at the level of debt that they've accumulated over the years so what they want to do madam speaker is continuously paint this picture of chaos so let me repeat a couple of things i wrote them down well you know the great thing madam speaker let me just repeat because i know the members i know the audience cannot hear it they said that what is being said on the other side is that i must be accountable and i was elected and i must repair it and guess what madam speaker i'm up and united workers party is up to that challenge we will be there at no occasion have we said that we can't fix the problems but the the problem that we have is i believe we've not told people sufficiently what we've inherited and that we've tried to get on with the job but i want to say to you madam speaker we talked about how we're going to finance the budget made the request us to t bills versus bonds the bill says how much we're going to borrow in bonds the remaining difference is going to be in t bills in terms of of bonds the remaining amount is in t bills and i uh sorry i have not calculated what it is but i'm saying to you right now this bill has made the request to borrow the bonds are we satisfied with that answer are you satisfied that there is no conflict in this motion that this motion is speaking strictly madam speaker to bonds in addition to that they asked the question as to whether the borrowing that we're doing is within the limits that we have and the answer to that question is emphatically yes madam speaker it is and then also they asked the question the last question the last question they asked was with regards to the cost of borrowing madam speaker the government recognizes that the cost of borrowing is greatly reflected on the credibility of your economy and so what we're doing madam speaker is doing things to be able to change people's perspective on our economy we're not going to kick the can down the road so when we say that we're going to review radio san lucha that when we say that we're going to review the marketing board shut down radio san lucha and we said we're going to review the marketing board when we bring it out for you okay okay all those things must be brought on the table because we cannot continue madam speaker to pay for services that are not being delivered to the people of san lucha we cannot allow for the deficit of the government to continue you know madam speaker i went and i did a walkthrough of victoria hospital and it was amazing madam speaker it was amazing madam speaker amazing madam speaker we said we went to the we went to the um cashier and the cashier madam speaker okay was sitting there for radio san lucha of radio san lucha yes we said we would wind up the operations of radio san lucha of the board no no so at the end of the day when i went and i met victoria hospital and i know what i found madam speaker i found that you had a young lady you want to go or young ladies collecting money okay and they were writing hand written receipts madam speaker no i'm standing on a point hand written receipts madam speaker madam speaker on a point of order the prime minister is insisting that he never said they're going to wind up the operations of the marketing board now he accused me of misinformation and madam speaker it's on page 40 of the prime minister's budget address the prime minister can just accept you did say that you are going to wind up do you want me to read the sentence but it says we have decided to solve this issue by winding up the operations of the board within the upcoming financial year which board san lucha marketing board madam speaker i will read the thing and i will bring it back to the house i don't have a copy of my speech here but i will bring it and if i am wrong i will admit that i am wrong okay so i'm saying i went to victoria hospital madam speaker and you had a young lady who was who was writing hand written receipts madam speaker okay hand written receipts and that those same receipts were going into a cubby hole in which they were collecting them three and four months down the road they had a lady and i met some fabulous people there a mrs lee who is running the blood bank and she was using a dos program madam speaker dos is what i learned remember a dos program to be able to manage the database of the blood bank i walked through the hospital and this is on fault on both sides where a door had been cut to go into an old building and all the stone and the steps were going up the stones that were cut out from the wall were still on the side of the steps and it's been over 15 years 15 years 15 years yes okay you have situations madam speaker did you went into the rooms and there's equipment in there that clearly has not worked for years and the process to get them out has not happened old air conditioners and i'm just saying madam speaker this is how we're running government these are the things that we must change that when i went and checked approximately 60 000 people go through victoria hospital year we can't paint it all the doors have termited them and as bad as things may be do they have to be that bad chairs in the waiting room that are broken madam speaker we cannot continue going down that road these are the little things that we must start changing from the bottom to be able to change government and what my party has said it is no longer going to kick the can down the road it is going to make those tough decisions even when they talk about the national trust madam speaker the comparison with the sufer development foundation that has two not vex with the trust hold on please honorable prime minister we have nothing we're having technical difficulties honorable prime minister please continue members of the other side out of the last 20 years madam speaker they have been responsible for the affairs of the state for 15 of those years they've shown a gross inability to be able to manage the economy madam speaker and you know the sad part madam speaker is after the people of san lucha rejected them in 2006 you would have thought that they would often learn and would have found a way to come back and practice a better government but when we hear about the minister's account when we hear that investors that terms were negotiated in 2014 for hotel development in fact signed off ready to go by the end of 2014 and 2015 past 2016 past but four days before the election the deal is signed and nothing was changed in the deal you have to ask yourself when they signed the deal did it who did they sign it for did they sign it for the benefit of the people in the south and i keep on hearing the minister from labry so the representative from labry the republic cares so much he's so passionate about the people from his constituency yet you had an opportunity to get a hotel project and get people and young people employed to be able to create a market for your same farmers and it didn't happen why why all these projects that you said you left us i am i to believe that you're so benevolent that you care so much about alan shasty united workers party that you left a whole basket of projects for us to be able to take over why couldn't you get them off the ground they were so great and you involve yourselves in relationships in which all we can do is scratch our head and that you refuse to be accountable for but one thing is we may disagree on issues that we have but guess what we know about them we didn't know about grindwood we didn't know about we didn't know what was taking place at the nca we did not know about the cost overruns of the highways we did not know about the minister's account in fact i was always amazed how six hundred thousand dollars was being spent on a monthly basis and there wasn't more you would have thought that sports should be thriving that we'd have a world-class football team that we would have an after school program with that kind of money so the question becomes madam speaker is can the people of san lucha trust the opposition an opposition that continues to put out information of their own creation an opposition's only intent is to create chaos but i have to say to you madam speaker and i want to reiterate the same way that we're very comfortable and they were going through in a very practical way to be able to implement our budget and to finance our budget and to be able to deliver on the promises that we've made we're not being detracted and it's not a state of arrogance madam speaker but i want to say to the people of san lucha how much great how grateful i am for their prayers and for their support and so madam speaker i'm very happy with the financing that we've presented the information that we've presented and hopefully we've satisfied the opposition and whatever queries you may have my apologies the question is that parliament authorizes the minister for finance to raise a the sum of ec 103 million dollars for financing the 2017 2018 budget and be a sum of ec 262 million for refinancing the existing debts on the original government securities market or through private placements at a maximum rate of 7.5 percent i now put the question as many as of that opinion say