The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has laid out its position on the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI) saying it supports such program, however, it should not be used as a cover for the sale of the country’s passport and should benefit everyone.
“The United Workers Party supports Citizenship By Investment, not as a cover for the sale of passports to become the only source of national income manipulated for selfish benefit by a privileged few, but as a safe source of investment dollars to build the growth engines of the economy for the creation of jobs and other sustainable socio-economic development benefits for all of Dominica,” the party said in a release on Friday.
The UWP has been constantly accused by the government of trying to destroy the island’s CBI program.
But the UWP said that it is duty bound to raise question over what it described as “the seemingly corrupt practices that are undermining the integrity of the program.”
“The use of CBI funds to reward friends and supporters under the guise of marketing expenses; the pace of progress in completing CBI funded projects for the benefits of Dominica; truthful and complete accounting for all monies collected under the CBI program; and the rate of increase of our overseas population as a result of the sale of Dominican citizenship. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit would do well to get accustomed to this fact of life that he finds so inconvenient,” the party said.
See full press release below.
Roseau, November 24th, 2016 – The United Workers Party supports Citizenship By Investment, not as a cover for the sale of passports to become the only source of national income manipulated for selfish benefit by a privileged few, but as a safe source of investment dollars to build the growth engines of the economy for the creation of jobs and other sustainable socio-economic development benefits for all of Dominica.
In this regard, we are duty bound to raise questions about the seemingly corrupt practices that are undermining the integrity of the program; the use of CBI funds to reward friends and supporters under the guise of marketing expenses; the pace of progress in completing CBI funded projects for the benefits of Dominica; truthful and complete accounting for all monies collected under the CBI program; and the rate of increase of our overseas population as a result of the sale of Dominican citizenship. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit would do well to get accustomed to this fact of life that he finds so inconvenient.
NO INTEGRITY, NO TRANSPARENCY, NO ACCOUNTABILITY
The angry rant about his recent trip to promote the Citizenship By Investment Program raises once again, very troubling concerns about the integrity of the program and the collection and spending of hundreds of millions of dollars from the sale of Dominican passports.
Yet again, the Prime Minister is serving up confusing revenue and expenditure numbers; misleading sales and marketing arrangements; and a concoction of spin doctor lies to deceive the people of Dominica about the reality of their Citizenship By Investment program.
CBI DID NOT BEGIN WITH ROOSEVELT SKERRIT
Yet again, the Prime Minister is conveniently forgetting that people from other countries have been receiving Dominican citizenship in exchange for investments in Dominica since 1991 – 25 years ago. The policy did not begin with Roosevelt Skerrit and it is therefore dishonest for him to keep insisting that CBI emerged from his vision for Dominica.
For the avoidance of doubt, CBI was introduced to Dominica by the Dominica Freedom Party of then Prime Minister Dame Mary Eugenia Charles and it was the United Workers Party of former Prime Minister Edison James that took the initiative to bring money from economic citizenship directly into the treasury of Dominica. More than a decade after they left office, Mr Skerrit is piggy backing these same policy initiatives and calling his actions “visionary” and “innovative”.
Roosevelt Skerrit has only been visionary and innovative in playing games with the standards of integrity, transparency and accountability required for effective leadership and Management of Citizenship By Investment:
- DELIBERATE DECEPTION: The Prime Minister says his CBI promotional trips to Europe, the far east and the Arab world must be kept secret so that Dominica’s regional and other CBI competitors don’t get to know what he is doing. Yet, he confirms in a deceptively contradictory disclosure that he gave three advance announcements to the world of his recent trips to Hong Kong, Bankok and Dubai.
- OUTFRONT IN CHEAPENING CARICOM CITIZENSHIP: The Prime Minister says Dominica is the premier CBI destination in the region but there are elements of Dominica’s program which are causing grave concern among regional Heads of Government. These include the operations of the Citizenship by Investment Unit and the due diligence (or lack of) that is being completed for citizenship applicants. It is evident that best practices are not being followed and Dominica is providing cheap, easy access into the CARICOM region even for applicants with security risk issues. By providing a tool for sales people to push the cheapest option Dominica has cornered the bargain basement for CARICOM passports at the expense of quality and sustainability. With a lower price point Dominica has been generating higher sales and adding thousands more citizens to its overseas based population than the other islands.
- A FRIEND GETS $16 MILLION FOR MARKETING CBI: The Prime Minister says the CBI is growing its revenues because of his personal involvement in Direct marketing and his decision to host a 100 thousand US dollar independence gala in Dubai. This is the same Prime Minister who has appointed an army of passport selling agents (with their own marketing programs and expenses), special advisors and his honorary doctorate friend at CS Global who received 16 million dollars for marketing Dominica’s CBI program in 2015/2016. If the Prime Minister is successfully selling Dominica’s CBI through the efforts of agents, his direct marketing expertise and his cultural entertainment road shows, what exactly is the justification for paying CS Global 16 million dollars per year? Is the Prime Minister suggesting that the direct marketer and other state actors involved in marketing the CBI are on the CS Global pay roll?
