9th January 2007
His Excellency Sir Frederick N. Ballantyne, G.C.M.G., MD
The Governor General of St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Government House
Kingstown
St. Vincent

Your Excellency,

SVG Green Party has discovered that the ULP regime lied to the people of this country about the true state of the economy during the election of December 2005. They owed VINLEC over EC$ 21 million in debts and never disclosed this. And more seriously, they covered up their debt with VINLEC in the VINLEC accounts Year Ended December 31, 2004, which were published in July 2005. No notes were given in the accounts for the figure of EC$ 21,678,306, which corresponded to debts and prepayments. We have to assume that, in the absence of notes to the accounts, the EC$ 21,678,306 is owed to VINLEC by the ULP government.

As the public debt increase for 2006 was understated by at least EC$ 9.4 million, clearly the figure for debt to GDP ratio has been understated too. The IMF has indicated that the debt to GDP ratio of 85% was too high. In the light of SVG Green Party’s discovery, we would like parliament to tell the nation what the true figures for public debt in 2006 and debt to GDP ratio are. From the scant amount of information provided in the 2007 Budget Address by the Minister of Finance we can see that the real minimum public debt to GDP ratio is 85.3%.

Prime Minister Dr. Gonsalves and his ULP government also deliberately presented incorrect figures about the economy in the 2007 Budget Address to parliament and the nation. Their behaviour is disrespectful to the people of SVG. It is deliberate dishonesty and untrustworthiness. We cannot trust the Prime Minister and his ULP government to honestly manage the affairs of SVG.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and his ULP government cannot and should not continue. They have wilfully misled and lied to the nation about the state of the economy. Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and his ULP government have wilfully betrayed the trust invested in them by the people at the last General Election with their deliberate dishonest and deceiving activities. The 2007 Budget Address was passed by the Cabinet. It is only right and proper that Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves and his ULP government apologise to the nation and resign.

We are a democratic country and SVG Green Party considers the above matters so serious that the ULP regime is not worthy of the mandate given to them in December 2005. We request that parliament is prorogued at some point in the year 2007 and that fresh General Elections be held. The essence of democracy is open and honest government and the ULP government has betrayed this by their actions.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Ivan O’Neal BSc(Hons), MSc, MBA, Leader and Co-founder of SVG Green Party

cc:           Hon. Prime Minister                                   Hon. Leader of the NDP
                Secretary General of CARICOM                Secretary General of OAS
                British Ambassador to Barbados                President of SVG Bar Association
                President of SVG Christian Council            President of National Youth Council
                President of SVG Chamber of Commerce and Industry Media