i as many as of a contrary opinion say no i think the eyes have it the eyes have it honorable prime minister minister for finance lead of government business okay go on p m the following motion madam speaker whereas it is provided by section 39 one of the finance administration act cap 1501 that the minister for finance may by resolution of parliament borrow money from a bank of or other financial institutions for capital or recurrent expenditure of government and whereas it is further provided by section 41 one of the finance administration act cap 1501 that a guarantee involving a financial liability is not binding on the government unless the minister grants the guarantee in accordance with the enactment or with the prior approval of parliament by resolution of parliament and whereas it is further provided by section 42 one of the finance administration act cap 1501 that they shall be a charge on the paid out should be charged on and paid out of the consolidated fund debt charges for which the government is liable and whereas the minister for finance considers it necessary to borrow from the caribbean development bank and amount not exceeding us 11 million 228 thousand dollars consisting of a special funds resource portion in the amount of us 4 million 65 thousand an ordinary capital resources portion in the amount of us 7 million 163 thousand for the purpose of financing the eight water denry north supply redevelopment project and whereas in the case of the special development funds resource portion the loan is repayable in 80 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date of the first day of january and the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october of each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of five years following the date of the loan agreement or on such later date as a caribbean development bank may specify in writing an interest is payable at the rate of two and a half percent per annum withdrawn and outstanding on the amount of the special funds resources in the case of the ordinary capital resources portion the loan is repayable in 48 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date of the first day of january the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october of each year commencing on the first date due after the expiration of the five years following the date of the loan agreement on such later due date as a caribbean development bank may specify in writing the interest is payable at a rate of 2.9 percent per annum withdrawn and outstanding on the amount the ordinary capital resources portion and in commitment charge of the rate of one percent per annum is payable quarterly on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion under under withdrawn un withdrawn and which occurs from the six day following the date of the loan agreement beat resolved that the parliament authorizes the minister of finance to borrow 11.228 thousand u.s. dollars from the caribbean development bank for the purpose of financing the eighth water denry north water redevelopment project be it further resolved that in the case of the special funds resource portion the loan is repayable in 80 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date and of the first day of january the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october for each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of the five years following the date of the loan agreement and or such later date as the bank may specify in writing and that the interest payable at a rate of two and a half percent per annum withdrawn and outstanding on the amount of the special fund resources in the case of the ordinary capital resource portion the loan is repayable in 48 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date and at the first day of january the first day of april the first day of july the first day of october of each year commencing on the first day due due after the expiration of the five years following the date of the loan agreement and on on such later date due on such later due date as the caribbean development bank may specify in writing the interest payable is a rate of 2.9 percent per annum we've drawn an outstanding on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion and a commencement charge at the rate of one percent per annum is payable quarterly on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion we've drawn in which occurs from the six day following the date of the loan agreement so madam speaker this is a loan to be able to finance the long overdue water project i want to say that this project was commenced under the former government and i'm very happy that the minister responsible for wasco and and also happens to be the minister of agriculture lobbied very hard that we would have no break in this project and so i was very happy to be part of the opening ceremony to start laying down the pipes and i know how many people in the denry area are so grateful that this project is is happening so i'm hoping that we can receive parliament's approval today honourable members the question is that parliament authorizes the minister of finance to borrow us 11 million 228 thousand dollars from the caribbean development bank for the purpose of financing the eighth water denry north of water supply redevelopment project be it further resolved that a in the case of the special funds resources portion the loan is repayable in 80 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date of the first of january the first of april the first of july and the first of october of each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of five years following the date of the loan agreement or on such later due date as the bank may specify in writing and the interest is payable at the rate of 2.5 per cent per annum we've drawn an outstanding on the amount of the special funds resources b in the case of the ordinary capital resources portion the loan is repayable in 48 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on the due date of the first of january first day of january the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october of each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of five years following the date of the loan agreement or on such later due date as the caribbean development bank may specify in writing the interest is payable at a rate of 2.9 per cent per annum we've drawn an outstanding on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion and a commitment charge at the rate of 1 per cent per annum is payable quarterly on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion on we've drawn and which accrues from the accrues from the 60th day following the date of the loan payment honorable member for denry north thank you madam speaker madam speaker i rise to support the motion that is before us i think the tiblin of this motion today is really or it symbolizes a moment of vindication for the people of denry north who historically madam speaker have toiled very diligently by way of their contribution to the economic development of st lusia we all know madam speaker and i will always reiterate in this honorable house that during the heady of the banana industry it was the people of denry north among others who used to grace the farms as early as for five in the morning to ensure that the island's main revenue stream at the time was available to the government of the day to provide social services to the people of our country and madam speaker during that time during the heady of the banana industry the forest was partially damaged thereby affecting the watershed in the mabuya valley area and this led to a situation where supply dwindled and quality was compromised so the fact that we are here today madam speaker given authorization to the minister for finance and prime minister to borrow money from the caribbean development bank for the the funding of that particular project is something that i will support in my personal capacity as parliamentary rep and also as a member of the opposition madam speaker the problem started in the late 1970s 1980s and during that period when the water supply in the mabuya valley was badly contaminated we had a number of babies toddlers and even adults who were dying as a result of their consumption of contaminated water and we had the unenviable position of contributing madam speaker very negatively to the infant mortality rate of the country madam speaker over the years several efforts have been made there have been several attempts at ameliorating a very very bad situation we had a situation madam speaker where there was a proposed damming of the ternes river in the late 80s 1990s that did not materialize the global environment fund known as jeff through an i w come integrated watershed and coastal management area project attempted to bring some relief to the people of denry north in the form of harvesting rain water that started off very well madam speaker a lot of the government agencies that operate within the confines of that constituency benefited some households benefited but that was grossly insufficient