- NUMBERS THAT DON’T ADD UP: The Prime Minister says the budget plan is to raise more than 300 million dollars from CBI in this financial year. But the actual CBI revenue target for 2016/2017 approved by Parliament on the request of the Prime Minister is 201.8 million. Of this amount, government will spend 171.1 million on the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) and contrary to what he is saying now, the Prime Minister said absolutely nothing in his 2016 budget statement about needing 271 million dollars from CBI to finance this year’s budget. These numbers are important in understanding the level of trickery and deception involved in accounting for CBI revenues.
Two years ago, 2014/2015, Dominica picked up $23 million dollars from economic citizenship/CBI – a shortfall of $57 million on the budget of 80 million. There was no explanation for this massive shortfall. Yet, the 2015/2016 estimate of NON-TAX revenues from economic citizenship went up to $70 million even though it was only $23 million in the previous year. One year later, government reports CBI revenues of $99 million – 76 million above the prior year and 29 million above budget. Remarkably though, the actual amount received from economic citizenship in 2015/2016 was 279.8 million. Not only did the Prime Minister under report the 2015/2016 CBI revenue by 180.9 million, his government withheld 146.8 million of 2015/2016 CBI revenue from the consolidated fund, in clear violation of the Constitution.
5 months after the close of the last financial year there is no further word on the 146.8 million dollars of Dominica passport money collected, not spent in Dominica, but missing from Dominica’s consolidated fund.
No amount of the Prime Minister’s deliberately dishonest criticisms of the Parliamentary Opposition’s principled stance against the lack of transparency and accountability in the leadership and management of Dominica’s CBI program will prevent the United Workers Party from looking out for Dominica and ensuring that the public interest in the policy of economic citizenship is properly protected.
- THE REAL ECONOMIC TERRORIST: The Prime Minister says opposition parliamentarians with concerns about the operations of the CBI program are economic terrorists, dishonestly pretending to forget that he is the one claiming success for the sale of Dominican citizenship with highly questionable vetting of purchasers and at bargain basement prices in the terrorist hot spots of the world.
The purchasers of Dominica passports in distant lands are all enjoying the travel and other benefits that their purchase affords them. It is time for all Dominicans (not just Roosevelt Skerrit and those he favors) to benefit meaningfully from the sale of Dominican passports.
This is the concern on which we stand and from which we will not relent until Dominica’s CBI is made to serve the best interest of Dominicans from all walks of life instead of putting millions in the pockets of CBI operatives brazen enough to transfer their millions into Dominica from a source of funds called sale of passports.
UNITED WORKERS PARTY
LENNOX LINTON
Political Leader
CBI holders must be denied the vote as if they are not, then our fate as resident Dominicans is sealed.
Do the maths, work out how things will pan out for you with the majority of voting Dominicans being CBI’s who don’t live on the island?
Get it?
CBI CITIZENS MUST BE DENIED THE VOTE!!!
I agree with this statement. What should and should not be done. regardless of who governs. Seems is for one set alone.
MR. LINTON I pray every day that God will open the brains and eyes of my illiterate people in Dominica to help them think so that they can see the light…we cannot continue like this ;this situation has to stop before it is too late..
true!!
So right Hon.Linton. we are not against it but it has to help everyone, the whole Country.
I wish to recommend highly to Hon Linton and his trusted UWP Team that this well researched and written statement should be available for all children at 4th and 5th levels and most importantly those at the State College, including the President and lecturers.
Please find a way to have it on social media. Our people must get deep into reading rather than have this inept Prime Minister and his untrusted high ranking followers continue to poison them with lies, deception, pretence and promoting deviancy and dishonesty, systematically killing our agricultural produce and increasing our already high rate of unemployment.
Well done Team Dominica UWP.
Now Skerrit take this to Parliament if you brave and let us the Dominica people really listen to you and not the likes or dislikes of Jackass – Phan, Kamala, Cecil. Crazy, Ghost(for real).
Wake up Dominica, our country is being robbed daily by an incompetent Government
The CIP program is benefiting the People but not UWP. They’re not representing in the house. All UWP do is collect money at the end of the month.
The CBI program is simply brilliant.
There is now no need for the government to spend anything as such on infrastructure. Why? Because, soon the majority of voting Dominicans will be CBI citizens and guess what? They don’t live here, so they don’t care what facilities we have. They just need the passport for their tax and other matters;
Skerritt should be planning to see how resident Dominicans can be encouraged to leave the island which would be great news for everyone and certainly dramatically lessen public expenditure..
