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(CMC) — Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says he has not seen “any case of corruption” that would undermine the integrity of the Governor of the St. Kitts-based Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Timothy Antoine, regarding the construction of a multi-million-dollar official residence for the bank’s governor.
Last week, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said he would neither confirm nor deny writing to Browne suggesting that the Grenadian-born ECCB Governor, “of his own motion may wish to consider whether or not his continued occupancy of his Office is tenable in all the circumstances.
“This is likely to be a painful, personal decision,” Gonsalves wrote in the Feb. 17 letter to Browne, who has since confirmed to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that he has received the correspondence.
But speaking on his weekly radio programme on Saturday, Browne said he is certain that the matter will come before the Monetary Council of the ECCB.
“What I can say, though, there’s no evidence that the Governor himself had sought to be excessive, and certainly I don’t know that I have seen any case of corruption or so that would, you know, create an issue in terms of undermining the governor’s integrity.
“Maybe, perhaps — and again, look, I feel that at this point, until we get a proper report, we may even have to set up some independent committee to look at this issue. I feel it may be a little injudicious to me to come to any conclusion at this point, other than to say that the amounts that were spent on the building has raised concerns, and many of us as Monetary Council members, we are concerned,” Browne told radio listeners.
According to the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the CMC, Gonsalves wrote to the Antigua and Barbuda leader, indicating that he had become aware of the matter through his son and Finance Minister, Camillo Gonsalves, who is also a member of the Monetary Council of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU).
He said the finance minister had advised him “regarding the extraordinary sum of EC$22 million being expended by the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to construct an official residence for the Governor.
“This act of excessive spending is outrageous,” Gonsalves wrote in his letter, adding “it’s an absolute scandal.
“Cleary there has been an insufficient transparency by the Governor on this matter, and the oversight expected by the internal review mechanisms of the ECCB, the Board of Directors of the Bank, and the Monetary Council, has self evidently been below acceptable or prudent standards.”
The ECCB serves as a central bank for Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis, the countries which together with the British territories of Montserrat and Anguilla, form the ECCU.
Prime Minister Browne said that the Monetary Council has not met as yet and “I’m sure we’ll have to meet at some point to look at this issue.
But he acknowledged “we don’t have all of that information.
“What I will say here, clearly there are some governance failures there. And you know, going forward, we’re going to have to strengthen the reporting mechanisms and the accountability mechanisms, to strengthen the governance framework.
“Because at the level of the Monetary Council, I mean, I would say we were caught flat-footed in terms of the amount of money spent, but I don’t know that we can escape the responsibility. I mean, one can argue that we ought to have known,” Browne added.
He said that at the level of the directorship of the bank, he doesn’t know the extent to which they knew how much money was spent.
“But it may be a little premature for me to make any definitive statements at this time other than to say that the matter has to be dealt with and resolved, and at some point, the Monetary Council will meet and discuss this issue. And, certainly, we’ll have to keep the public informed as how this matter is ultimately resolved,” Browne added.
In his letter, Gonsalves told Browne, the chairman of the ECCU Monetary Council, that the spending on the residence “rests at the feet of the Governor” and that “such an appalling lack of judgement, pursuit of apparent vainglory, and a lack of sensitivity or prudence, invites disciplinary action”.
In the three-page letter, Gonsalves said that the ECCU cannot countenance an expenditure of at least EC$22 million on a 10,000 square feet “mansion of veritable palace proportions, especially at a time when the people of the region are facing huge economic challenges, inclusive of rising food prices, and the haunting spectre of increased poverty or immiseration.
“The ECCU cannot afford a Governor who has an appetite for such affordable opulence,” Gonsalves wrote, adding that he has been advised that the “palace project is so far advanced that it has to be completed”.
Gonsalves said that he had supported the appointment of Antoine and remains opposed to the Governor occupying such a residence.
“I suggest that the Monetary Council give consideration of selling it to the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to be used for whatever purpose it divines,” he said, adding that “this suggestion, of course, depends on the magnanimity of the government of St. Kitts and Nevis to save the face of the Bank from ignominy”.
Gonsalves, who also addressed the issue during a radio programme on the state-owned NBC Radio last Wednesday, said he is aware of a “journalist who might be in possession of a letter who wants me to confirm whether or not I wrote that letter” to Browne.
He said the way the question is framed he is “not prepared at this stage to comment,” adding that if he wanted the matter to be ventilated, “publicly in relation to any issue as alleged, I would have already done a public ventilation.
