Lestrade Speaks Out on OECS' 20thYear

Contact: John Emmanuel

Monday, June 11, 2001 - Director General of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Swinburne Lestrade sees the twentieth anniversary of the organization as a significant milestone, and says that contrary to public perception, the OECS remains stronger that ever. That he says is epitomised in the slogan chosen for this year’s celebrations, ‘OECS 20, and Growing Stronger’.

Mr. Lestrade does however lament a perennial problem facing the OECS. With two-thirds of its financing coming from extra regional donor agencies like the EU, USAID and the World Bank, sourcing financing from regional governments continues to be problematic.

“That’s the weak link still in our system and in our structure, our arrears frankly have been mounting inexorably,” said Lestrade.  He added however, “There are some countries that have done rather well. I’ve said before that Saint Lucia in particular has indeed been able to ensure that it has made its contributions on a regular basis.”

Mr. Lestrade, who is preparing to end his five-year term as head of the sub-regional grouping, says consolidation has been one of the hallmarks of his tenure. He says this was demonstrated by early moves to merge the Antigua based Economic Affairs Unit with the Saint Lucia based Central Secretariat on the Morne.

According to Lestrade, “One of the things that I have been at pains to point out to my Heads of Government is that, over the past five year we’ve never stop introspecting institutionally, in terms of our size, structure and our cost effectiveness. That has gone on long before it apparently became an issue for Heads of Government, which was why I made the point again that we are down to the bone and there is practically no fat in that office that can be cut.

11.5 million dollars of the OECS annual budget is to come from member countries. That figure represents a cutback of 38% over the 1996 budgetary figures.

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