St. Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Public Infrastructure, Post, Urban Development and Transport, Hon. Ian Patches Liburd has admitted he has not seen the agreement between the Team Unity Government of Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris and the developers of a hotel in the Camps area of St. Kitts, which had its ground breaking on November 11, 2017.
He also promised that the agreement for the second cruise ship pier at Port Zante will be made public.
“No. No, I have not. No,” responded Minister Liburd on November 20, 2017, when ask by a caller to a radio programme if he had seen the agreement between the St. Kitts-Nevis Royal Limited and the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis for the construction of the Sea View Gardens Hotel.
“Is there one?” asked the caller, who then pointed out there seems to have been no consultation with the public by the Team Unity Government on the proposed project before it was approved.
Minister Liburd who at the time was reading excerpts from the agreement between the developers of Christophe Harbour and the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party administration was challenged to bring agreements which the Team Unity Government, have signed for development projects.
The caller told Liburd it would be meaningless for him to highlight aspects of the Christophe Harbour agreement unless the Team Unity Government is going to improve on agreements signed with developers.
The caller said it did not appear there was any consultation with the public on the proposed hotel project in Camps.
Asked if the Sea View Gardens Hotel agreement “would be made available to the public for public scrutiny as that would be transparency, hold the developers to the agreement, ensure that our laws are also upheld and there are no kickbacks or under the table shenanigans”, the caller said that would be accountability.
He reemphasise that while it would be good to look back in the past and the Christophe Harbour agreement and make adjustments and changes as necessary, “the same should be done for new projects.”
Asked further by the caller, if the public would also see the agreement for the EC$129 million cruise pier at Port Zante, Minister Liburd responded:
“I said there is a press conference on Wednesday (November 22, 2017), and yes, of course that would be public business.”
Pressed if the second cruiseship pier agreement would be made public and securitized like the Christophe Harbour Agreement with the Labour Government, Mr. Liburd responded: “Yes. Sure. Of course, of course.”