Financial analyst defends journalist’s effort to get Harris to disclose issues of contention with IMF Report
Basseterre, St. Kitts, January 22, 2018 – A financial analyst is defending WINNFM’s female journalist, Lekesha Hewlett, against recent criticism by Minister of Public Infrastructure, Post, Urban Development and Transport, Ian “Patches” Liburd, for pressing Prime Minister Hon. Timothy Harris to disclose honest reasons for blocking the publication of the IMF Staff Report for 2018 under the Article IV Consultation.
The analyst, in an unsolicited comment, is in “agreement with Hewlett for asking the Prime Minister and his Financial Secretary to tell the country what are the issues of contention for blocking/hiding the IMF Report from the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis, the local business community, investors and potential investors.”
The individual, who requested anonymity as the person is employed in the civil service and is fearful of “victimization by the authorities” said “Dr. Harris’ reference to the IMF as ‘not doing an audit,’ is an effort to hide the conclusion of the IMF’s assessment of the St. Kitts and Nevis economy after meeting with officials of the Central Bank, the NIS (Nevis Island Administration) the Chamber of Industry of Commerce, trade unions, the Opposition and other stakeholders and based on all the information arrive at its own conclusion and prospects for the future. These are professionals who give professional opinions and are not swayed by politics.”
“Speaking about the hiring of a forensic Director of Audit in the National Audit Department and her going to Guyana to perform audit work, stating the officials in the Ministry of Finance and Statistics Office are the same who held the same posts during the previous (Labour) administration have nothing to do with his personal decision to block the publication of the report. Dr. Harris’ decision as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of course raises several questions. It is historic in our relationship with the IMF,” the person said.
Minister Liburd during his talk show accused the WINNFM journalist “of having one tune, to have one topic and the topic is the IMF Report without seeming to understand the role of the IMF as an organisation.”
Leader of the Opposition, the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has described the blocking of the report under the Article IV Consultation as “a defiant and even hostile policy posture towards the IMF that “flies in the face of the democratic tenets of transparency, accountability and good governance.”
Operation Rescue’s Dwyer Astaphan, who helped fashioned the PLP/CCM/PAM coalition government, has accused Prime Minister Harris of “rhetoric and accounting gymnastics” with the finances of the country and called on him to release the IMF Staff Report.