in terms of a solution to the water problems of the mabuya valley the ssdf with its limited budget madam speaker attempted to distribute water terns in the more affected areas particularly the elevated communities as austin hill belmont and so on again that was meant to ameliorate the situation but it was never the permanent cure for that water problem for a private non-profit company of osbert duvey registered in 2006 madam speaker known as the mdi the mabuya development institute it was proposed madam speaker that a proposal be submitted to the tune of 12 million dollars to the european union to bring a solution to that problem once and for all that fell through it never materialized and we're back to square one finally madam speaker this partnership with the government and people of mexico how did that collaborative undertaking with mexico come into being and i will just give you historical madam speaker synopsis of events ranging as far back as 2011 to where we are at today i remember in my quest to become the parliamentary up for denry north i campaigned very hard madam speaker promising that a solution liberal party government would address the water problem once and for all that was in the year 2011 in the year 2012 madam speaker the prime minister at the time of the kenyan turning cited the denry north water redevelopment project as a priority for his administration and he gave me the assurance as the parliamentary rep that before the term of office was over we would have tackled that problem once and for all it was difficult to find the money madam speaker and so the very hardworking member for lab ring who at the time served in government as the foreign affairs minister he went globe trotting trying to get a friendly government that would answer the cries of the people of the mabia valley and denry north and madam speaker i think it was at a bilateral meeting he had on the margins of an oas summit in guatimala that he was able to initiate discussions with his mexican foreign counterpart with respect to getting funding and assistance from mexico to fund the denry north water redevelopment project the minister from mexico acceded to that request madam speaker and in 2013 i led a technical team comprising a questionnaire from united nations office of project services wasco and the mexican government on a constituency tour to embark on what the spanish referred to as a fisher technical which was more or less a technical feasibility but god was good to us on that day madam speaker that the morning they arrived in constituency it had rained very heavily and they were able to get first-hand information in terms of what was coming through the taps on that particular day where contra madam speaker that government javini sya jordia po pre-demash po jwene l'agent po fini po jigloo and denry north konu tutsa po jia za kumansi epi l'agent ki soti jord guvenman mexik ko yobanu $5 million dollars five million u.s. dollars but nude tutsu sa l'enuhen l'agent sa that i pati kainia ase po fini po jia ek man kaa change l'emoyale an tut commune denry north o lian gwan avin ostinil belmont ek mati dimon nukai adwese problem glora madam speaker mone kaa kwe dat nude kainia ase tans po fei adan an kikai po yon de l'anit me nui alizilateni yon de bagai ki apeshe nuk fei epi vitestan uti beli fei me jordia amon kontan that pa pis po jia paka fini an tans nude kwe de kai fini an that guvenman javini sya ek man beli poin l'okasion po wimese guvenman epi po eme minisla po demash o japon kumeni po unidi epi situasio madam speaker in the year 2014 Mexico's foreign minister his excellency Jose Antonio Meade reaffirmed the commitment of the Mexican people to that project when he visited San Lucia in early February of 2014 and his trip to San Lucia madam speaker was not solely to give a commitment for the water project and the other projects that they would have assisted the government with but he was also promoting his country's hosting of the ACS summit where he intended to have bilaterals not just with San Lucia but with the wider Caribbean grouping and so we profited the opportunity when we met him at the beljuh hotel formerly Caribbean's hotel to once again underscore the needs of the people of Denver enough for that particular water project madam speaker he met myself he met with the then prime minister dr anthony the then foreign affairs minister the honorable alpha batis was there and also the then permanent secretary in the office of the prime minister in the position of dr alison gajada in 2015 madam speaker prime minister kenny anthony an ambassador moreno of mexico signed a corporation agreement in the presence of a number of officials from latin america they included at the time mr hezu zapata the then acting director of the mezu american integrated fund for development there was also mr gisapi mancinelli the deputy original director of unops for latin america and the caribbean minister james fletcher was also in attendance as the minister for sustainable development who had line responsibility for water resources was personal with their and also our members from the mabuya valley community madam speaker in 2015 the mexican funds were released in 2016 a contract for design and build was signed and the contract was awarded to a french company known as vincy but vincy on island are working with the renault group and as i said work has actually started on the construction of the dam so madam speaker it has been a very long and adious journey for those of us who have worked really really hard and diligently to ensure that this project came into being it really would be remiss of me madam speaker to stand here today and not thank the former prime minister for his role in ensuring that the project was a priority for his administration i have to also echo the sentiments of the people of denrinoff to the former foreign affairs minister member for labry for his role in going out there and securing the grand funding madam speaker was have been a very easy thing to engage a foreign government and try to underscore all the needs of the labry constituency but very unselfishly madam speaker the member demonstrated a level of sensitivity to the plight of the people of denrinoff and so he did not hesitate in representing us admirably in seeking funding for the water project in my constituency doctor james fletcher must be commended for his ministry for providing ministerial oversight as his ministry sustainable development at the time as i said would have had line responsibility for water resources madam speaker was at a ceremony yesterday where a national award was conferred on the outgoing mexican ambassador ambassador moreno and today i want to place on record my personal appreciation for his role and contribution to that project and also madam speaker the appreciation of the people of denrinoff for the manner in which the ambassador demonstrated a personal interest in seeing to it that this project was started i had to work in team from you know madam speaker must be commended the country manager the community mobilization officer and all other persons who in one way or the other would have contributed to that particular project coming on stream i said at the beginning of my presentation that the issue was one of quantity and also quality madam speaker there are some communities in the mabuya valley that go for days months and in some cases yes actually yes madam speaker actual years without any portable water in the in in the tap and i remember when i was at the ministry of youth development and sports i used to hear the staff complain on the morning how they had a rough weekend and then i would probe and ask but what would have made your weekend so unbearable and they would say to me that wasco interrupted the supply to their home for almost five hours on saturday and that was the base the basis for them madam speaker being aggrieved think of the person in jubone think of the person in monpanash grand revere madam speaker and i've made this point here before there's a particular lady who met me at the rapas or the the the celebration after the week madam after the burial madam speaker who said to me that her teenage son had never seen running water in their homes in monpanash grand revere her teenage son from the time he was born and he left victoria hospital to become in a teenager he had never seen running water in the tap at their home and it was with those persons in mind people like that madam speaker i expressed my gratitude to the prime minister and the government for making the resources available quality is also madam speaker an issue a water safety plan for the mabuya valley and denry community water supply system developed under a collaborative initiative between wasco then say caribbean environmental health institute and the united state center for disease control and prevention in january 2012 said that the water being consumed by the people in denry north is perhaps the worst in the entire caribbean and the quality is so bad that in places like canada and some of the more developed countries madam speaker but this is what people have had