 Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have heard many eloquent speeches today, very passionate speeches. And I must tell you, I'm very, very touched by some of what I've heard, especially the confessions regarding the feelings that some members have for my constituency, if you thought South and for the institutions in the South. In that regard, I commend the member for Castery's North. I was really touched by his testimony, Mr. Speaker, I mean, experience with his mother and his reliving the experiences when the hospital caught fire that night. And so, I say the same for the member for Castery's Central. But in the nature of this business, when an opportunity arises to tease and to remind, it can't be missed, Mr. Speaker. And so, I want the member for Castery's North to bring the same passion and the same energy to the repair of roads in P4 South. If he can do that, then I would say that all will be well. He's here, he's listening. But if he can bring that passion and that energy to repair in the roads in P4 South, I think his reputation will be etched in the memory of your fortunes for a very long time. I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, that it really was a pleasure to listen to these contributions. Mr. Speaker, I imagine that this loan is very important for different reasons. The Minister of Finance would obviously be very pleased by the exceedingly generous terms of this loan. Truth is almost unheard of, Mr. Speaker, some of our over 200 million EC dollars, 20-year period for repayment and an interest rate of 2% per annum, payable in semi-annually installments on the principal amount of the loan withdrawn and outstanding. This is almost unheard of, Mr. Speaker. And I cannot really recall how many agencies in this time would be prepared, notwithstanding what the Leader of the Opposition suggested, would make that kind of funding available to small countries like ours in the Eastern Caribbean. But in terms of the loan apart, Mr. Speaker, this loan is important for another reason. It marks a change of approach by Saudi Arabia, not just to St. Lucia, but to the region as a whole. You see, Mr. Speaker, in the past, St. Lucia has only accessed funds from Saudi Arabia through OFIT, Mr. Speaker, and that is the OPEC Fund for International Development. When the Kuwaitis provided funds, Mr. Speaker, to St. Lucia for development projects and it was shortfalls, these shortfalls were usually made up by OFIT, of which Saudi Arabia was a major contributor. Now, why am I going in that direction, Mr. Speaker? I'll tell you. I have to commend, Mr. Speaker, the foreign policy which yielded this loan and this result. The commendation must not only go to the Minister of Finance, but it must also go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and indeed to the Government of St. Lucia as a whole. And I'll tell you why. Why this loan, Mr. Speaker, is so very important because of what is signals. I was hoping today, Mr. Speaker, that the leader of the opposition would have put his foot in his mouth and start to talk about Saudi Arabia and Joufali, that he would open the door so that I would have had the opportunity finally to say some of the things that I've always wanted to say about this Joufali matter, that the opposition for years, for years, hearted lies to the people of St. Lucia as to what actually happened. But somehow he didn't put his foot in his mouth. Initially I was disappointed that the member for Kastri's south was not present because I wanted him to be present to hear what I had to say. But he skirted the issue. Instead, Mr. Speaker, the leader of the opposition went on record to say that he welcomed the law, he welcomed the fact that it is a 2%. He welcomed the fact that Saudi Arabia is making the funds available, but of course it's not only to St. Lucia to use his words, the entire Karakam region which the Minister of Finance sought to correct. You see, Mr. Speaker, what I'm trying to say to you is that years of an initiative by this Labour government has finally borne fruit and that is why the commendation... You see in this country, Mr. Speaker, in this country of ours, constantly shoot ourselves in the foot, time and time again, Mr. Speaker. We constantly do it, Mr. Speaker. I don't know why we are so destructive. I've never understood why is it that we are not putting the overriding interests of our people first. When you see the former Labour government decided, Mr. Speaker, that they would have appointed Joufali as an ambassador to the Maritime Organization, it was a carefully thought and strategic move. Why? We had undertaken an assessment of St. Lucia's foreign policy options sometime after 2011. That document was one of the last policy statements prepared by former Prime Minister Vaughan Lewis for the Labour government. And in that document they recommended that St. Lucia begins to reposition itself and to begin the process of sourcing new funding from elsewhere and they specifically identified Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. And when as a government we acted, it was for the purpose of opening the doors to Saudi Arabia. That is why I compliment this government for finally opening those doors and securing this loan from Saudi Arabia. That's the sadness of this country and you see it all the time. We shoot ourselves in the foot. We do not sometimes understand and appreciate the larger