Prime Minister Gaston Browne has pushed back against opposition calls for a commission of inquiry into recent government procurement issues, arguing that the United Progressive Party (UPP) should first answer for its own record of financial mismanagement while in office.
Speaking on his Browne and Browne Show over the weekend, Browne accused the UPP of “legitimized theft” during its time in power and said the party has no moral authority to demand investigations into his administration’s affairs.
“The UPP wasn’t able to incriminate anybody after nearly ten and a quarter years in government,” Browne said. “They had all kinds of investigations, even mock investigations. So if we can get these people to cooperate and provide restitution with the understanding that there is no repeat, it’s a win-win for everybody.”
Browne cited the 65 percent Antigua and Barbuda Sales Tax (ABST) concession granted to Sandals Resorts under the UPP, calling it a textbook case of how poor policy cost taxpayers dearly. “When you look at the situation that we had with Sandals, in which Harold Lovell and others in the UPP allowed Sandals to hold on to 65 percent of the ABST they collected on behalf of the government of Antigua and Barbuda,” Browne said, “that was legitimized theft. It cost the people of Antigua and Barbuda $101 million in losses.”
He added that while critics have called for an inquiry into current procurement practices, they have remained silent about past decisions that drained the public purse. “He who has not sinned, cast the first stone,” Browne said. “So those of you all asking for investigation, remember there are lots of them on the UPP.”
The prime minister also accused the former administration of wiping out millions in taxes owed by political allies and favored businesses. “When the ministers in the UPP used to write off all the taxes and so on, by the time we came into office in 2014, we calculated the amount of taxes they robbed the country — it was fifteen million dollars,” Browne said. “And we didn’t get back the money because they went belly up.”
He further alleged that some business figures associated with the opposition evaded customs duties by paying for only a fraction of their imported containers. “There were allegations of certain business people on the UPP — they pay customs for two containers, and every two they pay for, four pass out of the port without any payments,”
Browne said the revelations underline the need for stronger oversight systems and periodic rotation of public servants in sensitive positions such as Customs and the Treasury, which he described as “captured” by private interests over time.
While Browne defended his government’s decision not to launch a commission of inquiry, the stance marks a subtle shift from his earlier support for transparency as a tool for accountability. In previous interviews, the prime minister had said his administration welcomed scrutiny, arguing that investigations could reinforce public confidence.
This time, however, he portrayed opposition calls for inquiry as politically motivated. “Some just want to see the government embarrassed,” he said. “But they should clean their own house first before calling for investigations into ours.”
The prime minister’s comments came as part of a wider discussion on public accountability and his new policy of rotating officials to prevent entrenched corruption. Browne said the government is enforcing Cabinet-approved rules for vehicle procurement and tightening Treasury oversight to close loopholes exploited by “captured” civil servants and politically connected businesses.
“We recognize that we have to do more rotations within the public sector as part of our governance framework,” he said. “We need balance, and I’m going to ensure that there’s balance. What I want to ensure is that this government, this country, is governed better.”
The reforms, he said, are designed to move beyond partisan blame toward systemic fixes. Yet, even as Browne calls for introspection and institutional renewal, his critics argue that transparency cannot be selective — and that meaningful accountability will ultimately require independent inquiry mechanisms
