14th August 2019

SLP called into question the management of the finances of Castries Constituency Council

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By St Lucia Times

St Lucia Times - The opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) has called into question the management of the finances of the Castries Constituency Council (CCC).

Addressing a Town Hall meeting of the SLP Tuesday evening, Castries South MP Ernest Hilaire asserted that when labour lost the elections in June 2016 there was over $6 million in savings in the banks of Saint Lucia.

“There were Comrades who said that was a failing because you should be using that money and spending it on the people and the constituency and not saving it,” he told Tuesday’s SLP gathering.

However Hilaire explained that the leadership that was entrusted with managing the  CCC wanted it to be a sustainable organization and ensure it can raise its own money and do what it had to do.

“There were shares in LUCELEC. Things have got so bad  that the CCC has had to sell shares that it had in LUCELEC and that money, from what I am told, is all spent already,” the opposition MP asserted.

He said there was a time under the SLP when the CCC was one of the best managed institutions in Saint Lucia.

According to Hilaire, when the SLP won the 2011 elections it corrected a lot of wrongdoing that was going on between 2006 and 2011.

“There was a time when a certain minister was walking around with a cheque book and issuing cheques – giving contracts. There was a lot happening. Under the SLP the CCC was put on a direct footing,” he stated.

The Castries South MP expressed the view that the CCC has moved from being one of the best managed and organised  institutions with integrity, to what it has become now.

He told the SLP Town Hall meeting audience that a lot is said about Prime Minister Allen Chastanet and Economic Development Minister Guy Joseph.

But Hilaire was of the view that Castries Mayor Peterson Francis is no different.

The Castries South MP accused Francis of having no regard for rules and procedures.

He said that the conduct and the  management of the CCC is something that will have to be subjected to scrutiny by the SLP.