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HOME	JANUARY 29th, 2005

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Opposition Member of Parliament for St. George's North-east and Shadow Finance Minister, Nazim Burke believes the end is in sight for the Sir. Alister Mc. Intyre-led Agency for Reconstruction and Development (ARD).

The agency was set up by the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell last year in the aftermath of hurricane Ivan to handle reconstruction money pledged by donor governments and agencies to help with the island's recovery.

Burke described the formation of the ARD as an "impotent arrangement that has no legal status". He told reporters in St. George's that government's intention was to set up a company and appoint three directors while the by-laws of ARD states that only a quorum of four directors will be allowed to take decisions on its behalf.

"So the by-laws said that no decision taken by the body is of any force unless it is taken by four people and the article said there are only three people on the board..", Burke said. "....It means that every single thing that has happened in the ARD to date is illegal and ultra vires of the Articles of Association", he added.

Burke charged that there is nothing lawful about the way the ARD was set up because what government did was merely to gazette an arrangement in which they promised to appoint a Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The person who holds that post is Richardson Andrew, the Personal Advisor to Prime Minister Mitchell. According to Burke, the by-laws of the company make no provisions or arrangements for a CEO. He suggested that the main reason why government wanted one is because they had already hand-picked someone for the post.

Burke believes that when the by-laws do indeed take effect that Sir. Alister will become the operating Chief Executive, but that the agency will be operated by the person chosen by the NNP regime. The Parliamentary Representative for the St. George North-east constituency stated that the Mitchell government is not really serious about setting up the reconstruction agency.

He said: "They want to use his (Sir. Alister) name to see if they can get assistance, to get their hands on money but they really do not want him to play a role in the structure. "Dr. Mc. Intyre is not going to allow himself to be used in that way and we expect that structure is going to collapse not very long".

Burke accused the NNP government of having no plans or programmes in place for the reconstruction of the country. "If you ask them what is the programme you are embarking on, nobody cannot tell you", he remarked. "We know what was destroyed, we know what we have to do, let's put it down in the form of a plan and get moving but none of that is happening", he said.

The opposition M.P feared that the administration is only interested in putting its hands on those monies pledged by donors for the rebuilding of Grenada. Burke pointed to approaches made by the opposition in Parliament to obtain information about monies received by government, as well as the Bank Accounts they are placed in, the donor agencies giving the funds, the amount received, what it is being used for, the legal authority under which the monies are banked as well as the projects they will be used on.

"We have (not gotten) that information. To date we cannot tell you how much money Grenada has received. We have to read in the newspapers that the Greek government has given $100,000.00 to the government of Grenada.

"Nobody knows who had received it, nobody knows what it is used for. In other words we are still in a state of lack of transparency, lack of accountability and nothing has changed since Ivan. Burke appealed to the local media to look into the operations of both ARD and the newly established Council for Reconstruction and Development (CRD) and see to what extent they are functioning. He said the Council like ARD will fail because Prime Minister Dr. Mitchell has insisted that the body report directly to him any recommendations made.

"If he decides that the recommendation will go to the Cabinet, then it will go to the Cabinet. He has the discretion to say am not going to send forward your recommendation to the Cabinet and if he chooses not to send it forward to the Cabinet, the Cabinet never hears from this body at all".

According to Burke only 14 of the 35 persons who were appointed on the Council have been attending meetings. He said the reason why the others are not attending is due to the fact that their recommendations have not been taken seriously and as such they have no intention of being part of the "pappyshow" of the NNP administration.