US-based Dominican Lecturer, Dr. Bernard Anthony Frampton, is blaming the PM Roosevelt Skerrit administration for the economic woes in Dominica. Speaking at a UWP Town Hall Meeting in New York, Frampton said the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) has not done enough to lift the country out of poverty and corruption. The university don however did not think it’s all been bad with the Skerrit administration, but said the national damage caused dwarfed the good created.
Frampton praised the DLP for the progress achieved under the late Pierre Charles administration between 2002 and 2009. But has unkind words for the Skerrit government which he blamed for the economic crises the country has plunged into since coming into power. He said Skerrit “led Dominica into a sinister abyss with deep echoes of corruption, victimization, division and relative autocracy.”
According to the educationist, the DLP under Charles provided more jobs for the people with unemployment dropping from 25% to 14%. Among the youths however, unemployment remained at a rate of 31% with little respite. Frampton noted that poverty dropped from 39% to 29% among adults, but the youths continued to wallow in poverty and joblessness.
Going down memory lane, Frampton commended the Skerrit government for stabilizing the economy between 2000 and 2001. He also praised his administration for implementing VAT and excise duty in 2006. He said the problem however was that the government failed to continue on the path of “responsible governance, transparency and fiscal discipline” which would have put Dominica on the pedestal of national development.
He said the Skerrit administration veered from the path of regional leadership set up by Charles and went rogue, a situation that has improverished the country.
Frampton said the present administration must be praised where they have done well; but must equally be rebuked where they have not done enough. He added the campaign for national progress championed by Dominican progressives was only to stimulate healthy political engagement.
“There were times when I felt that we could have been more targeted and more prudent with our critiques of the government,” Frampton submitted. “It has not done everything badly, although it has done quite a bit very, very badly.”
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