The absence of an accountability framework for how reparations money would be spent is a serious gap that should concern anyone genuinely interested in improving the lives of Caribbean people.
Money paid to CARICOM governments would be subject to those governments’ existing financial management systems. For governments with good governance records, this might be adequate. For governments with poor governance records, it is a serious problem. There is no proposal for independent oversight, ring-fenced spending, or direct-to-people distribution that would ensure the money reached the individuals it is meant to help rather than being absorbed into general government revenue.
Development economists have documented extensively the phenomenon of aid absorption without impact: large financial transfers to developing country governments that produce minimal measurable improvement in living standards because the institutional quality required to translate money into services and infrastructure is absent. Reparations payments to CARICOM governments, absent any accountability framework, would risk the same outcome.
