Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris (left) and Dr. Denzil Douglas
Former Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas told an ISSUES audience on Freedom Fm on Thursday that St. Kitts-Nevis PM Dr. Timothy Harris said in 2008 that the SKNLP government did not owe former SSMC workers any more money than the $28 million that was paid out in 2005.
Dr Douglas referred to an exclusive interview conducted by a St.Kitts-Nevis Observer reporter Floyd French, in which Dr. Harris dismissed the $16 million claimed by the Peoples Action Movement (PAM), that was due to the sugar workers. Here is what the OBSERVER reported in 2008:
The PAM leadership has charged that the current Labour Government owes ex-sugar workers $16 million. Harris dismisses this as a “political antics in a silly season.”
Harris explained that the $16 million is the difference between the $40 million the government had first estimated as compensation payout and the $24 million that was actually paid out. Harris believes that the Labour Government gave the ex-sugar workers the best deal possible and points out two calculations were used and the better of the two was what the worker received.
He said that the discrepancy between to the two figures is not an accountability issue and if the PAM leaders were successful in forming the next government and making good on his promise of paying the additional $16 million, he would have to do so from tax payers’ money.