NEW YORK, Sept 21, CMC – St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday has hinted at the possibility of his ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) administration is preparing to move from diagnosis to potential legal and administrative consequences, after receiving a comprehensive “rapid assessment” of state-owned companies on the Caribbean island.
Friday, addressing a town hall meeting of St. Vincent and the Grenadines nationals residing in in New York on Sunday said that shortly after taking office in November last year, his government quietly commissioned a two-person team of experts to examine the financial and governance health of statutory bodies and state companies.
He said the initial report covered 12 entities and has now been expanded to include the remainder of public enterprises.
“One of the first things that we did in office is we appointed, at my instructions, a rapid assessment team of two persons who are very capable Vincentians, to assess all of the public enterprises, state-owned enterprises,” Friday told the meeting, adding that he had already received the first report and that the two-member team of investigators have now completed the full rapid assessment.
“They have now completed their work. I have not seen the report yet,” Friday said, adding, “from what we have seen before of the 12 that were done, there are things there that require further investigation, and they will be investigated”.
During the meeting members of the Vincentian diaspora asked about alleged corruption under the former Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration that had been in office for more than two decades.
They questioned whether it would be “business as usual” with Prime Minister Friday insisting that this would not be the case.
“We have said, and I’ve said this when we were campaigning, I said in office now: we are going about the assessment as to how government has functioned in a methodical and systematic manner, not to meet any kind of timeline that somebody’s arbitrarily set,” he said.
He described the rapid assessment as the first layer of that methodical approach that would include a diagnostic exercise designed to reveal patterns of mismanagement or misconduct, rather than a headline-driven search for specific individuals.
“There are things there that require further investigation…and where the information and the evidence lead, we will follow,” Prime Minister Friday said, drawing a clear contrast with what he characterised as a more politicised style of accountability in the past.
“You are asking a very good question,” he told one of the members of the audience, adding “we owe you accountability. We promised accountability. We will deliver accountability. Follow the record.”
He cautioned against using public office to launch highly publicised accusations that later fizzle because they are not grounded in solid evidence.
“You’re not in a situation (where) you come and you say, ‘Okay, you’re going after this, you’re going after that, like some previous administration,’ and two or three years later, everything fizzles out because they started with the wrong premise,” Friday said, outlining a model of accountability that begins with technical review, proceeds to investigation where warranted, and only then to potential sanctions.
“We are looking for ways in which things have functioned, so that we could correct the things that went wrong, so that we can hold accountable those persons who need to be held accountable, and where the information and the evidence lead, we will follow.”
CMC/nk/ir/2026