picture. Rather, what we seek to do is to destroy and to tarnish. That's what we do all the time. All the time. Speaker, like I say, I regret that the Leader of the Opposition did not give me the time to explore this issue. I know he will somewhere down the road and I have prepared for it. In fact, I was so excited by the prospect, Mr. Speaker, that I especially wanted to be here for the sitting. You see, I was in Haiti attending the Karakam Matters in Haiti. And when I heard that they saw the Arabian loan was coming up for the bid in the house, I did everything within my power to get here. I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, my flight from Miami to St. Lucia was cancelled in Haiti. But fortunately for us, the Bahamian government put on a plane, picked us up in Haiti on a special plane, took us to Nassau Bahamas, then made sure we were able to get onto a plane from Nassau to Bahamas to Miami. And then when I got to Miami, I did everything that was conceivably possible to get on that plane because I wanted to be here for this debate. Mr. Speaker, I am therefore somewhat disappointed that we didn't go down that road today, but I will leave that for another day. Now, Mr. Speaker, that being said, I will just touch on a few issues, very, very few issues. I listened very carefully to the leader of the opposition, Mr. Speaker. And it's not the first time that he has read extensively from reports about St. Jude. Every time he comes to the house and St. Jude is being debated, he reads these lengthy excerpts conveniently, of course. So he really contributes nothing new to the debate, but it's the same thing he says time and time and time again. But he had me lost today because I was trying to work out in my mind where he was going with all these excerpts. I said, well, maybe finally we would have got an explanation as to why the box was constructed. We may finally get an explanation as to why they opted for a building like that. And he came close to offering an explanation, but listened to what he says. He says that we, or this government, is on the cusp of the dilemma that they were in 2017-2018, meaning that when they received the report from FDL in 2017-2018, they were perplexed about what the option would be, whether they would complete the old St. Jude or build a new hospital. And having reviewed the report, they opted to build a new hospital and give the people of the 4th South a new hospital. But you know this speaker, I am totally bewildered. Do you know, I asked from my position here, I asked the member to tell us what the eventual cost of this box would be. Do you know his response to me? He said, I don't know, I've never known. I don't know if you heard that. So here's a minister of finance embarking on a project of this magnitude. And he does not know what the end cost of the project is going to be. I have never known in my entire life as minister of finance in this country that a minister of finance does not have a notion of an end cost of a project. This is the very first time in the long history of St. Lucia that this has ever, ever, ever, ever happened. And you know this speaker, it is also the case that never before since independence have we had such a colossal wastage of funds as we had in the case of St. Jude hospital. And I say this because I want to come back to this issue in a few minutes. But what is this special gift that he was given to the people of the South? The member of the cast of the East put it well. A hospital without walls. A hospital with cladding. So shocked when I went inside the hospital that all the rooms was drywall. And that is what is supposed to be a state of the art. That was the gift for the people of the South. But why wasn't he able to at least take the opportunity and speak the truth? That design was done because the intention all along was to give the K-man aturage control, OKEU. Give them the whole. And you tell me you're building a state of the art hospital and the materials for the state of the art hospital is drywall and cladding in this day and age. But then the lies, the issue about planning approval. The fact that the matter is that when the former government was in office and left office in 2016, the development control authority did have designs and plans for the hospital. They asked that it be deferred to provide some detail, I believe. I can't quite remember what the detail was that they were waiting for. But they had it. But you know what they did when they got into office? They told the officers of the development control authority to make the plans disappear. They told them those plans that were submitted to the development control authority must never be seen again and must disappear. And it took one courageous officer inside the development control authority to take all the plans, fall them to the ground and go and hide them. That's the fact, that's reality. And the reason why this government today can get those plans to refer to is because that public officer was able to locate the plans and why he hid them. The kind of nastiness you are dealing with. And after all the complaints, all the complaints about there were no plans, the ridicule which we had to endure from this side of the house, whenever St. Jude came up, the ridicule and abuse on each single occasion, up to now, they can't and could not produce completed plans for the box that they have under construction if you