to use and resort to particularly those madam speaker who are not able to afford buying water from the supermarket for consumption by themselves or by the children so two problems will be solved from what have been told by the the unups people madam speaker the capacity of the tornas river is sufficient to supply the entire valley and the long standing issue of water called or poor water quality will be addressed in that whatever will be coming through the taps will be of a much higher standard and people will be able to use it to do domestic chores people will be able to to drink that same water um it is one thing madam speaker when you're the parliamentary rep to come and speak on behalf of people and in some cases what we say we basically relaying the stories of our people the situations and the scenarios that they find themselves in every word i speak about the denry north water redevelopment project is a personal experience for me the same water that comes to my home is the same water that goes through homes of the average persons in that constituency and so madam speaker i'm extremely pleased to see that a project which had its genesis in the labour party was allowed to continue and at the pipeline ceremony madam speaker with all the sincerity i was able to muster on the day i publicly thanked the prime minister for not doing as he had done with the sufre square and the default administrative building but allow this particular project to go through and so madam speaker once again on behalf of all the constituents of denry north city so madam speaker elevated communities austin hill um bell month madam speaker month in grand ravine they have suffered for many many years and i am extremely pleased madam speaker that at least during my tenure as the parliamentary representative that a promise which was made to the people of the mabia valley will be delivered of course with the full cooperation of the government of the day so that haven't been said madam speaker i want to play the support to this particular resolution notwithstanding it is more debt but i think this is money well spent and for once madam speaker i will unreservedly support that particular motion to borrow the money honorable minister for education innovation gender relations and sustainable development member for micu new word thank you madam speaker i too rise in support of the resolution before us because as has been very eloquently articulated by the mp for denry north indeed this will bring much relief to the residents there however i am obliged to reference the situation in la pointe in mournful in law bar in sentomary the residents there suffer from intermittent water supply and every time we are confronted with an adverse weather system and even more recently the slightest rain madam speaker compromises the catchment to the watershed and the ability to transfer pipe one water to the homes of our residents in that regard i want to reassure the residents that my colleagues my cabinet the minister for finance the minister responsible for water resources in the person of the honorable joseph we are all aware of that and very soon they too will benefit from regular supply of portable water me serve la nijan ki kakute kansi jordia ek yo kaitan gubedma ka feo go poje akumin den rinode ek pite tia kakatile ki le yo mem kai juenoti sulajman paske nusav akumin konlomba se marib la pointe ek mopo de le yo kani difficulte ek glow ek too sweet la nijan tili apli ukawa wasko kani weizon po kupi glow ek yo kale de le po ju sang glow ek asu shak lokazion me kani weizon po me kuye wasko na kuye missi gudman po po me sa kopon ki sa ki kale paske plan sa ki la la po lane asulane asulane ek nusav po pila sasa ja po fite oshae ek nubuize gade situasion po nusav po premier weki kali te glowa se on bon kali se glow me osi siten kai feme osi suvan konu kawa siten kai feme ase komin sa la alo mefle bae weizidon la pointe mopo lomba ek senti mari ase wasla ki nusav ek nukopon situasion ek too sweet nukai fe saki nesese se po nu wange situasion ek mefle wei missi kamawad me avon nul wassa paske meni kofiensla ki nukai juenoti sulajman missi honorable member for library thank you very much madame speaker madame speaker i once again take the floor to respond to the motion moved by the prime minister and minister for finance to offerize the minister to borrow the sum of 11 million 228 thousand dollars from the caribbean development bank for the purpose of financing the eight water project in the constituency of denry north madame speaker from the time i saw this particular motion i have been in the orbit of of that particular motion with absolute alacrity to support because like the member for denry north indicated the people of denry north have actually engaged very seriously in the socioeconomic development of senlocia during the glory days of bananas they produce and this is why i've always commended the district of miku and denry for the contribution to national growth and development and it could have been a hundred million dollars i would have supported it madame i believe that the sacrifice that they made in times pass they must be rewarded today for it they must be given space to maneuver madame speaker safe drinking water is not a luxury it is absolutely necessary because the lack of of safe water and poverty are mutually reinforcing access to consistent sources of clean water is crucial to poverty reduction we have to stay healthy to do our work and be productive moreover in order to earn an income poor people cannot spend all the time caring for family members that got affected by waterborne diseases the denry valley is notorious for equalizing in the water i've never seen dirty water like this in my entire life and obviously those who cannot afford bottled water the poor people they have to go to the pipes to drink untreated water that thing brown like cocoa tea and i was absolutely absolutely committed to resolving that particular problem and i said to myself if that's the only thing that i would have accomplished as foreign minister i would have accomplished a lot so first i spoke to one country i i found that they were not moving fast enough then on the margins of the os general assembly in guatimala i engaged the mexicans on the water project for denry as well as the contribution for the senju's hospital which we opened sometime ago so i am extremely pleased to be associated with this particular project undoubtedly it was part of a machinery to address poverty in this country and it was rather unfortunate that senator yubaldas reyman in the upper house did attack the the senlucia labor party on its record of dealing with poverty reduction where he stated that you know we like to keep poor people in poverty but in response to that the labor party have actually dealt with a spectrum of interventions to deal with poverty in this country and the record of the labor party is absolutely clear in this regard madam speaker and again i would like to quote from government hansar april 22nd 2010 it states and i quote in free short years and that was in the year 2000 just three years after the labor party just got into office in free short years your labor government has and i quote created and nurtured the development of hundreds of small business and directed millions of dollars worth of contract work given senlucia a multi-story carpark the scattering for the dramatic increase in the number of vehicles bought by working senlutions created permanent and part-time jobs for thousands of senlutions thus reducing unemployment from 22 percent to 16 percent imf confirmed imf confirmed the first three years taking light on water to several new communities assisting thousands of households with electricity and setting down 3000 new street lamps constructed footpaths steps and other public amenities in dozens of communities across senlucia improve social and welfare benefits to the seniors the indigents and the less fortunate constructed a 46 million dollar prison for the protection of law by the citizens in this country revolutionize education in senlucia with the construction and expansion of several schools upgrade of amenities enhanced training of teachers and an overhaul of the curriculum constructed a 46 million dollar fisheries complex an upgraded order fish landing and processing facilities around the island constructed a goods distribution free zone commands construction of the national stadium which had been promised for 20 years broken ground on what will be the region's more technologically advanced test cricket facility abolish the five percent tax on telephone calls remove the charge impose on persons visiting health centers return ownership of pigeon island to the people of senlucia commence an island wide house repair program for seniors establish the bell fund and poverty reduction fund to attack and reduce poverty in senlucia abolish the tax on tips received by hotel workers created a new accident an emergency unit at victoria hospital conducted extensive drainage works on the castries river transforming masher in the process assisted the banana industry by paying off the 46 