For years, he promised the world that our Citizenship by Investment Programme is among the safest and most reliable in the world.
It was a lie.
It took a single question lone opposition MP present in the House of Representatives to get Browne to admit the fraud.
Trevor Walker of Barbuda asked, “When was the most recent audit of the Citizenship by Investment Unit conducted by the Director of Audit, or by an auditing firm approved by the Director of Audit?”
Browne replied, “I don’t know.”
“Unacceptable,” said MP Walker. “You are the Minister of Finance. You should know.”
Browne’s overlapping official positions give him unaudited control of the nation’s money. CBI is a huge source of revenue. He finally admitted that there was no audit.
The questioning took place on 14 July. Real News Antigua has the story.
Browne alone is responsible for this fraud that harms us all
“The significance of the admission cannot be overstated. Prime Minister Browne is not merely the head of government making a passing comment about a programme managed by someone else. He holds direct ministerial responsibility for the CBI programme,” Real News reported.
“As Prime Minister the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) falls under his portfolio. As Minister of Finance he is responsible in ensuring the financial records of all ministries and departments are up to date and properly accounted for. The revenues the CBI programme generates fund significant portions of Antigua and Barbuda’s recurrent and capital expenditure — hospitals, schools, infrastructure, Social Security and disaster recovery just to name a few,” according to the report.
The European Commission, United Kingdom, and United States have been warning Browne for a long time to clean up the program so that they can give favorable acceptance to Antigua and Barbuda passport holders. Browne either ignored them, pretended to clear things up, feigned surprise, and blamed them for the problem.
This is all Browne’s doing.
It’s all a huge fraud, and it is going to be exposed. If Browne does not resign over this, ABLP should have a vote of no confidence.
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