fought. Why? But you know we shoot ourselves all the time, as I said. You know why this had to happen, Mr. Speaker? Both the former government and that government had problems with this because for their own reasons both were in a hurry to complete the facility for use by the people of this country. And you therefore decided to produce, to proceed rather on a piecemeal basis. You took the risk of it because you are under immense pressure to try to get the facility ready for use by the people of the country. So you are building and designing at one and the same time. Now, I am the first to agree with you. That's not the most efficient way to build. It isn't. It isn't. It's not the best thing to have done. It started off under the direction of former Prime Minister Stevens and King. But I understood why. Because we were under the same pressure to complete the hospital to get out of the stadium. So that approach, a railing approach had to be adopted. But my issue becomes the leader of the opposition and the government that he led when, after having condemned the former Labour government, notwithstanding the Labour government, had plans which, in fact, had been submitted to the DCA and poisoned the minds of ordinary solutions, they in turn proceeded to construct with absolutely no plans just on what, of course, they had been provided by the Kemen entourage. I have had occasion, Mr Speaker, before to say what a colossal wastage of funds we have had to bear in this country because of all of this. Mr Speaker, the leader of the opposition himself admits that they had spent upwards of $180 million on the box. Now, in addition to this, you also heard that an additional $50 million was being recommended to complete the bottom floor of the hospital alone, the box. The member of the country central brilliantly exposed the leader of the opposition by referring to the direct purchase for $75 million, which was supposed to have been signed on the eve of the general election. Now, Mr Speaker, I want you to understand why this is such a colossal waste of funds and I'll tell you why I'm going to come to that in a few minutes. You have spent $180 million on that box. You have to spend another $50 million on the first floor. And by the way, the same talk he was there, grand charge about the roof of the hospital. Fresh dad had already given him an estimate for a further $16 million for the roof, for the membrane. And that does not include the interior of the building or to seal the cladding. Now, you had a $180 million. You want to spend $50 million, that's $230 million. Another $16 million, that's already $246 million. In other words, that hospital would have cost at the end of the day if we had continued with that box upwards of $350 million to complete. That's the reality. That is the reality. But I'll tell you this, say what you want, Mr Speaker, about the old hospitalers and Jude. You see that building there? Mr Speaker, that's one of the strongest buildings ever constructed in this country. When you see the contractors attempting to dig up the floorings of those buildings, they had a hard time drill bits continued being replaced nearly every day or so because of the strengths of the concrete. Nothing could have knocked down that building. Why would you want to get rid of a building with such structural integrity and such character? And of course, whether you have problems or not, just look at the design of the old St. Jude. For goodness sake, there is some character to the design. This leader of the opposition have a fascination for giving the people of the Fort South some of the ugliest buildings I have seen in recent times. I invite you, Mr Speaker, to take a look at the Wasco building. I mean, Mr Speaker, every time I get depressed and I'm more than I grow, I don't know, Mr Speaker, what I'm going to do. When you see Wasco sends invitations to me to come when they're doing the opening. I don't know if I'll ever go. The building is too ugly. What am I going to do, Mr Speaker? Something at the airport for private jets. Project left over from the former administration, our administration at the time. The heart can benefit from the use of it. When you look at the design, another flat roof in your fort. No character. When you look at the airport design, some barrel shape airport again. No character. It's as if the people of your fort don't deserve what is decent. What you want to give the people of your fort another box for. Everything you do is like boxes and barrels. Mr Speaker, why would you want to contest this little resolution, Mr Speaker? As I said, 2%. 2%, Mr Speaker, unheard of. But you know, Mr Speaker, let me tell you something. I've been through a lot in this country. I've been through a lot. When things happen these days, I have a way. I contrast. I look at what has happened. I contrast it with what has happened in the past. And I search into the mindsets and illusions and ask Mr Speaker, what are they thinking? How are they really looking at this? Let me go back to my experiences, Mr Speaker. I was pilloried all over the coast for a guarantee of 14.5 million dollars to Roger Mell, to protect workers, to protect a hotel. 14.5 million. 14.5 million. You ask, pilloried, abused, accused of every conceivable thing. It hurts. Still hurts. This former prime minister has done what he's getting away with. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. You see, Mr Speaker, I just told you the colossal waste of funds that occurred in you forts. You heard the member of central castries, Mr Speaker. You heard the member for castries north pointing out that some 7 million dollars were paid for vaccines. We haven't had a reporter as he rightly pointed out what happened. But how can we tolerate and justify such a colossal wastage of funds on a building that was so unnecessary? This country who still support that kind of behavior. All kinds of foolishness was done to amend so-called finance legislation regarding the given of guarantees. All kinds of foolishness which brought us all back to square one. So we are doing a very simple, all new laws of sanction. Exactly what was in the statute books all along. And they talk nonsense and get away with it. The question is, when will this minister of finance be held accountable for the monumental wastage of funds which have occurred in this country? When? The former minister of finance. The former, the former, former minister of finance. I tell you already, you learn well. Mr Speaker, I want to give you an example today of the recklessness of which I speak. Mr Speaker, that we enacting will not matter if we speak at the end of the day. If we don't understand this thing called integrity. Because as soon as you enact the laws, what's going to happen is that new ways will be found to circumvent the laws. I watched for example this morning the report which was leading the House from the financial intelligence unit. I had to laugh at this report. And when the time comes, I'll have to say what I want to say about it. You see, this is because we have a way we don't like to listen. You know, I stood in this house some weeks ago and said to this house, I will no longer support. That's me, Kenny Antony speaking. Member of parliament of the VFOS South. I will no longer support any legislation that comes to this house that discriminate against politicians in financial matters. It's like I was a gare. Because you know what? The Faraj issue broke out in England. A bank manager had to be fired for discriminating against Faraj because of his family, because of his political beliefs. And the Bank of England has now issued new directives to all banks in the United Kingdom that no discrimination against politicians and their families will be tolerated. And the banks have better take a warning from that because I have said before that discrimination against politicians and their families have to end. Now Mr Speaker, on the one hand I certainly do not condone that kind of discrimination but on the other I believe in accountability. You can't be entrusted with public funds and you handle it the way you did and you waste it the way you did. I don't know whether the members here have begun to suffer from political amnesia because well-mentioned was made of the $7 million vaccine. All the money paid out to Lakhabi, nobody make mention of it. $32 million from Lakhabi. Then all this money paid out to Pomanu paid out to that accounted firm. You mean to tell me all of that Mr Speaker? All of that? Waste, utter, waste. Utter, waste. Range, utter, waste. Utter, waste. Now Mr Speaker, I'll tell you something. When you borrow a loan, when you take a loan like you have taken this loan, how you manage it is crucial Mr Speaker. How you manage it is very, very important. Trust me, trust me. And I want to give you an example of what I'm talking about. Mr Speaker, when in 2014 I went to Taiwan and I know there are some members there who know that that was a difficult visit for me in more ways than one. Despite my friendship with the then president, President Ma, which is a friendship that remains to this day, but I have issues. Everybody knows my position on Taiwan and so on. My position is clear. But when I negotiated with them with the Export-Import Bank, Mr Speaker, and proceeded to ask for the first drawdown on the loan to begin to finance the hospital, Mr Speaker, I requested that the money be rooted based on Caribbean Central Bank for onward transmission to the consolidated fund here in St. Lucia. Because you see, Mr Speaker, you have to handle loan funds with integrity. Don't let your hands get on it. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. And if you look at the agreement, Mr Speaker, you will notice that we requested what I serve as Minister of Finance that the money goes to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the account number 021083695, name of bank, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, New York, etc. for onward transmission to the Government of St. Lucia. And I want to tell you, at its account at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, that's where it was rooted. And then of course they handled the disbursements on to the consul. You must be wondering why I'm going there, Mr Speaker. You must be wondering, I'll give you a clue, Mr Speaker. And don't try and tell me I'm out of order and that I'm not speaking to the resolution because what I'm talking about is a management of loan funds like this. There are many mysteries, Mr Speaker, of the former government on how it handled money. Mr Speaker, there are many mysteries. It has never surprised me that the former government would have signed an agreement with you, our King, but would have allowed you, our King, to hold money from passports in a foreign account beyond the grasp of the accountant