million dollars debt incurred by the slbga removing all duties and consumption taxes on inputs subsidizing by three million dollars the purchase of boxes for farmers and removing duties and consumption taxes on vehicles purchased by banana farmers brought tourism to the people by the introduction of a heritage tourism program which is the envy of the region so shares in the ncb to the people of senlucia resulting in the bank recording is highest profit ever establish new housing estates in boseju union and black bay enacted the most wide ranging legislation in the eastern caribbean including such vital laws as minimum wages legislation legislation to outlaw discrimination against women and legislation to compel employers to recognize trade unions cleaned up and commenced the beautification of senlucia through the establishment of the nca constructed two daycares and two human resource development centers introduced proud a program to regularize ownership of title to persons who have squatted on government lands constructed a new communications and works complex taken step to provide a clubhouse and order suitable recreational facilities for government workers as promised abolish entertainment tax and the requirement for tax exit certificates by senlucia's fought for and secured the reduction of domestic and international telephone calls and introduced several other initiatives to improve the standard of living and quality of life of senlucia's on quote madam speaker i believe that despite the fact that successive governments would introduce programs and do things that are necessary the very fabric of the society remains vulnerable and poor people remain vulnerable and so we have to continue the assault on poverty in a sustained manner and it is in that particular context i embrace so intimately that water project 11 million dollars at this time would increase the specific gravity of our borrowing problems but it's inevitable this is why i want to conclude on the note of good governance that the member for for grozile spoke about many times during his presentation about good governance you see this idea that we are giving people on from the outside impression that somehow this is some corrupt jurisdiction and may be across this house the floor of this house is bad news today official development assistance does not flow like before in the this country and we must not give our traditional friends and non-traditional friends some type of idea that when they send monies to assist us that it will go to all the things apart from what is intended for so therefore if the same way that i got the five million us dollars from the mexicans with a commitment to have gotten even more resources for that same water project it is in that same vein we could have engaged another traditional friend that probably could have introduced that amount to assist us in that regard but no doubt madam speaker i support the borrowing without any contention but as i prepare to close i want to just speak briefly to a point raised by the prime minister whilst he was summing up about the hotel at black bay certainly madam speaker i am not opposed to any hotel development in the constituency of library i remember the very first time around when the hotel was proposed for black bay they came on the farms the farmers had concerns that nobody addressed the concerns they were not willing to give up the lands because these are not vacant lands these are lands occupied by the farmers of my constituency and undoubtedly they do have plans for beachfront will rock limited is the largest employer in in library and they need beachfront for them to conduct their activities right around st lucer you realize that hotel development take up most of our our coastline and that is not the only use for it but no doubt i believe moving forward with any hotel development there must be dialogue with the farmers there must be dialogue with the community in terms of how it's going to impact them and we do have our own plans for tourism in the constituency of library the the library beachfront development the upper marjamel village with the two waterfalls we want to develop a unique product of their mon liblant we do have our own plans to develop and obviously i did signal with clarity to the prime minister during the debate on the estimates that i will be engaging with him in that regard to to try to seek some support for the development in library because we want laborians to be the ones to extract economic benefits it's not all the time we want to see somebody from the outside come and establish a hotel they come on establish a hotel that's great that's not a problem it will provide jobs but we do have plans for ourselves where laborians will be extracting economic benefits from the structures that we put up so madam speaker in closing let me again say that i support fully the borrowing for the denry water project thank you honorable leader of the opposition and member for castles thank you maansika maansika i'll be brief um basically to support the the resolution in that the the party believes or we in the opposition believe my speaker that government must see about the less privilege that you must use social policy in a way to empower poorer people this is why government cannot be a business government must deal with that and i'm and i'm very happy that the government that the present government has continued on that trajectory and will borrow 11 million u.s dollars which you can pay back in terms of how much you know cost to pay back in terms of dollar terms in terms of how it will improve the quality of life of people how it will make people live or enjoy a better quality of life and that is why we will support it 100 percent and any of that type of borrowing that will engage in the upliftment of people the opposition will support maansika maansika i want also to see that i am very very impressed with the emotion and the and the drive that a member for denry north had in ensuring that this water project came into be every day in the cabinet that i was a member of the member for denry north always spoke about this water project for the people of denry because he felt it himself because he lives there and he felt it so i'm very happy for him i'm very happy for the government in that they have seen the wisdom of following our policy and i want to see that i have full confidence in the member for denry north both as a parliamentary representative and as a minister when he has a minister of youth development i have full confidence in his integrity and i have full confidence in the work that he has done for his constituency and for the ministry of youth development so maansika the opposition fully supports and endorses this motion i thank you honorable honorable minister for economic development housing urban renewal transport civil aviation member for castry south madam speaker i intend to be brief on this bill also and to lend my support for it but to say madam speaker you'd think all of a sudden is a different opposition party that is sitting across the table because it's a project that was initiated so a hundred million is no problem if that was what it cost you see madam speaker these are the double standards that we we present in this house when yes i cannot help myself when i see the things that the opposition would do i cannot sit there and be quiet how could i sit there and be quiet madam speaker here is the opposition and i welcome i welcome the hundred percent support for the project but you know what madam speaker why when it is other projects that will benefit people equally we don't see that level of support for the project example i'm coming to that i'm coming to that madam speaker so has the point that we need to highlight this is a government for all this is not a government for some people this is a government for all the people of st lucer and that is why we have said that when a project is good we will support it and we will move ahead of within not selectively not selectively madam speaker yes you have your time go right ahead but madam speaker you see this god this opposition wants to take the credit as if everything revolves around it i want to put on the record today our thanks and appreciation to the minister of agriculture and forestry and also the minister responsible for wasco because if he was there he would have spoken to this subject to see what we had to do as a government to advance the project we did not try to stall the project we did not say we did not say madam speaker because this is in an opposition constituency we are not going to carry out the project madam speaker i can tell you what i suffered in opposition at the hands of the men sitting across the table madam speaker i can tell you what they did in my constituency to undermine my representation but you see madam speaker we are not like them and i want to remind them we always give credit where credit is due we put everything in place for the sufre bridge when the president prime minister who was the area at the time and had contested the election asked him what they said to him on the bridge the same