The Minister, fresh off his CIP trip in the Middle East, says Saint Lucia is committed to working with its international immigration partners to ensure the Unit’s integrity and as part of the US Authorities six-point plan for CIP they will commence an audit.

“This is the ideal time to engage an international audit firm to immediately commence an audit and review of how the unit has operated since it was established in 2016. The audit we intend to undertake will seek to review all the current processes, policies and procedures in the operations of our CIP unit, its relationship to developers, promoters and agents, and the establishment of extra accounts, and to obtain recommendations to improve governance, transparency, integrity, compliance and processes,” Hilaire announced during his address on June 12th.

Hilaire clarified that from July 2021 to March 2024, the CIP Unit approved 2047 applications of which 1,367 were Real Estate for Caribbean Galaxy Real Estate.

The Minister is adamant that Saint Lucia has never approved 14,000 applications, as alleged by Philippe Martinez and repeated by the UWP.

Notwithstanding, Hilaire says the audit will confirm the quantity of applications processed between 2016 and 2024.

“The Audit will be expected to confirm how many applications have been received and granted, how much money has been collected and spent under our programme, the manner in which this is undertaken and how the Unit can ensure greater accountability,” he said.

The Minister concludes by assuring citizens that the government is in constant communication with international citizenship partners to adopt all best practice approaches.

“We are also in constant dialogue with our international partners – the EU, the UK and the US - to ensure that their concerns are always attended to and the integrity of the Programme is not compromised. We have a responsibility to our partners which we take very seriously.”

Saint Lucia has recently signed an OECS Memorandum to regulate its CIP.