(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is my pleasure to welcome you to the headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat and to the 27th Meeting of the Community Council.

This is the first Ministerial meeting for 2011 and therefore the first meeting at which the representative of the Government of Grenada assumes the chair as is the practice when the Prime Minister of a Member State accedes to the Chairmanship of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Community. Minister, welcome to the Chair. The Community under the stewardship of Grenada will continue to be in good hands.

The significance of the Role of COM Council in these difficult times

As the Community Council meets at the beginning of a new year, it is only fitting that we take the opportunity to remind ourselves of the pivotal role of the Community Council in the governance and management of the Community in the context of the responsibilities assigned to the Community Council in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The execution of these responsibilities, specifically strategic planning, and the strengthening the consultative process among Member States, assume even more significance in the challenging social, financial, environmental and international external relations environment of this second decade of the Twenty-First century. Many of the challenges which we sought to grapple with over the past year still continue to plague us.

Accountability and Transparency & Compliance with International Standards

While at the level of the Community, much consideration and work is being undertaken with respect to strengthening the governance arrangements at that level, the Secretariat has also given priority to the strengthening of its own internal management systems to ensure the appropriate levels of accountability and transparency required of an international organization. In this regard, we have strengthened for example, the work programme and budget review and approval process, an approach the merit of which I am sure the Chairperson of the Budget Committee will discuss further in her presentation. In addition, we have continued to enhance our existing systems, such as the procedures for the procurement of goods and services. We are introducing a suite of new processes and procedures to include the establishment of an Audit Committee, the membership of which will be drawn from among Member States. This proposal is before the Community Council today and we look further to moving forward in this area. With respect to our relations with the International Development Partners, additional steps were taken during the last year to enhance the consultative process, measures which also include the participation of Member States, in addition to scrutinizing Aid Effectiveness as well as ensuring that we get greater value for our money.

Tribute to Sir Edwin

For us, the Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat, this is the first in eighteen years that we are gathered here for a meeting of the Community in the absence of Sir Edwin Carrington. I think that it is only fitting for us, to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to him. The year 2010 was indeed a challenging year for us. With the inspirational leadership provided by Sir Edwin we were able to face many of those challenges.

Today’s meeting requires that Honourable Ministers make specific determinations on two items in particular, one dealing with the work programme and budget of the Secretariat and the other with respect to the agenda for the forthcoming 22nd Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government scheduled for Grenada on 25-26 February. This Council has the statutory responsibility under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas for both tasks and today’s is especially unenviable given the challenging environment with which the Community is faced.

With our Member States struggling to emerge from the depths of the global financial and economic crises, to grapple with the volatility in one of our major economic sectors- tourism and to counter the troubling inability of the international community to fulfill their financial pledges to rebuild Haiti, our Member State which just a year ago suffered one of the most devastating earthquakes of modern time, I respectfully submit that this Community should seek to find solutions as an integrated whole.

CARICOM countries are noted for the ability to be each other’s keeper in times of disaster and peril. That spirit must now be summoned if we are to combat successfully the challenges we now face.

The onus is on this Council, as the first to meet for the year, to show the way for the others to follow by dispensing its obligations in such a manner, with a unity of purpose and action that guides those that follow in the year ahead.

With these few words, I invite the chairman of the meeting, Honourable Senator Deneth Modeste, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Environment, Foreign Trade and Export Development of Grenada to address us.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org