labor party people who are sitting on this side so you see i know you can deal with me because i will always remind you of what you all have done madam speaker the former prime minister and its enhancer came to this honorable house and said back either in 2013 or 14 that there was nine million dollars in the budget for the denry water supply and i'm sure the member for me could not would recall that we have that discussion by the following year we were asking was where is the denry water supply project that the millions of dollars was mentioned in the budget for and i always tell you when you come to this honorable house be careful what you say because hansad is there to show today today we are in the honorable house to do one to borrow the money they said that was there how many years ago for the denry water supply project and the point is that all what you are saying there about we were doing this and we were doing that this government is coming to the honorable house today to borrow the required money to see that this water project is finished that is what this is about this is not about victimization this is not oh who said so i'm coming i'm coming i'm coming when we did the water project and i will remind you because it is easy when i heard the member for library outline all of the things that he claimed by his record that was done by the labor party you would think send lucha started when the labor party started that is what you would think if you listen to him but madam speaker when i came into government back in 2006 we did the experience for sejak water supply project we did that who was the sitting empty at the time a member of the den opposition so here's what they are presenting madam speaker you heard them you heard a member talk about stopping the sufre square and he thanks the prime minister for not stopping the denry water supply project like he stopped the sufre square and stopped the building in view for madam speaker you know they are the ones who cannot help themselves they are the ones i sat here and listen to me everything i will say is in response to what you said everything i will say is what a member on the other side they said so they said we stopped the sufre square the member for sufre has explained on several occasions and the prime minister that we are revising the project to build something that is compatible with what sufre is okay you are building a building in view for without the requisite approvals the land had not even been transferred to the people who are building the building but that's your level of governance that is how you all govern so i don't expect any better from you i don't expect any better from you than the member for the member for library you hear him evaluating himself but his evaluation is subjective madam speaker let me tell you how subjective and i can just speak maybe three points that he highlighted 45 million dollars paid on behalf of slbj for banana farmers and you call that an accomplishment well let me tell you i'm not telling you stories i was a banana farmer and the record will show that's right that's what you don't know so have a track record of performance and have a track record of what i have i can show you where i work for everything that i have unlike the same can be said for some people over there so yes during the time that i was a farmer and the payment was made let me remind the member for library that after the 46 million dollars was paid on behalf of the farmers for slbj if banana farmers if we still had our banana slips because i you see for some reason you discard information after a period of time is not like now is the computer agent you can take a picture and you can have it i would show you that after years of paying that money the amount of money was still being deducted from every banana farmer in st lucer who was selling to the slbj and then the slbc so the question is who you paid the money for if you paid my debt why are you still deducting money from me for my debt so the debt you paid was to somebody not on behalf of the farmers of and i will always set the record straight when i come to this house i'm giving an opinion when you live here tell the member for denry north go back to the valley and the same farmers that he spoke about and you spoke about the farmers from me could ask the farmers from me could if after the 46 million dollars was paid if they were still not deducting every time they sold bananas they were deducting payment that they were owed who did you give the 46 million dollars to that is the question you need to answer i will go further i will go further you talk about the establishment of the nca you talk about that you saw what the report said the commission of inquiry now i'm not going down that road but if i were you i would not go down the establishment of the nca the nca was a cash cow for the labor party people working in restaurants of chair persons of labor party was being paid by the nca as if they were doing beautification you want to come you want to come to this honorable house they work for the money no they were working in the rest you you see you just come you don't understand it go back and read the report and you will see not my opinion the opinion of the investigators was that the people were working in the restaurant belonging to henry charles restaurant yes and they were being paid by the nca as if they were doing work out there on behalf of beautification you get it you get it so when you want to ask questions be careful what you are asking for so i am saying do not come and raise nca as if nca is such an entity that you are so proud of what is it you're proud of because all of the entities you mentioned there there were ways that the labor party innovative ways of the labor party siphoning money from the people of st lucha and the report shows it for themselves for themselves it will come in time don't worry then i had a member say you know we must be careful about our discussions in this honorable house because of the signals we sending out there to friendly governments who want to assist us how much have you all said about the taiwanese how much have you all said about the taiwanese how much you all said about the ambassador thong chu how much did you all say about it today you want to come and present yourself in this house be careful what you say when we get in assistance so because it's you that ask the mexicans and they gratefully assisted us nothing wrong with that but when the taiwanese put money into this economy you'll call the blood money you'll call call them back recall him you forget have not forgotten those days i have not forgotten those days you went you commit you commissioned an illegal that is why they told you all you could do nothing with the report you all came up with because you commissioned a study on the various constituency councils that was illegal it was illegal the people only the auditor the auditor general could commission these studies but you all hand pick free labor party operatives and put them there to try and blind the character of persons on this honorable on this side of the honorable house and i brought a challenge to you all when i was in opposition i said go and value all the projects i did in my constituency if it is less than the projects that the taiwanese funded i will pay the difference if it is more you pay me the difference why did you take the challenge why didn't you didn't hear i tell you as a banana farmer you just said you you when bananas was green gold i was king you see you see madam speaker and one of these days madam speaker we must go back we must go back in history and we must ask everybody who run politics in this country go back and do a study of what they had before they entered politics and find out what they have today and what investments they have and how they accumulated what they have and at the end of the day i will be the first to volunteer all my information i will be the first to volunteer you want to know where i got my money you want to know as a banana farmer as a minibus owner operator i was a heavy equipment operator and truck i was a furniture manufacturer okay you still want to know more i was a salesman doing tires and parts and everything pertaining to vehicles so when you want to check my record when you want to check what i have done to be successful i have a track record i want you to be able to say the same for yourself and some members on this side so madam speaker madam speaker this water supply project is very important to the people of denry and that is why that is why this government said when we were campaigning on the theme building a new st lucer we said everything the government was doing that was good we would take it and we would continue we said we would improve on it where it can be improved and that is why i know that the member for denry north is sincere about his comments about the need for the water supply project we've had several conversations about that i was there the ground breaking ceremony and any member of parliament in this honorable house who would have a project of that nature given what the