general in St. Lucia. And they could not see that something was wrong with that arrangement. They could not see that if you sell St. Lucia passports, the government of St. Lucia has an interest in the procedure to sell of its passports. Wait, what, Mr Speaker? You know, one of the things I find fascinating about the former government, they seem to have an extraordinary love affair with this Taiwanese company. They call them, I believe, OCC, Mr Speaker. They have the most extraordinary love affair with this company called OCC, Mrs Speaker. And I have been spending a bit of time trying to understand this relationship with, oh, why are they trusting this OCC so much? Watch me. They trust OCC to send you to the hospital. They say it's OCC that got the contract. They trust OCC to do some, to repair some roads. And I'm sorry to remember, for example, Salty Bus is not here because if he was here, I remind him it's the OCC that's supposed to manage the repair of the Salty Bus road. Then they go and trust OCC with this big airport project. Millions of dollars with absolutely no bills. Billion dollars, yes. What is this love affair with this OCC that I cannot understand? What is this love affair? Maybe rough by no truth. I must ask him when I see him. And I've already told him before, I can't understand how he can ever be an anti-imperialist and he maintains a position that he does. But that's for a different show. I have a very short business. I don't have much appetite for double standards in politics. Oh my God. I really don't. I'm very serious. Short fuse on these matters. Now, incomes, the leader of the opposition has become prime minister of finance. Incomes. You know he does, this is Vika. You know he does, this is Vika. And I'm talking about the management of loan proceeds. And I'm more than this government. Don't follow that example. They promptly proceed to draw down the balance of the loan which I negotiated with the Taiwanese to complete the hospital. But you know what they do? They've diverted the money, the balance of the money to the overseas engineering and construction company, the same OCC. The money is no longer going directly to the central bank and on to the consolidated fund. It is going directly to the bank account of the OCC so that we are not having any control over funds that are supposed to be in the consolidated fund. That is why I have said to these agencies they must respect the laws of the state of the beneficiary bank of the OCC. It's called a bank of Panshin, Panshin. Account number 04911360009755, swift code BBBKTWTP. And this is to me, Mr. Speaker, this is a serious matter because the director of audit had a duty to flag this. The Ministry of Finance had a duty to flag this and to look, I see a former director of audit bowed in agreement. I don't know if she still remember her audit in practices. Do you, madam? Once an auditor, always an auditor, so she knows this is wrong. But you know what I find fascinating, Mr. Speaker? What I find fascinating, that's why I'm sorry that the leader of the opposition is not here, you know? Because I wanted answers to these questions. I want to find out how you're going to justify spending $350 to $400 million. I wanted to find out this thing about, I was telling you about the plans and so on. I want to find out why you're calling the box a state of the art building when it is cladding and drywall. What is state of the art about that? And some pieces of metal, metals all over the place. I wanted answers to all those things. But I want to come back to this thing and why this is a serious matter. OECC, actually, well, I mean, they are interesting. They're very interesting, you know, these companies. Mr. Speaker, do you know the OECC actually incorporated a company under the laws of Panama to receive these funds like this? Why would the OECC, were you looking at me so strange for? Why would the OECC, a Taiwanese company, use an offshore company or company registered in Panama to receive money that should have gone to the Consulate Fund solution? You mean to tell me you don't have something to answer to explain? Mr. Speaker, I tell you something, Mr. Speaker, I know I have a way. When I come to this house and I say things, you all don't like to listen, you know. I mean, not today, not today. Mr. Speaker, but to return to what I'm saying, I can tell you that this company the OECC had in Panama had this registered number. 00008102092SA. I'm not going there, I never said that. Never said that. All I ask is why are funds intended for the Consulate, they're the funds of St. Lucia which I, Kenny Davis Anthony, former prime minister, signed with the government of Taiwan with the understanding that the funds were coming to St. Lucia to the Consulate Fund through the Central Bank of St. Lucia. Why was that money diverted to the OECC and then it goes to a Panamanian account? That's what I'm asking about. So let's be clear. And in fact, Mr. Speaker, in case you think I am exaggerating, this is the account number they had. 04911360009755. You understand, Mr. Speaker? So I wanted the member to be there. You have 15 years left. No, that's enough time, Mr. Speaker. No, I don't want that. That is why, Mr. Speaker, I was hoping that the member for Miku Salwa would be present. You see, Mr. Speaker, I admit he didn't give me enough room to go and talk about the Jofali matter which I had programmed myself for why I