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OECS Assembly to hold inaugural meeting in Antigua-Barbuda
Published on August 8, 2012 Email To Friend    Print Version

By Ellsworth I. A. John
OECS Commissioner for St Vincent and the Grenadines

ST JOHN’S, Antigua -- Thirty-nine parliamentarians from throughout the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are scheduled to assemble in Antigua and Barbuda on August 10, 2012, for the inaugural meeting of the OECS Assembly, a new institution fashioned under the Revised Treaty of Basseterre Establishing the OECS Economic Union, which came into force in January 2011.

This inaugural meeting of the OECS Assembly marks the achievement of yet another benchmark, as the OECS continues on its march to realize its objective of creating an effective economic union, which promises growth and economic development for its members and associate members.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines are full members of the OECS. Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands are associate members.

The OECS Assembly joins the OECS Commission as two new institutional arrangements designed to improve the governance arrangements in the OECS. By July 2011, the Commission, which is comprised of one commissioner from each member state party to the protocol plus the director general began operating.

There is already evidence after one year of operation, that both the secretariat of the commission and the member states are implementing mandates at a higher level of efficiency. This is evidenced by the coming into force of the free movement of persons in August 2011 and methodical approach being taken to monitor and evaluate the gains of the economic union with involvement by the critical stakeholders in the member states.

Article 5.3 of the Revised Treaty mandates the independent member states to enact legislation that delegate to the OECS the authority to legislate in its area of competence with the intention that the acts, regulation and orders have direct effect in the laws of the member states. In effect, once the Revised Treaty was passed into the domestic law in the member states, the OECS had the authority to pass laws in specified areas that were binding on the member states. This process can now begin with the establishment of the OECS Assembly.

The OECS Assembly, which is required to have among its members all of the prime ministers and leaders of the opposition, acts as a filter for all legislation passed by the OECS Authority. Persons have questioned whether the OECS Assembly has any real clout, given that the legislation is passed at the level of the prime ministers through the OECS Authority. The simple answer is yes. The substantive debate on proposed legislations will take place in the OECS Assembly and it is the place for the voice of the people of the OECS to be heard through their representatives.

The areas of legislative competence of the Organization are restricted to custom union, monetary policy, trade policy, maritime jurisdiction, common commercial policy, immigration policy and environmental policy. These are all areas where a collaborative approach can lead to significant changes in the well being of the citizens of the OECS and it is therefore important that we remain engaged through our elected representatives in the work done through this legislative process.
 
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Comments:

Peter:
COOeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! SIMON ANDERSON, you missed this article. Thought I might just put this in for you at this time.

FRANCIS THE PHILISTINE, perhaps you can ask your controler Gonsalves the following questions, some you may be able answer yourself.

