Five months after a historic transfer of power in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a administrative misstep at the country’s official public information agency has sparked political controversy and led to the immediate placement of its acting director on administrative leave.
The chain of missteps began on a Tuesday earlier this month, when the Agency for Public Information (API) distributed an unsigned media advisory inviting reporters to a press conference hosted by newly elected Prime Minister Godwin Friday, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP). But in a startling mix-up, the advisory incorrectly labeled longtime former Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves — who had left office five months prior after the NDP’s election win — as the sitting prime minister. Gonsalves, who led the country for 24 and a half years from March 2001 through November 2025, now serves as leader of the opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP).
Within hours, the API issued a second email asking media outlets to discard the original advisory. In that follow-up, acting director Nadia Slater made an unusual public admission that amplified the controversy: she described the mistake as “a genuine error with malicious intent” — a phrasing that immediately sparked widespread backlash. The agency quickly issued a third, formal press release-style correction to walk back the comment, clarifying that the blunder was purely an accidental administrative oversight. “There was NO disrespect, political motive, or malicious intent whatsoever,” the third statement emphasized.
The series of missteps, quickly dubbed a “comedy of errors” by observers, went viral on social media after local outlet iWitness News and other independent media organizations broke the story of the gaffe. As of Monday, the NDP administration has not issued any formal public comment on the incident or subsequent personnel action. However, multiple unnamed government and industry sources confirmed to iWitness News that just days after the incident, Slater was placed on paid administrative leave. One source added that Slater is unlikely to retain her leadership role at API under the current NDP administration, and will likely be reassigned to an equivalent-level position within the broader public service, consistent with civil service protocols.
The incident has reignited questions about the NDP administration’s decision to retain Slater as acting head of the sensitive government communications agency five months after taking power. One anonymous source familiar with internal government discussions told iWitness News that the choice to keep Slater in the role has long puzzled insiders, pointing to her well-documented partisan ties.
“It is not just that she campaigned openly for the Unity Labour Party during the 2025 election. Her actions after the election showed a particular disdain for the new government, even as she was head of the agency responsible for portraying the government in a positive light,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to address the media on the matter.
The source also noted that even the ULP, the party Slater openly supported, never appointed her to the permanent director role, passing her over for promotion at least three times in favor of external hires. Among those external appointees was Sean Rose, a former NDP hopeful who crossed party lines after an unsuccessful 2020 bid for the South Central Windward parliamentary seat, and went on to publicly back the ULP.
“These people include Sean Rose, who began supporting the ULP after his failed bid to become the NDP’s candidate in South Central Windward in the 2020 general election. Nadia was skipped over at least three times under a government that she supported but the NDP government kept her in the sensitive communication post for five months after they won,” the source added.