people of denry north have suffered over the years and it would be good to do a good study in denry as to some of the rarest cancers we have in st lucer being found in the denry valley area to find out what is the relationship between the water supply in that area and the problems that the people face there okay so so i understand that and that is why this government through the honorable prime minister and the minister responsible for wasco would go out of our way to see to it that this project is completed the member for denry north can relocate anywhere he want anytime he can choose to go and live somewhere but the majority of people in denry north do not have that luxury they do not have that opportunity that's the problem that i face in bexong every time bexong house is flood the people do have a choice where would they go madam speaker they cannot go and restart their life somewhere they cannot go and restart somewhere yes some of the people from bexong are actually buying lots of them so that's good so madam speaker madam speaker anytime you ready we have in that discussion so madam speaker i hear them talking about all of these things i have to respond to that because you know madam speaker these projects these projects are not political these projects are necessities in communities and any government with understanding would know the importance of water supply water is life madam speaker water is life and even the intermittent sub supply of water in denry you know they were the ones who put 66 percent on the water on the people you know 66 percent they said they're not putting 15 percent but they go and put 66 and a half percent increase to distill the dam which people from denry that get in water from the dam which people from denry that's getting water from rozo dam that to the silt rozo dam you went on you put 66 percent on water across the island and then when we put taxes to improve the road network when we put taxes to build a new airport you said no no no you can't do that be consistent if you are going to say something say something that is fair across the board so like the members of the opposition for the first time in this house madam speaker i've seen every member of the opposition support this project and i must think and i must think that this united workers party government modern supports that project and if we need additional funding to make the project what it ought to be we will still come back to this house contrary to what you all said when we need to borrow we will borrow more to do projects of that nature for the benefit of the people of sen lush i thank you honorable members the question is that parliament authorizes the minister for finance to borrow us 11 million 228 thousand dollars from the caribbean development bank for the purpose of financing the eighth water denry north water supply redevelopment project be it further resolved a in the case of the special funds resources portion the loan is repayable in 80 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installments on each due date on the thursday of january the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october of each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of five years following the date of the loan agreement or on such later due date as the bank may specify in writing and the interest is payable at the rate of 2.5 per cent per annum we've drawn and outstanding on the amount of the special funds resources be in the case of the ordinary capital resources portion the loan is payable in 48 equal or approximately equal and consecutive quarterly installment on each due date of the first day of january the first day of april the first day of july and the first day of october of each year commencing on the first due date after the expiration of five years following the date of the loan agreement or on such later due date as the caribbean development bank may specify in writing the interest is payable at a rate of 2.97 per cent per annum we've drawn and outstanding on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion and a commitment charge at the rate of one per cent per annum is payable quarterly on the amount of the ordinary capital resources portion and we've drawn and which accrues from the 60th day following the date of the loan agreement i now put the question as many as of bad opinion say i as many as of a contrary opinion say no i think the eyes have it the eyes have it honorable prime minister minister for finance and leader of government business and speaker i beg to lay the following motion standing in my name whereas it is be provided by section 39 one of the finance administration act cap 1501 that the minister responsible for finance made by resolution of parliament borrow money from the bank or financial institution for the capital expenditure of government and whereas it is further provided by section 42 one of the finance administration act cap 1501 that there shall be a charge upon and paid out of the consolidated fund debt charges for which the government is liable and whereas the minister responsible for finance deems it necessary to borrow an amount equivalent to united states 15 million dollars by way of credit in this in this resolution referred to as the credit from the international development association to finance the oecs regional tourism competitiveness project and whereas the maximum comment commitment charge rate payable on the ununwithdrawn financing balance is one half of one percent or one per annum of the under undisperse balance and whereas a service charge is payable on the withdrawn credit balance that is equal to the greater of the sum of three fourths of one percent per annum plus the basis adjustment on the service charge and three fourths of one percent per annum to be applied to the withdrawn credit balance and whereas the principal amount of the credit is repaid on each first day of february and first day of august at the rate of one percent commencing on the first day of august two two two thousand twenty seven to include the first day of february two thousand thirty seven at a rate of one percent commencing on the first day of august two thousand thirty two thirty seven two and including the first day of february to two thousand fifty seven at the rate of two percent beat resolve that the parliament authorizes the minister responsible for finance to borrow an amount equivalent to united states fifteen million dollars by way of credit in the resolution referred to as the credit from the international development association to finance the OECS regional tourism and competitiveness project beat further resolved the maximum commitment charge rate payable on the unwithdrawing financing balance is one half of one percent per annum of the un dispersed balance a service charge is payable to the withdrawn credit balance that is equal to the greater of the sum of three fours of person of one percent per annum plus the basics the basis adjustments to the service charge and three fours of one percent per annum to be applied on the withdrawn credit balance the principal amount of the credit is repaid on each first day of february and first day of august at a rate of one percent commencing on the first day of august two thousand twenty seven to include the first day of february two thousand thirty seven at the rate of one percent commencing on the day of august thirty august two thousand thirty seven two and including the first day of february వికిịch ధారేవాటియాసంటి సా కారింటి కిసింటట౿, This bill, this motion is to be able to borrow money for the OECS Tourism Competitiveness Program. It's a regional program, Madam Speaker, which is financed through a loan facilitated by the International Development Association or the World Bank to the governments of Saint Lucia, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The project development objectives are to facilitate the movement of tourists within the participating countries using theories to improve selected tourist sites and to strengthen implementation capacity for regional tourism development. The project targets various communities and businesses in the participating countries, micro, small and medium enterprises and communities will benefit from increased tourism spending, better infrastructure and improved business environment. The expected outcome of the project is to facilitate the movement of tourists using theories as the mode of transportation among the participating countries, improved selected tourism sites and strengthened the implementation capacity of the regional tourism market development. The project is expected to be implemented over a period of 72 months, Madam Speaker. The effective date of the project is July 19, 2017, with a closing date of September 1, 2023. The approved loan for the government of Saint Lucia is equivalent to the $15 million. The maximum commitment charge rate payable on the un-withdrawing financing balance is 1.5% per annum on the un-dispersed balance. The service charge payable by the recipient, Madam Speaker, on the withdrawing credit balance is equal to the greater of the two that I read