Ask about the US$1 million in cash, ask about the UN vote conspiracy, ask about blood money for the airport, ask why employees and suppliers have been allowed to plunder the airport funds and revenue, ask about out of control crime, ask about ministers on the take from Buccament, ask about all the thieving in ministries, ask about illegal activities by ULP MP's, ask about said drug lord payment to ULP, ask about 60 farmers whose land was taken for the airport and its still not paid for, ask about the Gonsalves rape charges that have never been to court, ask about being taken into ALBA without the peoples approval, ask about the hundreds of treasury bills and bonds issued, ask about the bankrupting of the country, ask about the forced sale of the bank, ask about the forced sale of the supermarket, ask why the Viegy highway has never been finished and where is the money, ask who gets free vegetables grown at Bell Isle Prison, ask about the employment of criminal police officers, ask why the police force is out of control, ask why the police have a shoot to kill and take no prisoners live policy, ask why the police torture detained people in interview rooms and cells, ask why the government support police torture, ask how many complaints have been made about police planting evidence on people, ask Gonsalves why he wanted the PACE police rules abolished, ask about Glen Beache's company that had the same or similar name as a government supplier, ask about the Spunker of the House's son robbing his government employers, ask about the continual flow of lies from Gonsalves and his paid IT supporters, ask about Gonsalves sons arrogance in the UN police officer incident, ask about Chavez coming to SVG and calling US President names on our soil, ask about the volume of cocaine passing through SVG from Venezuela, ask about the airport at Argyle now carrying the name Christian Blood Airport, ask about the curse brought to the island for supporting the slaughter of Christians in Iran, ask about our links with IRAN and NORTH KOREA and other crap states, ask about our giving ALBA 1% of our funds, ask about what happened to the $1 million gift and the $3.5 million loan from Gadaffi for the Diamond stadium, ask why the NIS has been almost bankrupted by being forced to put money into the airport that can never show a return, ask why the airport was started without funding, ask why we were lied to about the coalition of the willing, ask why we have a bank account in Cuba where Iran pays money in for SVG, ask about bank accounts held in Saint Lucia by ULP Ministers, ask why people were bribed to vote ULP at the last election, ask why Gonsalves states he is here to finish the work of Maurice Bishop, ask why Gonsalves has spent millions of dollars traveling, ask why prisoners convicted of serious crimes have been released before their due time, ask why Gonsalves as Minister of Finance under funded the Ministry of Agriculture resulting in the total loss of our banana industry, ask why Gonsalves has employed at great expense to an ex pupil of his to act as Legal adviser, prosecutor and defender in both Government and personal business, ask why he punished the people of the Grenadines by charging them a departure tax to leave Kingstown by ferry, ask why travelers going to the Grenadines are harassed with their box's and bags, ask why the Rastafarians were lied to, ask why Gonsalves lied about the Venezuelans paying the Cubans wages at the airport, ask why only a handful of Vincentians got jobs at the new airport project, ask why Cubans got all the jobs that Vincentians could do at the new airport project, ask why we were told that the equipment from Venezuela was a gift, ask why we need to take loans from petrocaribe and ALBA for the airport when we were told Venezuela were paying, ask why VINLEC have been supplying the airport project with diesel and thus facilitating the need to charge electricity users excessive electricity bills, ask why we were lied to by Francis and Gonsalves when they told us that the airport would cost the SVG tax payer nothing and when it was finished no debt would be left. ask who shared in the US$1 million in cash and how they qualified for a share, ask why some people arrive at the airport without going through immigration or customs control, ask why some boxes and baggage go through the airport without customs control, ask why only ULP supporters houses get repaired after hurricanes and floods, ask why there are still NDP supporters who are living in damaged houses, ask why Gonsalves son was not charged prosecuted over the motorcycle incident, ask why Gonsalves needs dozens of plain clothes police body guards, ask why we were lied to about repairs to the roof of the official prime ministers house by omission to tell us that there was a fire, ask why Gonsalves has got a whole fleet of expensive cars for his own use, ask why Gonsalves spent up to 6 million dollars to try and ram through a yes vote for the referendum, ask why Gonsalves is accused of heaping spite on people who cross him, ask why Gonsalves calls people dreadful names, ask why Gonsalves needs to make obscene gestures, ask why Gonsalves cannot act in a way conducive to his office, ask why Gonsalves needs to personally interview girls and boys before giving them scholarships, ask why Gonsalves is so well known for his Saturday morning interviews at his offices in Bay Street, ask why Gonsalves needs his unelected and unelectable cousin Francis to be a member of Government on a continuing basis, ask why the people in the Diaspora are on a continuing basis lied to and mislead on almost everything Vincentian, ask why Gonsalves insisted on electing Chatoye a National Hero when the man was a citizen of France, a General in the French army and traded in and kept and worked slaves, ask why local newspaper reporters are frightened to ask Gonsalves pertinent questions and rely only on press releases, ask why the Judiciary recluse themselves from anything to do with what Gonsalves or the Government do wrong, ask why Colin Williams the Director of Public Prosecutions was chosen for that position when Williams was or had recently been a partner or member of Gonsalve's law firms chambers and also a member of the ULP central committee, ask why Colin Williams has always disallowed any case against Gonsalves or member of Government, ask why Gonsalves sought to change the very laws that he was accused of breaking regarding electoral rules. ask why the fire service has been so grossly under funded that the have never been able to put a fire out, ask why Gonsalves was charged with rape and accused on more than one occasion of sexual crimes, ask why he never went before a court to clear his name, ask why Saint Vincent and the grenadines main income in now scrounging from other countries, ask why Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been turned into a prostitute state, ask why in the last eleven years no new industry has been created in the state, ask why we have lost most of our industrial base in SVG, ask why the streets are filled with beggars, ask why uniformed school children are begging in the car parks for bus fairs and food money, ask why some government worker were not paid at Christmas and their children went hungry, ask why on several occasions poor relief payment was several weeks late and caused people to starve, ask why government owe private companies and contractors over 40 million dollars for the last 4 years, ask why there are always hundreds of people paid their salary weeks late, ask why the government can't pay its utility bills putting a further burden on the private householder, ask why there is no money to repair our roads, ask why school girls are prostituting themselves for phone cards, ask why the Catholic church and the Salvation Army are feeding hundreds of homeless and poor people every day, ask why business’s are closing down, ask why the Gonsalves need to open a Café when they are very rich and there are numerous café’s nearby struggling to earn a simple living, ask why there is a ULP minister who was broke before coming to office and now has several cars several houses several woman and several children, ask why most of the important members of the police force come from Gonsalves constituency, ask why people go into small grocer shop and buy 1 egg, ask why farmers animals are being stolen weekly in the hundreds, ask why the Cross Country road has not been built and where the money is, ask why Gonsalves shouldn’t be regarded as a cult leader, ask why in many government jobs you have to be a ULP member, ask why a man that is a self confessed liar should be paid huge court settlements in cases he says damages his name and image when his name and image is damaged by his lies and accusations of rape and sex crimes, ask why Gonsalves he employ’s some of his old friends in jobs that pay up to 87 times more a month than the average worker gets, ask why the hospital and clinics are more frequently without drugs and dressings than with, ask why people at the hospital often have to supply their own towels sheets pillows and covers, ask why the death rate at the hospital is so high for usually simple procedures and illness’s, ask why there are less bed at the mental home than patients, ask why patients have to sleep on urine soaked foam mattress on the floor, ask why the food at the hospital and mental home is only fit for pigs, ask why people at the hospital have to bring in their own food if they want to eat, ask why Kingstown and every village is littered with starved diseased dogs covered in scabs, ask why serious numbers of our youth is using crack cocaine, ask why the police are given books of penalty tickets once a week and told to issue enough tickets to pay their salary, ask why up till last year there were Cubans working in every ministry department, ask why Gonsalves has never been to Canada since a Canadian lady claimed he tried to force her to have sex with him, ask Gonsalves why the Cubans Venezuelans and some other ALBA members are currently keeping him at arms length, ask Gonsalves about his uttering’s exposed in several Wikileaks documents, ask Gonsalves if he is related to Antonio Gonsalves the Portuguese Madeiran sea captain who took the first African slaves from the North West African Coast and kicked of the Atlantic slave trade,
Ask Gonsalves about how he ran away when the Jamaican demonstrations developed into riots with 6 people killed and US$20 million of property bus’s and vehicles destroyed, ask him about his ongoing fight against cowardice, ask Gonsalves why he was fired from his lecturing post in Barbados, ask him how many countries he was made person non gratis of at one time, ask him about his trips to East Europe during the cold war, ask why he appears in the recently released Czechoslovakian secret police records, ask why he appears in records of the Grenada Marxist revolution

