ROSEAU, Dominica - Dominica's government has welcomed parliamentary approval of an EC$69.9 million loan from the International Development Association (IDA) to relocate residents from the communities of Campbell, Good Hope, San Sauveur, and Petite Soufrière.
Finance Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre speaking during the debate on the IDA loan on Monday (CMC Photo)Several of these areas had been declared ‘special disaster areas’ following the passage of Tropical Storm Erika on August 27, 2015, causing widespread damage and casualties. The storm brought heavy rainfall, leading to severe flooding and landslides that resulted in at least 11 deaths, 22 missing, and significant infrastructure damage.
Finance Minister Dr. Irving McIntyre told Parliament on Monday that the Roosevelt Skerrit government has had the challenging task, particularly over the last 10 years, of balancing between responding to repeated macroeconomic shocks caused by the climate events in 2015, 2017 and 2022, and the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic.
“Building resilience to these shocks and at the same time forging ahead with an ambitious transformational agenda to bring sustainable development to our people and our country,” he said noting that the demand for government’s services and support has simultaneously increased while the government, the largest consumer in the country, has not been spared by imported inflation over the past five years.
McIntyre said some of the loan funds will be used to support the recurrent budget, for example: subventions to Discover Dominica Authority from marketing Dominica, road maintenance and restoration, and procurement of equipment.
The IDA is a part of the World Bank that provides concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries. It’s a development finance institution focused on reducing poverty and promoting economic growth in low-income nations.
McIntyre said that aspects of the public sector programme will also be financed from this loan including land settlement in relation to some of the ongoing projects and the relocation of residents of Campbell, Petite Soufriere, San Sauveur, and Good Hope to safer locations.
“This loan has been evaluated in the context of (the) government’s medium-term debt strategy and is consistent with the objectives of this strategy,” he added.
Government has also received parliamentary approval to borrow six million dollars from the National Bank of Dominica for the continuation of the electoral reform process.
“On the other side, it was mentioned that the sum was high, but the truth is Mr. Speaker, the estimate of expenditures we got from the electoral commission was much higher,” McIntyre said, adding “it was actually EC$8.77 million and we actually brought it down to six million, because as I said we are going to use some of the state’s offices, services, etc.
“That is why we brought it down to six million as opposed to the initial EC$8.77 million,” he said, adding “we have done pretty well in bringing it down which is good news for us.”
McIntyre said offices will be placed in each of the constituencies, “most probably vehicles in each of the constituencies.
“All the different equipment and the systems in all the different offices…electricity, water, stuff for all the different offices, and the whole operation and the staff in all the different constituencies,” McIntyre said, adding that this is going to go on for an entire year and can be extended to15 months.
In March, the Dominica Parliament approved electoral reform legislation even as police fired teargas and rubber bullets at opposition supporters who claimed that the government had not been transparent enough in dealing with the matter.
The Dominica government had late last year tabled the three bills, namely the Electoral Commission Bill 2024, House of Assembly (Elections) Bill 2024, and Registration of Electors Bill 2024, and Parliament gave its approval to the legislation that had been reviewed by the relevant individuals and groups since Sir Dennis Byron, the former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), submitted his report on electoral reform on June 12, 2023.
During the debate on Monday, Prime Minister Skerrit defended the decision to secure a loan from the local bank to finance the process of electoral reform.
“It’s a priority…and the government wanted to ensure that its integrity and its commitment to electoral reform are pursued in a very transparent way, as we have done all the time,” Prime Minister said, adding that the financial provision aims to strengthen the independence of the Electoral Commission and promote a transparent process.
“This is being done to make sure that everybody sees and everybody hears, and the record will show that the government is making available the funds to the Electoral Commission to carry out its mandate.”
Skerrit also responded to criticisms about the government’s decision to borrow the funds, noting consistent attempts by “Opposition elements to discredit traditional revenue sources such as the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme.”
“They like to talk about CBI. But at the same time, seeking to destroy it, trying to deny the people of Dominica a better way of life, trying to stop all of these projects that we’re doing,” the Prime Minister said.
“There are elements in this country who have gone all over the world besmirching and denigrating Dominica, black-eyeing Dominica, spreading falsehoods about Dominica. They would want to wait, Mr. Speaker, for one member of the commission to say, well, we are missing funds. We haven’t gotten funds yet. And you will see letters being dispatched to all kinds of organizations who have no interest in Dominica.”
Skerrit called on the Electoral Commission to “move swiftly to initiate the confirmation process, in line with the legal framework now in place”
“So, as of this afternoon, the government will have fulfilled its mandate. It is left now to the Electoral Commission as a creature of the Constitution, empowered to deal with election matters in Dominica, to deal with it, to implement the mandate,” Prime Minister Skerrit told legislators.