Good article Mr Linton.It helps people who are interested to see that this Skerritt guy is delusional.You need to keep the pressure on him,because the more you do is the more he spews empty lies and complicates himself.For example he travels so much out of state saying that he is on sales missions for CBI,yet he has all these agents selling our passports overseas and pocketing their commissions.The question then arrived,why does he have to go sell when his hand picked people are selling the passports already.If the opposition can afford it it should send someone to shadow this guy when he goes overseas to see what he is up to.Also if he is helping these agents sell passports they should be paying him for his work.We need to know how much and why.Skerritt needs to keep his behind in the Country and do the work that he was elected to do.There are more questions than answers with corrupt Skerritt schemes
.
Much ado about nothing. The opposition must know that they are not the PM of Dominica; not the current government. This is what is wrong with them.
Who said the CBI Program is not benefiting everyone?
As for your calumny and slander, causing others to do likewise and creating division in the land, you better stop it. One day you will pay for it.
So wait a minute.
When you were in St Kitts working for Labour and Henley and Partners was funding the campign there it was for greater transparency ?
Because when they lost and the new Govt got rid of Henley you yourself turn around and start to praise the St Kitts govt for doing exactly what you were campaigning against.
If Dominicans are stupid enough to believe you then I will laugh loud and hard. All this is about is getting your uneducated hands on the money so that you can live large.
Any wrongs that Skerrit does will look like stoning mango if you bandits ever manage to kyonnay Dominicans into thinking you all care for anything but your own pockets.
Crooks and hypocrites.
Uwp not sure about anything,weather they up or down,night or day, those guys are lost
@Lol. What they (UWP)are very sure about is your level of stupidity and ignorance…Go learn how to spell..Skerrit need to give you a piece of pencil and half a book,and whip your butt to attend night school..
You are a real LOL………appears you know nothing about Dominica`s fast growing poverty and the growing wealth of Dominica`s government ministers and their cronies, from captain down to crook. Mister LOL, you really think that this a lol matter for you and your children and your families and the struggling people of Dominica? A poverty created by this corrupt Labour Party government under this questionable PM.?
Get serious please and smell the salt, stop your sucking of the salt., if that\’s where you are
What im not sure about is you use or grammar. you seem to be lost. The word is WHETHER, not WEATHER.
LOL must be a product of Skerrit’s USE program and now progressed to NEP?
any0ne that sell his vote is an economic terrorist, like, wise any person that advocate selling or suggesting to others to gain money for votes, are not democratic pratice.
Wooooooooohhhhh Who woke up the sleeping Giant? The Giant tore right tru Scare-it’s nonsense.
More crazy people owside than dem wat inside. 
Continue to educate the D/can populous Hon Lennox Linton and the United Workers Party – (UWP) – Team D/ca. One must be born with such behavioural traits:
1. The characteristics of being easy to see through, unfortunately the ruling D/ca Labour Party (DLP) – led by ‘ONE MAN’ lacks transparency, and
2. Being completely responsible for what you do and being able to give a satisfactory reason for your action, which is the bain of our ONE MAN’S life.
SO WHAT WILL UWP CHANGE?????
The change begins with you
Are you benefiting from the passport?
I support this 100%.
Are you benefiting from the passport? Do you know how much is collected in total for the pass 17 years
Well we’ve heard from the United Workers’ Party and that new one,The People’s Party. Both share solid concerns about the handling of rightfully, the Dominican citizen’s money. What is the next step to getting Mr. Skerrit to be compliant in not just the CBI program, but many other things? Bon Doo, I hope I’m not labelled an economic terrorist by asking that. What about Freedom Party? C’mon Mr. Astaphan, let’s hear your take on it. We need all parties to share their concerns at what may be the biggest heist of all times of the Commonwealth of Dominica Treasury. A solution to bring about transparency and proper accountability must be arrived and enforced.
Nothing benefits all Dominicans look the housing minister building house wallhouse for a young girl and people that in need he refusing to assist them. He bought ride for her now house. And its not a two dollar house can u imagine this system? Then they talk about taxes!! Tax payers money going towards lazy side chicks of ministers not toward improvements of the land!!
This is too high tech for the ordinary citizens.
Additionally, $80 million is already set aside for the next general election
That is true that is why we are so poor skerrit is dishonest
Please, do not underestimate our people or belittle them. This is real “next level” stuff and many people will understand this.
Go buy a Masters Degree in Portsmouth or a PhD nah!!!
If they have time and patience to read it all. Not all will. I did not. How many will?
Like you, we have to learn to read and comprehend and take control of our Country’s affairs. If you cannot read go let someone read to you, stop complaining, unable to read is not an excuse, neither is ignorance. Our country is in a bad state and because we have a bad leader and a bad government in office.