ASK HIM WHY HE NEEDS PEOPLE LIKE ‘'SIMON ANDERSON' 'VINCYPOWA’ ‘CADDY KING‘ ‘KNIGHT‘ ‘FUDZ‘ ‘JASON‘, TO TRY AND DEFEND WHAT IS CLEARLY WRONG, BY THEIR TELLING FURTHER LIES AND PERPETUATING THE LIES OF GONSALVES, ATTEMPTING TO PROTECT GONSALVES AGAINST THE TRUTH

THERE ARE A MILLION THINGS YOU COULD ASK GONSALVES

‘FRANCIS THE PHILISTINE’ WITHOUT ANY DOUBT AT ALL IN MY MIND GONSALVES IS THE WORST PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF FINANCE, MINISTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY AND MINISTER OF LEGAL AFFAIRS THAT THIS OR ANY CARIBBEAN COUNTRY HAS EVER HAD, OTHER THAN HIS DEAR FRIEND MAURICE BISHOP THAT MARXIST SCUM BAG WHO IS FORTUNATLY VERY DEAD.
SOME OF HIS OTHER MARXIST SCUM FRIENDS LIKE WALTER RODNEY ARE ALSO FORTUNATLY VERY DEAD.

AND AS FOR ALL YOU IN THE DIASPORA WHO HELP FUND THIS WICKED MARXIST FAILED REGIME, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES FOR BEING STUPID ENOUGH TO BE TAKEN IN BY THE CRAP THAT YOU ARE FED ON A CONTINUING BASIS. YOUR ACTIONS HAVE HELPED INFLICT HARDSHIP ON THE VINCENTIAN PEOPLE. PLEASE WISE UP WE NEED HELP NOT YOUR COLLABORATION WITH THIS WICKED REGIME.


Peter:
April 7th 2008, Kingstown, Saint Vincent: News Article, Second sexual assault charges against St Vincent PM dropped;

The Director of Public Prosecutions has blocked a second sexual assault charge against Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, a week before the St. Vincent leader was scheduled to appear in court on the matter.

DPP Colin Williams, who in February dismissed a rape charge even before a hearing, has written to the attorneys representing the woman in the second case, which was to be heard in the Family Court on April 14, informing them of the discontinuation.

The woman in that case had charged that Dr Gonsalves sexually assaulted her in January 2004.

However, it is understood that the decision to halt the case was taken because of conflicting statements made by the alleged victim who now resides in Canada.

http://www.caribbean360.com/News/Caribbean/Stories/2008/04/06/NEWS0000005674.html
Interview by Junior Baccus of accuser on Cross Country Radio.
http://www.archive.org/details/VincyPMGonzalvesSecondRapeAllegation

Simon Anderson:

PETER, ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID?

Why are you changing the discussion, Peter?

The issue is the Ottley Hall Project and the missing funds.

You would rather change the subject Peter, we all see that.


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