A public dispute has erupted over the handover of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)’s New York Consulate General, with former top diplomat Rondy “Luta” McIntosh pushing back forcefully against claims made by the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble that all computer systems at the mission were wiped clean at the end of McIntosh’s tenure.
McIntosh, who served as Consul General to New York from August 1, 2022, to February 28, 2024, broke his silence in a Facebook video posted Saturday, laying out a detailed account of the handover process and refuting every part of Bramble’s allegation.
According to the former consul general, the only action he took on the consulate computer he used was removing files personal to him — a step he described as standard, proper conduct for any departing official. He also clarified that he cleaned up personal correspondence, private family documents and other personal clutter from the official email account that would be passed to his successor, a move he stressed is far from wiping an entire device clean. McIntosh added that his own official consular email remained active on his final day at the mission, and any subsequent deletion or disabling of that account was carried out by a third party, not him. If files linked to that account are now inaccessible, he argues, the blame falls to whoever disabled the account, not him.
Bramble first made the wiping claim during a parliamentary address Tuesday, stating that incoming Consul General Roland “Patel” Matthews informed him that every computer system at the consulate was completely wiped when he took office in early March. The following day, speaking on local radio station Hot 97 FM, Bramble defended his statement as factual, though he acknowledged uncertainty over whether it was a single device or an entire server that was affected, noting that the situation remained under further investigation. When pressed on who might be responsible, Bramble declined to speculate, saying he was only reporting what he had been told by the new consul general.
Despite Bramble’s refusal to explicitly name a culprit, McIntosh said the minister’s comments clearly implied he was responsible for the alleged data erasure, damaging his professional reputation and personal integrity. That, he said, left him no choice but to respond publicly — an action he emphasized is not rooted in bitterness or partisan gain, but in correcting factually incorrect and unfair claims.
McIntosh went on to share extensive details of the supervised handover process to refute the allegations. He confirmed that his final physical day at the consulate was March 3, and the entire transition was overseen by SVG’s Ambassador to the United States, Lou-Anne Gilchrist, who traveled from Washington D.C. to New York for the process. On that day, McIntosh said, he personally assisted Matthews with setup on the consul general’s assigned computer, all devices were fully functional, and no wiping of data occurred. He also noted that he picked Matthews up from Brooklyn — as the new consul could not drive — and the three parties even shared a meal after the handover was completed, leaving the consulate together. He called this the conduct of a transparent professional with nothing to hide, not someone who had tampered with official data.
The handover, McIntosh explained, was completed in two fully documented phases, both oversaw by Ambassador Gilchrist. He also prepared a comprehensive 17-page handover booklet covering all aspects of the consulate’s operations — from banking arrangements and account balances, system passwords and access codes, monthly expenses, key contact lists, consular operating procedures, staffing updates, outstanding active cases, and strategic guidance for the incoming administration. He stressed that no information was withheld or hidden from his successor or overseeing officials.
McIntosh also pushed back on the core premise of the allegation by explaining the operating structure of the New York consulate. Unlike larger diplomatic missions, he noted, the SVG consulate operates largely on physical documentation rather than a centralized digital database or server. Core consular services including passport and travel document processing, notarial services, repatriation of human remains, immigration and deportation cases, and community liaison work are all handled via physical paperwork. All critical official records are duplicated and stored both at the consulate and at SVG’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration Office, and central registry in Kingstown, with the government always maintaining full access to official documents. Even if personal files were removed from individual work devices, he argued, there is no scenario where that could erase the government’s institutional knowledge of consular operations.
The former consul general also pointed out a key gap in the government’s process: in the nearly two months following his March 3 handover, he received no official inquiry from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or any other state body about the computers or handover before Bramble made the allegation public. McIntosh noted that he had remained fully available and cooperative after leaving office, even offering to travel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kingstown to sign off on financial accounts once he returned to SVG. He questioned why, if the discovery of wiped computers was such a serious issue, no one reached out to him for an explanation before the minister went public with the accusation. He argued that an honest, timely inquiry would have quickly revealed the claim had no merit, and that Ambassador Gilchrist’s official report to the ministry already confirms his version of events, noting that he complied fully with all handover requirements and the entire process proceeded professionally and respectfully.
McIntosh concluded that the minister’s public comments amount to an attack on his years of public service, and he made clear that he will not accept any implication that he engaged in wrongdoing.
