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HOME	JANUARY 15th, 2005

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Former Opposition Senator, Anslem Clouden says the Grenadian people must hold Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and his entire cabinet accountable for their failure to insure the multi-million dollar national stadium that was wrecked by Hurricane Ivan in September.

Clouden told reporters in St. George's on Tuesday that he was not surprised at the announcement made in Parliament by Sports Minister Senator Adrian Mitchell that the major sporting facility was not insured. The Sports Minister reportedly made the admission in answer to a question raised by Opposition Senator Salimbi Gill a few weeks ago at a Senate meeting.

A similar question was asked to Prime Minister Mitchell by Opposition Member of Parliament for St. George North-east, Nazim Burke a few months ago and the Grenadian leader said he did not know if the stadium was insured at the time of the passing of Ivan. Clouden said he believes that Prime Minister Mitchell knew all along that the stadium was not insure was only playing games with the minds of the Grenadian public.

"One cannot imagine that for all these years, Grenadian children, athletes, entertainers, cricketers and thousands of people from all over the world, coming to the stadium and it was not insured", he remarked. "What would have happened if something had fallen and damaged or killed someone while attending an event at the facility? Who would have compensated them or their family?", Clouden asked.

The outspoken barrister-at-law called for a complete investigation into the status of the stadium due to the fact that complaints were raised in the past about its construction by qualified architects, contractors, engineers and the general public who became alarmed after seeing massive cracks and other defects in its structure.

"As a matter of fact when Grenada attempted to bid for the upcoming 2007 World Cup Cricket series, there were certain concerns as to whether or not the stadium was an appropriate venue given its defects and the Government indicated that there were certain remedial works to be done to make the facility acceptable", he said.

According to Clouden, now that Government has admitted that it did not insure the stadium then Dr. Mitchell should see it as his duty to inform the nation about the other State buildings that are not insured. He mentioned national buildings like the Ministerial Complex in the Botanical Gardens, and the Financial Complex on the Carenage.

"I understand that Mt. Helicon (the head office of Dr. Mitchell's ruling New National Party ) is insured. Who owns the property? These are just some of the things many Grenadians are not aware of. Clouden told reporters that it is very sad and discomforting for Grenadian taxpayers, already saddled with the debt to be called upon to repay the monies borrowed to build the stadium and see it destroyed without any possibilities of getting insurance money.

He said the fact that the Mitchell government never saw the need to insure such a major investment built with taxpayers money is testimony of the government's reckless endangerment of the public at large. He believes that foreign governments would be hesitant to commit themselves to the rebuilding of another stadium when in fact if the Mitchell government had taken their "fiduciary duty" seriously, the stadium could have been rebuilt with monies as a result of its insurance coverage.

"...We would not have (had) to be begging all sorts of people to rebuild the stadium for us", he remarked. The Mitchell government has stated that the rebuilding of the stadium is priority in keeping with a promise to stage matches in World Cup 2007.