The process of handing over leadership at St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)’s global diplomatic outposts has been marked by unforeseen and significant obstacles, the island nation’s top diplomat has confirmed to lawmakers.
Foreign Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble told Parliament Tuesday that while the current Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration has made redefining and restructuring the mandates of SVG’s overseas missions a core governance priority, the handover phase from the previous government has proven far more difficult than anticipated.
Opening up about the frustrations of the transition in response to a question from opposition senator and former foreign minister Keisal Peters, Bramble described the process as deeply disappointing, citing inherited problematic realities that have slowed operational progress at multiple posts.
He shared one striking example from the SVG Consulate General in New York, where newly installed Consul General Roland “Patel” Matthews discovered a critical issue immediately after arriving to take up his role: every piece of data on the consulate’s entire computer system had been erased completely. “No information on anything that happened in the consulate in New York was left there,” Bramble told the legislative body, noting that this was just one of multiple problematic cases the new administration has inherited.
A second contentious case unfolded at SVG’s High Commission in London, Bramble added. Former High Commissioner Cenio Lewis, serving under the previous administration that was voted out of power in November, had set up a charitable trust fund designed to support children back in SVG. Lewis administered the fund alongside a second signatory, whom Bramble did not name, but confirmed is an advisor to the now-former ULP administration.
Since new High Commissioner Brereton Horne took control of the London mission, the remaining co-signatory has refused to transfer access or control of the charitable fund to the new diplomatic leadership. Bramble noted that the new government expected a seamless handover of all official assets and administrative controls following the election, but this has not been the case for the London trust.
The former career diplomat stressed that the SVG public can be confident the government will not leave these irregularities unaddressed. “We will do what we have to do, we will investigate what we have to investigate and we will employ whatever legal and administrative and governmental processes to make sure that that is regularised,” Bramble said, vowing to resolve both issues to restore full functional operations at the troubled overseas missions.