out previously. The government of Saint Lucia shall repay the principal amount of the credit in accordance with the repayment schedule A on each of the first days of February and the first day of August at the rate of 1%. The government of Saint Lucia shall enter into a subsidiary agreement with each of the other two participating countries on the terms and conditions approved by the International Development Association Bank. Honourable Members, the question is that Parliament authorizes the Minister responsible for finance to borrow an amount equivalent to United States $15 million by way of credit. In this resolution referred to as the credit from the International Development Association to finance the OECS Regional Tourism Competitiveness Project. The maximum commitment charge rate payable on the un-withdrawing financing balance is 1.5% of 1% per annum of the un-dispersed balance. A service charge is payable on the withdrawn credit balance that is equal to the greater of the sum of three-fourths of 1% per annum plus the basis adjustment to the service charge and three-fourths of 1% per annum to be applied on the withdrawn credit balance. And see the principal amount of the credit is repaid one on each first day of February and first day of August at the rate of 1%. Commencing on the first day of August 2027 to and including the first day of February 2037 at the rate of 1%. Commencing on the first day of August 2037 to and including the first day of February 2057 at the rate of 2%. Honourable Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for tourism. Madam Speaker, I rise to give this motion to allow the Minister of Finance to borrow to the tune of 15 million US dollars, my fullest support Madam Speaker. It really comes at a time Madam Speaker when there have been several studies done on the competitiveness of the tourism sector in St. Lucia. Madam Speaker, there was a strategic five-year plan in 1998 which pointed to some of the issues which the project seeks to address. There is also a European Union funded initiative, Madam Speaker, strategic action plan which also pointed out that some of the weaknesses that St. Lucia possessed were actually some of the same issues that this project was trying to address. Madam Speaker, I want to perhaps mention a few of the main strategic points from the most recent tourism benchmarking and competitive assessment done in June of 2013, four years ago, and which really showed Madam Speaker that we are behind the ball in that really we should have implemented or designed the program a lot faster. And what this project seeks to do is to address the lack of implementation, Madam Speaker, that should have really dealt with a number of issues because the benchmarking study showed that St. Lucia had weaknesses in its infrastructure, Madam Speaker, where there were low competitiveness and major impact and quality and value of tourism. Madam Speaker, it also showed that there was limited transportation and poor land infrastructure, waterfront utilized. It also showed Madam Speaker that the water connectivity was severely underutilized. Madam Speaker, product development and facilities, it also showed that the limited quality of hotel product across the sector, limited facilities, hotels and facilities. Madam Speaker, it also showed a weakness in the marketing of the destination, which is one of the things that our government is trying seriously to address. And it showed that there was a lack of international hotel and complimentary brands. It showed that there was a lack of consistency between brand perception, island perspective and the quality of the destination. And it also showed Madam Speaker that there was a lack of protection of St. Lucia produced handicraft design, art and astronomy. So Madam Speaker, we see here that there are a number of issues that also has to do with the human resource capacity and the institutional framework as it pertains to the management of the tourism sector. So this resolution, this project is very timely, Madam Speaker, which really targets three countries, St. Lucia, Grenada and also St. Vincent and the Grenades. So I think, Madam Speaker, that the components here seek in to address the marketing, the development of the marketing of the destination. An initiative that our government has already began addressing by Madam Speaker coming up and beginning the process to identify a new branding position for the destination, so that we can differentiate the manner in which St. Lucia is portrayed in the marketplace. What we intend to do, Madam Speaker, is to tell the world that St. Lucia is more than a beach destination, but it has got life, it has got soul. The heritage and the culture is really unmatched and really special. So Madam Speaker, there is a lot of merit to supporting this and I just want to give my own support, take a few moments to do so and suggest that this initiative is a very good one. Thank you. Honourable member for Casteries South. Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I am rising to seek clarification on the exact uses to which your money will be put. I think the mover of the motion, the Minister of Finance, indicated that the 15 million US dollars that will be borrowed, and I recall him mentioning the establishment of ferry services, he also mentioned the upgrading of selected tourist sites. In listening to the member for Answay Canaries, he highlighted a number of deficiencies from the benchmarking that was in 2013, and said that the loan will be used to address those deficiencies, a number of them. He highlighted the marketing and promotion. Again, I don't know how different that is from the monies which are provided for in the budget for marketing and promotion. But I was hoping he would say something, especially about the establishment of the ferry services. Is it that the government is contributing money to purchase ferries? Is it that a company is going to be purchasing ferries to have a ferry service and we expect it to capitalise the company? I am not sure the Prime Minister and the Minister did not elaborate on how the 15 million dollars will be used. I sought to allow you to speak first, hoping that you would provide an explanation. Is it that we are buying ferries? Is it that we are buying two ferries? Is it the free islands buying ferries? And if we are buying ferries, what are the conditions under which such have been done? And can the Minister provide us with some more information on the uses for which the 15 million dollars will be used? Thank you very much. Honourable member, you have been heard. Honourable members, the question is that Parliament authorises the Minister responsible for finance to borrow an amount equivalent to US 15 million dollars by way of credit. In this resolution referred to as the credit from the International Development Association to finance the OECS Regional Tourism Competitiveness Project. B, it further resolved that A, the maximum commitment charge rate payable under on-with-drawn financing balance is one-half of 1% per annum of the undisputed balance. B, a service charge is payable on the withdrawn credit balance that is equal to the greater of 1, the sum of three-fourths of 1% per annum plus the basis adjustment to the service charge and 2, three-fourths of 1% per annum to be applied on the withdrawn credit balance. And C, the principal amount of the credit is repaid, one on each first day of February and first day of August at the rate of 1%, two commencing on the first day of August 2027, two and including the first day of February 2037 at the rate of 1%, three commencing on the first day of August 2037, two and including the first day of February 2057 at the rate of 2%. I now put the question, as many as of that opinion say aye, as many as of a contrary opinion say no, I think the ayes have it, the ayes have it. Honourable Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Leader of Government Business. Manas Beir, rise to request that we have a break, a recess for 45 minutes, come back at 7 farm takes 45 minutes. Honourable Members, the question is that the house be suspended until 7.45%. I now put the question, as many as of that opinion said aye, as many as of a contrary opinion say no, నాకమితినిన తిదిధి తిసినికాల astrology the house is suspended until 745 project that some is in the amount of eleven point two million U.S. dollars and that will be bought-up from the Caribbean Development Bank also we saw the last motion just before the house was suspended for US 15 million dollars for the international development association to finance the OCS regional tourism competitiveness project and down on the other paper we will with next order of business will be the bills portion of the order paper where we can see the first reading of the public finance management bill we also have four bills going through all its stages at this sitting and one of those bills is the St Lucia tourism authority bill which we have heard much talk about and so please stay with us we'll be back in about 45 minutes once the house of assembly resumes from the government information service i am alisha ali