KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr. Godwin Friday, says that his new administration will move towards settling new debts to local suppliers within 28 days, even as it works to address the payables that form part of the EC$3.1 billion (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) national debt.
“The amount is quite an eye-opener. But we knew that a lot of the businesses have been complaining publicly that they’re not getting paid,” Friday said.
He told radio listeners that his New Democratic Party (NDP) had always advocated settling the outstanding debts owed to local businesses, noting that failing to do so means the government is taking money out of the economy.
“Basically, you’re not paying the people, they can’t pay the staff, they can’t pay their suppliers. That holds everything back. All to do what? To serve the interest of the government when the government should be serving the interest of the people.”
He said the NDP had committed since 2020 that “for most contracts, small contractors and so forth, not big contracts like the port or building the airport and so forth, where there are so many complications in them, but for people who are providing service to government, ordinarily, you would pay within 28 days.
“That’s the plan. Because your electricity bill comes in every month. Your phone bill comes in every month, and you have to pay your workers.
“So, the idea is that we pay similarly every month, 28 days, you have your work, you complete it, and so forth. It’s satisfactory, you get your money within 28 days, and that will get rid of a lot of this backlog.”
Meanwhile, the government is planning how to pay people for the work that had been done before it came to office on November 27, Friday said, adding, “you can’t ignore it.
“You can’t say that people are being unreasonable when they’re waiting for years to get paid<’ he said, without providing a definitive date for when the payables would be paid.
“But what I would do is to say that now that I’m aware of the scale of the problem, we are going to set our minds to find ways — and if we have to, do it in increments and so forth — to make sure people get the money. We will get it done. People will get their money,” Prime Minister Friday said even as he acknowledged that government financing would be “complex.
“My job is to take the situation as it is and to work with what we have to make sure that those persons who are entitled, that they’re no longer be, essentially, made to carry the burden themselves.
“The government owes people money. We should pay them. All I’m asking people to do is say, “Give me a little time to get this done.” We recognise it as a problem, and we will address it.
“But going forward, we are going to ensure that this problem doesn’t continue because we will institute our policy of paying for regular contracts, ordinary work that people do within 28 days, so that the people can get their money and take care of their business,” Friday said.
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