ALP Draft Resolution A Vote Of "No Confidence" in Hon. B. Spencer / Prime Minister

[Rozanne Emanuel]

RESOLUTION

 

A VOTE OF “NO CONFIDENCE”

IN

HON. BALDWIN SPENCER M.P. / PRIME MINISTER

 

Parliament of Antigua and Barbuda

May 30th, 2012

 

THE PEOPLE of Antigua and Barbuda:

 

1. The Parlous and Fragile State of the Economy

a.     Aware that the economy of Antigua and Barbuda is collapsing, where adult unemployment stands at 20% and youth unemployment rates exceed 40%, where the cost of living has skyrocketed and anti-social and criminal activity has increased exponentially among the youths and young adult population;

 

b.     Acknowledging that for three consecutive years, as announced by the present Minister of Finance and the Economy during the last Budget debate, the economy has experienced a 9% decline in 2009, a 4% decline in 2010, and a 3% decline in 2011, and that in 2012 a further decline is forecast by several experts;

 

c.      Under the watch of the Prime Minister the Offshore Financial Sector, created thirty years ago with the passage of the 1982 International Business Corporation Act, has declined since 2004 and is now on the verge of disappearing. The Tourism Sector has suffered a similar fate.

 

2. The Chinese Built Power Plant

a.     Despite a call by the Member of Parliament for St. Phillip’s South, Hon. Wilmoth Daniel, the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Utilities has announced that no investigation is warranted and that there is no need for an inquiry into the Chinese-built power plant at Crabbes;

b.     Having been denied access to the documentation that would conclusively prove that the APUA was supplied with a power plant as contracted for, and that the expenditure of US$47,000,000 or 300 million RMB, loaned to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, was justifiable;

c.      That Prime Minister Spencer, who is also Minister of Public Utilities along with the Board, Administrators and Technicians of APUA, having failed to perform the due diligence required of them, have clearly convinced reasonable people in Antigua and Barbuda to conclude that incompetence has contributed to the debacle.

 

3. The Fences Scandal

 

a.     Having been persuaded that Prime Minister, Hon. Baldwin Spencer is aware that tens of millions of dollars were wastefully expended on fences, unfinished bathrooms, viewing stands, and other projects that have yielded no economic benefit to the taxpayers and that he has nevertheless failed in his fiduciary responsibilities to act as is required under the Prevention of Corruption Act;

 

b.     Having noted that the REPORT ON THE FINDINGS OF THE INVESTIGATION OF EXPENDITURE AT THE MINISTRY OF SPORTS dated May 31, 2010, presented in the Parliament on Thursday, June 23, 2011, reveals that a sum of money totaling East Caribbean dollars $54,438,615.00 was unlawfully spent on the fencing projects during the years 2007 thru 2009;

 

c.      Knowing that the projects were not authorized by the Development Control Authority, highly inflated, poorly constructed, inappropriately and unlawfully funded by way of Special Warrants and Petty Contracts, contrary to the Finance Administration Act of 2006, and that there was an unlawful but successful scheme to circumvent the requirements of the Tenders Board Act;

 

4. Failure To Receive Parliamentary Approval and to Submit All Audits

a.     Noting the continuous failure of the Prime Minister and/or the Minister of Finance to seek the approval of Parliament for more than fifty (50) separate loan agreements totaling more than one billion, five hundred million East Caribbean dollars (EC$1,500,000,000.00) since 2004 to the present;

 

b.     Noting the failure, up until today, to have audited statements of the Government Accounts set before the Parliament for examination by the Public Accounts Committee, since 2004, contrary to the Finance Administration Act 2006 and the forerunner Finance and Audit Act that has been repealed;

 

CONVINCED THAT:

 

a.     Prime Minister Spencer has been the architect of a failed economy that has not delivered the jobs, economic opportunities, or profits required to keep enterprises healthy; that if allowed to remain in leadership, the country will be plunged into a deeper economic crisis as a result of his government’s poorly-designed fiscal and tax policies;

 

b.     Prime Minister Spencer has not acted in a responsible, transparent, lawful and dutiful manner pertaining to the Chinese built Power Plant as anticipated by The Freedom of Information Act, 2004 and the Finance Administration Act, 2006, which require parliamentary approval for the loan of US$47,000,000 or 300 million RMB and access to the documentation by the public;

 

c.      Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer continues to prevent access to the Chinese built Power Plant by the media, and has actively prevented the release of all documentation as required under the Freedom of Information Act 2004; unjustly accusing the media and Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition of being “unpatriotic” and of engaging in accusations that he intentionally misconstrues as an “attack on the relations between Antigua and Barbuda and China”;

 

d.     Prime Minister Spencer does not intend to advise the Governor General to establish a Public Commission of Inquiry to examine the facts of the likely mal-spending of tens of millions of taxpayers’ money in the “Fences Scandal”;

 

e.     Prime Minister Spencer has failed to cause the required public accounts to be laid before Parliament; leaving them un-examined and unaudited for more than seven continuous years;

 

f.       Prime Minister Spencer has been the architect of the emasculation of the Office of the Supervisor of Elections and the unlawful removal of the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, contrary to the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act;

 

g.     Prime Minister Spencer has set out to make elections in Antigua and Barbuda unfair and un-free by oppressive actions in the Parliament, to alter the outcome of two separate judgments by changing the law while decisions were pending, and by appointing a new Electoral Commission Chairman when he knew that he had no authority so to do;

 

NOW THEREFORE:

 

THE PARLIAMENT OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, sitting at the lawfully designated venue, located at Queen Elizabeth Highway, on Wednesday, May 30, 2012,

 

THE MAJORITY OF ITS MEMBERS, having voted, do hereby

 

DECLARE THAT THEY:

 

HAVE NO CONFIDENCE in Mr. Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister, and agree to the revocation of his instrument of appointment as Prime Minister effective June 7, 2012, or seven days from this day as ordered by the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution Order 1981, Section 73(1), and that Her Excellency The Governor General be so informed by the Speaker of the House, and that the Governor General act under Section 69(2)(b) of the Constitution to appoint another member of Parliament, in whom the majority of the House repose confidence, to serve as Prime Minister commencing in seven days, or on Thursday, June  7, 2012.