Under Questioning by MP Trevor Walker PM Browne Confesses “I don’t know” when the CBI Unit was Last Audited — as the CIP Faces Unprecedented International Scrutiny

Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that he does not know when the Citizenship by Investment Unit was last audited — a response that has renewed concerns about the complete absence of financial oversight of the programme at the very moment it faces existential pressure from the European Union, the United States, and heightened scrutiny from the country's opposition.

The exchange came during Prime Minister's Questions at the sitting of the lower house on July 14, when the sole opposition member present, MP for Barbuda Trevor Walker, posed a direct question: “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?”

The Prime Minister's response was brief and blunt: "I don't know."

MP Walker pressed the point. "Unacceptable," he said on the floor of the House. "You are the Minister of Finance. You should know."

The Minister Responsible Says He Doesn't Know

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. 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.

For the minister with direct responsibility for the CBI programme to be unable to tell parliament when the CIU was last subjected to a financial audit is an extraordinary gap in accountability — and it is one that lands at the worst possible time.

A Programme Under Siege on Every Front

The CBI programme is currently facing the most intense international scrutiny in its history. The European Commission has written formally to Antigua and Barbuda demanding the complete phase-out of the programme by June 1, 2028, citing concerns about due diligence, security risks, and the potential for wealthy individuals from high-risk countries to exploit Caribbean passports for visa-free access to the Schengen area. European suspension of Schengen visa-free access could come as early as the end of this year under the EU's Visa Suspension Mechanism.

At the same time, the United States has imposed stringent visa restrictions on Antigua and Barbuda — the most severe in the region, alongside Dominica — measures widely understood to be connected, at least in part, to concerns about the integrity of the CBI programme. The country's relationship with Washington is further complicated by the ongoing third-country deportation negotiations, the very subject that dominated the remainder of Tuesday's parliamentary sitting.

In that environment, the Prime Minister's inability to answer a basic question about auditing — one of the most fundamental instruments of financial accountability — raises a question the government has so far refused to confront: if the minister responsible for the CBI programme does not know when its finances were last independently examined, who does?

The Accountability Vacuum

The opposition has been pressing this point for weeks. UPP Senator Jonathan Wehner has repeatedly called for the establishment of a joint parliamentary select committee under Standing Order 85, with the power to summon witnesses and compel evidence, specifically to oversee the operations of the CBI Unit. Senator Wehner has argued that the existing Public Accounts Committee is rendered ineffective by its government majority, which can vote down the issuance of any subpoena.

The government has not acted on that call. The CBI programme has never been examined by a parliamentary committee in Antigua and Barbuda. No committee has ever subpoenaed the CBI Unit’s records. No CIU official has ever been compelled to testify before parliament about how the programme is being run, who its passports are going to, or where its revenues end up.

The Prime Minister has consistently defended the programme's integrity on the international stage, telling European and American partners that the CIP is well-run and that he has never personally intervened to approve a citizenship application rejected by the unit. He has pointed to the establishment of the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority, ECCIRA — a regional body created by the five OECS states operating CBI programmes — as proof that the Caribbean is serious about independent oversight.

But the contradiction at the heart of the government's position was laid bare on Tuesday in a single exchange lasting less than a minute. The Prime Minister is willing to submit the programme to a regional regulator staffed, he has suggested, potentially by individuals from the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is willing to defend the programme's integrity before the European Commission. He is willing to refuse Brussels' demand for a phase-out and stake the nation's Schengen visa-free access on his confidence in how the CIP is run.

What he is not willing to do, apparently, is tell Parliament when the unit was last audited — because he does not know.

What MP Walker Also Raised — and What PM Browne Also Could Not Answer

The CBI audit question was not the only matter on which the Prime Minister appeared uninformed during questions on Tuesday. MP Walker also asked whether PM Browne was aware that a major protest was taking place at the Ministry of Public Works, where employees had blocked roads over unpaid wages. The Prime Minister said he was not aware.

"You should be aware. You're the Prime Minister," MP Walker responded.

Earlier in the exchange, MP Walker had also questioned the Prime Minister about a reported one-million-dollar US donation, to which Browne responded dismissively declaring, “the money dead”— a response MP Walker described as unacceptable for Hansard — the official parliamentary record.

The Question that will Not Go Away

At the same sitting where the Prime Minister could not answer when the CBI Unit was last audited, he introduced the first reading of the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — legislation to amend the very programme whose financial controls he could not account for.

The government is asking Parliament to amend the CBI Act of 2013, asking the European Union to trust the programme's integrity, asking the United States to ease visa restrictions, and asking the people of Antigua and Barbuda to believe that their most important source of non-tax revenue is being responsibly managed.

The people of Antigua and Barbuda are entitled to ask: on what basis? If the minister responsible does not know when the programme's finances were last independently examined, the answer — for now — is trust. And as columnist D. Gisele Isaac observed in her publication last week, the country is running out of fouls before the red card comes out.

The CBI programme has never been more consequential to Antigua and Barbuda's economy, its international standing, and the travel freedoms of every passport holder.Unfortunately, it has also had very little accountability to the people in whose name the citizenships are being sold and the revenues spent.

That is the gap the Prime Minister's three-word answer — "I don't know" — exposed on Tuesday. It is not a knowledge gap that can remain open much longer.