PM Drew Exposes SIDF Decimation by Harris Administration

In a revealing parliamentary session on 20th December during the 2025 Budget wrap-up, Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew laid bare the financial mismanagement of the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation (SIDF) by the former administration led by Dr. Timothy Harris. Dr. Drew disclosed that contrary to public perception, the Harris government had not dissolved the SIDF, which it had previously criticised as a “slush fund” established by the Labour government under Dr. Denzil Douglas. Instead, the fund was utilised extensively during Harris’ seven-year tenure, leading to its near-total depletion.

The SIDF was originally established by the Douglas administration to support displaced sugar workers as a result of the sugar industry’s closure. Additionally, it was created as a means of attracting investment opportunities to the country that would stimulate economic development and benefit the nation’s people.

Dr. Drew provided sobering financial figures to the National Assembly, illustrating the extent of the SIDF’s decimation. When the Harris administration assumed office in 2015, the fund contained a substantial $315 million left behind by the Douglas administration. The balance steadily declined over the years, with $301 million in 2016, $208 million in 2017, $112 million in 2018, $92 million in 2019, $76 million in 2020, and $54 million in 2021. By the end of Harris’ tenure in 2022, however, only $10 million remained. Alarmingly, this significant depletion occurred with no public reporting on how the funds were expended.

“The people had not even recognised that they had over a quarter billion dollars in the SIDF and that money disappeared into all sorts of other things because there was no accountability,” stated Dr. Drew. He criticised the lack of transparency, which he said epitomised the recklessness of the previous administration.

The prime minister further highlighted how the Harris government’s reliance on the SIDF funds exposed its failure to develop sustainable economic strategies, a move which his administration is committed to. “They had no plan for diversifying St. Kitts and Nevis’ economy or ending the country’s dependence on the Citizenship by Investment programme. Today, we say we have to make those critical decisions, important decisions, to diversify our economy so that we can be less vulnerable, more stable, more assured, more sustainable, a term that we have been using consistently.” Dr. Drew asserted.

The prime minister explained that the depletion of the SIDF underpinned the extravagant spending by the Harris administration.

“The SIDF that they spoke so badly about – that money was used to buttress their budget without saying it to the people,” he said. “When I asked for the numbers, I was shocked to see what it revealed to me. The Labour administration, led by the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, left over a quarter billion dollars there, and by the time we got back there in 2022, only $10 million was there.”

Dr. Drew’s revelations have cast a spotlight on what he described as a deliberate lack of accountability by the previous administration, leaving many citizens questioning the true impact of the SIDF’s depletion on the nation’s development. The prime minister reiterated his government’s commitment to transparency and sustainable economic planning as the Federation moves forward.