“Government involves knowing when to do certain things in the public space and when not to do them in the public space. These are matters of judgment. But it is true that there is a dwelling which is being built by the Central Bank for the Governor, where the price tag is wholly excessive and does not reflect a particular level of prudence,” he said.
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They The two Prime Ministers talking know a lot about big money and mansions. Poor banker man, dem have your replacement and his long bag to go with you job.
Well, if the PM say so, we suppose to just take his word? People still need answers.
PM might not see anything, but that don’t mean nothing nah deh. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.
So is just case closed? We not supposed to ask questions now?
All well and good, but i think full transparency would settle everything once and for all.
These things always seem to get brushed aside until they can’t be ignored anymore.
If everything clean, then open the books and let the facts speak for themselves.
22 will become 32 after the investigation and cost overruns. Then add another 10 for damage control when nothing irregular is found.
Really and truly I agree with PM Ralph. I see this as a complete waste of money with a ridiculously HIGHHHH price tag.
That’s why I like Ralph he don’t put water in his mouth to talk
An estimated 7 million to a whopping 22 million and nobody on the monetary council was aware of the cost overrun. Especially Antigua’s financial genius Gaston Brown? Wow
Gaston nar go say nuttn when he himself ah build a hotel for he and he family to live in.
He must want to occupy it one day
You do not correct crime after the fact. Policies should already be in place to avoid such irregularities in the reporting and accounting processes. As usual Gaston is passing the buck when the die pack explodes and is exposing all of the crooks and robbers.
Ralph Gonsalves should call for an audit and enquiry into the project.
In my opinion you are mistaken. Let’s discuss. Write to me in PM.
Sometimes I sit and feel sorry for PM Browne. It almost seem like everything falls on him. Speaking truthfully though, thats a helluva house for one man and his family. DO you even know the amount of people with no homes? And one man can live like this on the tax payers back? it is not fair
Can’t stand Antigua newsroom so-called journalists. In an effort to stir up angst against a public figure of their choosing, they twist and turn the facts – what is said, what is not said – to suit their sick agenda. But this is Antigua where so-called journalists and reporters are not held to high standards and so are free to report anything their small minds can concoct, knowing we’ll that there is an army of howling, hungry wolves waiting for a salacious bone to be tossed to them! What a country!
Did the Governor personally undertake to construct this building at this “prohibitive” cost? How was the decision made. Is PM of St Vincent not a member of the monetary council, just like the PMs of ALL the other Eastern Caribbean states? Isn’t it a fact that the Chair of the ECCB is rotational and that PM Browne is NOT the current Chair? So why seek to implicate the Hon. Gaston Browne in this business more than any other member of the ECCB Board members? Was this Vincy PM absent from Board members a la style of Shuggy Simon? Mr. Vincent, I suspect you have my Hon. PM in your crosshairs since the demise of LIAT 74 Ltd and the resurgence of LIAT 20/20. By the way. how is your Vincy version doing? Please don’t unload your personal baggage on Antigua. Antigua’s PM is NOT yet at the helm of the Board of Governors. You should know that, so keep your ignorance where it belongs. We have enough home grown here at home, as you can read from the chisel-toothed responses to your cheap effort to undermine.
@Faithful national #1
What you seem not to recognize is that the PM and the ECCB Governor has been living the Bro life.
They are thick as thieves, slapping each other in the back. Check the news archives.
Look back at Atoine’s visit to Antigua and Barbuda last year.
Check the record for all the glowing complimentary news and photos between Gaston and Antoine over the years; none of which has gone to any other OECS member country leader.
When it was written that Gaston bears some of the responsibility for the mediocrity at ECCB; reflected in the long lines and other substandard practices of the regional banks; you’requestion was: what does Gaston have to do with it?
Unfortunately; The Mansion scandal has not refocused the public attention of the failures of the ECCB under Antione’s leadership which is evident in the pissy poor service the region has been subjected to.
He runs the ECCB which approves and regulate the banking sector including credit unions.
Regulators have that authority. Ifthe regulations were weak, he should have recognized the need to strengthen the regulatory framework.
As you may recognize; I’m not among those who sees him the ECCB Governor as a man of distinction.
Frankly I see him as failure and pompous A**
As a “Double Ivy” I’m certainly not impressed with his credentials.
@Krayma Lewis,
It may seem to you that everything falls on PM Brown; and that’s because he does not delegate, unless the law requires him too. That’s the sign of an Authoritarian.
Do you ever hear any one blaming anyone else in Russia; other than Putin?