wanted to be here. But I also wanted answers to this. Why would you do such a thing? Why would you do such a thing? No, Mr. Speaker. In all my political life. I mean, there are some real high points. There are fascinating things in politics. I had a simple cardinal rule and I think I heard it being said recently. It would never be surprised by developments in politics. And today, I found a letter sent to the Cabinet of Ministers from supporters of the UWB who would be insufferable to be a very fascinating document. And as a student of politics, you'll understand why I had to ask the member for Senator Castro to make it a document of the House. I just wanted to see who the signatories were. Yes, you can give him one, give him one. He needs it. He's a young politician. Mr. Speaker, those who served with me in a previous government will remember I always say to them if you can avoid it, never put it in writing. You remember that? It is better you have a conversation. Do not put it in writing. And Mr. Speaker, I am not surprised but disappointed by some of the names I see. You see, I tell you this. As I said in this House and in my political life, there are UWPs with a heart. Do not give up on UWPs. There are times when they realize what is happening is wrong. Mr. Speaker, I admire this group of UWPs who had the temerity and the courage to write this letter. It's almost unheard of. She's not spoke of how historic today is. Today is historic because we have before us a rebellion and defend from supporters of the UWP. And they are speaking, mind you, for their self-preservation. But the point is they have had the courage to tell the former prime minister, do not go there. You are wrong. I will tell you this. When the member for Cassidy Central read, you know who I was thinking of? The former parliament representative of Cassidy Saudis. I wonder how he received that letter. I want the member for Cassidy North at the appropriate time to tell the House, how did the member for Cassidy South react to this letter? Saudis. That must have been a gem. Must have been a gem. And if he said, I wonder if he said to the then prime minister, oh that's your friend, I apologize. But I admire, Mrs. Figer, I am looking at some names there. Nigel George. Little Lamontine. Araline Lamontine. Eubidicus. Francisca Jordan. My, my, my. And there are other names. And then of course Mr. Alphonsus, Tannislus. These are people whom I know. I know so many people. I had the fact that they had the courage, Mrs. Figer, to say don't do that. But it confirms something I have always said amidst the most and the laughter momentary as it is, Mrs. Figer, that there are good UWPs in this country and you must not give up on them. There are UWPs in this country who can understand when wrongs are committed and they are prepared to make the adjustments. Our own supporters, Mrs. Figer, need to understand that. Because I'm pretty certain that these may well be known, but they might have well taken certain positions at the last general election. So Mrs. Figer, I end on a note that look, in politics we have to avoid absolutes. Avoid absolutes. No, no, Mrs. Figer, that we must never, ever, ever be surprised by developments. No, Mrs. Figer, that there are people of good will in this country, irrespective of their political colors. No, Mrs. Figer, that when the time is right, they will speak for their country and not for their political party. If some of you want to give up on the people of this country, then I'm not joining you and giving up to them, even if they disappoint me from time to time. Of course they have disappointed me from time to time. But you know, Mrs. Figer, I look at my results in the last general election. I know that before the South, I wanted by the largest majority ever. You know why? Because a lot of UWPs decided they would vote for me. Whether they sense my retirement was imminent or not, I don't know. But they decided they voted for me, Mrs. Figer. And that's the point that I'm making. Of course they want to add on him. And they have reason now to be even more tired of him because his liability is a serious liability. If a minister of finance can allow loan funds to be diverted away from the consolidated fund into the hands of a committee of a company like this, you are a danger. You are dangerous. You are a liability. And when you add this to all the sins you have heard, can you still justify this individual to represent you as your political leader? This country could never be safe in his hands. Never ever. And Mrs. Figer, I ended on this note of colossal wastage. And you see this matter, Mrs. Figer, with these things? I don't like an address, you know. I don't like an address with this matter of accounts. I want to find out why. I want to find out how. I want to find out why money destined for the consolidated funds in Lucha is rooted through a bank account in Paloma. That's a serious matter. And so, Mrs. Figer, I really do look forward for the explanations. Finally, Mrs. Figer, let me say this. This matters in June. I hope this nightmare is over. Our people have suffered disproportionately in the South. They've had to endure a lot. And this government has a responsibility to make sure that come what may, come what may, that this hospital is completed and occupied before the next general elections. Nothing short of that will do for the people of the South. I thank you, Mrs. Figer.