The Skerrit-led administration has rebuffed Opposition Leader Lennox Linton’s request for information on Citizenship by Investment (CBI) funds. Acknowledging Linton’s letter, the government responded that the opposition leader did not follow the right path in channelling his request and so the request cannot be processed until proper amends are made.
Reading out the response letter he received from the government, Linton stated the government said he should have directed the letter through the Clerk of the House of Assembly and not through the Financial Secretary. Part of the letter reads:
“We have been advised, however, that such requests should have been made through the Clerk of the House of Assembly since the Public Accounts Committee [of which Lennox Linton is Chairman] is a select committee appointed by the House”.
The government further stated that Linton’s request will be considered if he followed requirements made by the Standing Order of the House of Assembly for such requests.
Linton is the House Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and wrote the Financial Secretary, Rosamund Edwards, requesting for full information on how much revenue the CBI had generated within the last three years.
Responding to the correction he got from the government, Linton said the fight is still on, because “the matter has to be resolved, and the people of Dominica need to be invited to show their disgust.” The opposition leader is accusing the Dominican government to have misappropriated over one billion EC dollars of the revenue generated by CBI from national passport sales.
Several government officials, including Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan, said Linton made hasty statements in accusing the government of embezzlement, adding the opposition leader lacks internal knowledge of how government revenues and expenditures are utilized.
For instance, Linton alleges that citizenship applicants pay $50,000 USD each for Dominican passports, but Astaphan said this is not true because applicants actually pay $25,000 USD each while a couple pays $35,000 USD and a family of four also pays $35,000 USD to the CBI programme.
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