Chastanet - Government’s proposed amendments to the Public Finance Management Act will set Saint Lucia on a backward path

31st January 2022

By Leader Of The Opposition Office

PRESS RELEASE - The Government’s proposed amendments to the Public Finance Management Act will set Saint Lucia on a backward path in managing public spending.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Parliament Sitting, Leader of the Opposition Honourable Allen Chastanet, reminded that the Public Finance Bill was passed in November 2020 by the United Workers Administration and set forth the rules, systems and processes for the mobilization of public monies, the allocation of public funds, the facilitation of public spending, the appropriate accounting and reporting of these expenditures and the auditing of the results at the end of the cycle.

“This Act is part of a well-functioning Government to ensure monies are managed in a manner that is planned, recorded and reported in an efficient and effective way,” noted Chastanet.

“Yet we are learning that the SLP Administration intends to make several amendments to this Act that will see more power given to the Minister for Finance, less oversight over Government spending and even less accountability.
Among the amendments is the timeframe for the Budget presentation, the number of supplementary budgets that can be presented in one year and the reallocation of capital expenditure with no control.”

Chastanet explained that Saint Lucia was lauded by international bodies for its moves towards adopting the fiscal rules and the formulation of sound fiscal policy which included financial transparency, planning, reporting and accountability.

“The changes by the present administration sets us back and weakens public trust and good governance. When we passed this Act it replaced the often problematic
Finance (Administrative) Act and it was part of a broader reform to strengthen public financial management,” Chastanet noted.

“We strived to ensure Saint Lucia was in line with international best practice in Public Finance Management and this is now being threatened.”

The former Prime Minister also noted that despite what it stated in the past the SLP Administration has indicated its intention to have the Bills go through all their stages in one sitting.

“Once again the hypocrisy from this present Administration is unashamedly glaring,” said Chastanet.