Charlestown, Nevis
March 26, 2008
Statutory bodies and public corporations on Nevis will have a more thorough understanding of their role in the development of the island at the end of a workshop on March 26, 2008. The one day exercise hosted by the Ministry of Finance on Nevis, was held at the Nevis Corporative Credit Union Conference Room in Charlestown.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance in the Nevis Island Administration Mr. Laurie Lawrence told the Department of Information that the workshop would be facilitated by Ms. Juliette Jeffers of the East Caribbean Central Bank.
He explained that it was designed to inform the participants on the type of information that the Ministry of Finance required to monitor their performance, revenues, cash flows and in particular their debt situation.
“She [Ms. Jeffers] would be explaining to the various statutory bodies what they are required to report to the Ministry of Finance on a quarterly basis, so we can process that information and send [it] to the Central Bank, the IMF and other international bodies, so that they could do a proper assessment of the St. Kitts Nevis economy, the public sector including not just the central government but also all of the statutory bodies.
“Then we will have a better picture of the total debt of St. Kitts and Nevis and the risk of investing in St. Kitts and Nevis. So this is basically what we are trying to achieve,” he said.
Mr. Lawrence said the Ministry of Finance had encountered difficulty to get the statutory bodies to report on a quarterly basis and the workshop would provide the opportunity to explain the importance of the timely reports.
“We are trying to use this opportunity to explain to them the purpose of it, let them understand the requirements that the Ministry of Finance has to meet in terms of providing information to international bodies.
“Also getting them to understand the role that statutory bodies play in the development of the country and our ability to attract investment by providing us with the necessary information, so that we could give investors the total debt situation and they could assess the level of risk in terms of investing in Nevis. So it is very important and we want all the statutory bodies to understand the importance of this exercise,” he said.
Present at the workshop were representatives from the Nevis Air and Seaports Authority (NASPSA), the Nevis Tourism Authority, the Solid Waste Management Authority, the Nevis Housing and Lands Development Corporation (NHLDC) and the Nevis Electricity Company Ltd.(NEVLEC)