KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, May 4, CMC – The acting Director of the state-owned Agency for Public Information (API), Nadia Slater, has been sent on leave, days after saying she made “a genuine error with malicious intent” when she referred to Opposition Leader Dr. Ralph Gonsalves as prime minister, five months after he was voted out of office.
The initial error was made in an unsigned email that the API sent to the media last Tuesday, inviting journalists to a press conference by Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday.
However, in the email, the API referred to Gonsalves as prime minister, a post he held for almost 25 years from March 2001 to Nov. 27, 2025.
The agency then sent a second email asking that the initial correspondence be disregarded.
“The Agency sincerely apologises for the typing error in the previous email and wishes to indicate that it was a genuine error with malicious intent,” Slater said in her email.
But the API later sent a third correspondence, a press release-style apology, saying it wanted to “address an error contained in an email circulated to members of the media earlier today, in which an incorrect reference was made of (sic) the former Prime Minister.
“We sincerely apologise for this mistake. The error was purely inadvertent and resulted from an administrative oversight during the preparation of the correspondence. There was NO disrespect, political motive, or malicious intent whatsoever,” the API said.
The is issue was widely commented on on social media after iWitness News and at least one other media outlet here reported on it.
iWitness News reported that is not aware of any comment by the New Democratic Party (NDP) government on the errors, but that multiple sources have confirmed that Slater has been sent on leave, with one source saying that she might not return to the API under the NDP administration.
This suggests that Slater, a public servant, will be assigned to an equivalent-level post in the public service.
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