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The National Assembly of St.Kitts-Nevis convened a meeting yesterday to debate and pass 4 bills .

The bills debated included the Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2016 and the BAICO (Plan of Arrangement) Bill, 2016. the Tax Administration and Procedures (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and the Eastern Caribbean Asset Management Corporation Bill, 2016, and  the Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2016.

However the debate on the bills took a backseat to the stunning revelations regarding the activity of the former Douglas –led SKN Labour Party regime.

It was revealed during the afternoon proceedings of the assembly that the Law Firm of the former Minister of Health, Social and Gender Affairs Hon. Marcella Liburd  was paid a whopping $2.9 million over 4 years for providing legal services to the St.Kitts-Nevis Government’s wholly owned  Development Bank. It was also revealed that there was absolutely no tender for bids for other firms to be afforded the opportunity to provide the services.

Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris in his presentation raised the matter and expressed outrage and described the situation as a gross conflict of interest while others have described it  as another example of blatant corruption by the ousted Douglas led administration that the Law Firm of a sitting Minister could be paid such sums by a Government wholly owned institution .

In a previous media report it was stated that the former Minister’s firm continued to be paid for legal services to the Development Bank for up to 6 months after the change of administration whilst at the same time falsely accusing the sitting Team UNITY Administration of carrying out a programme of victimization of labour party supporters.