Castries, St Lucia — The leader of the Lucian People’s Movement (LPM), Therold Prudent, has called for the resignation of McHale Andrew, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Invest St Lucia, the government’s inward investment agency.
Prudent’s reaction comes in the wake of recent statements made by Andrew on the Lambirds Academy affair in his efforts to allay public suspicion that the government may not have acted with due diligence prior to issuing a trade licence to the proprietors of Lambirds.
“When the CEO of a state-funded organisation seems more interested in acting as a political operative/public relations guru on behalf of the government of St Lucia than in transforming Invest St Lucia into a relevant engine that is capable of driving our national development goals, then you finally get a clear picture of how complicated and problematic this whole Lambirds issue really is,” Prudent said.
According to the LPM leader, in this regard, there can be little or no public confidence in the activities of Invest St Lucia if the overarching goal of its CEO is to engage in publicity stunts aimed at diverting public focus from the government’s possible mishandling of the Lambirds debacle.
“Andrew’s job is to correct the deficiencies that currently exist within his organisation and which have made St Lucia unattractive to foreign investors. The LPM is, therefore, imploring him to either devise new and effective strategies that are capable of delivering upon the longstanding promise of bringing tangible investments and high-paying jobs to our shores or to make way for able bodies whose only focus is the development of our country,” Prudent said.