EDITORIAL
The
news is not sounding good about the multi-million dollar Poultry
Farm that has been in the works at Bocage, St. Mark's for the past
six years.
GRENADA TODAY has reliable information that the government of Prime
Minister Dr. Keith Claudius Mitchell is no longer in a position
to proceed with the project after spending nearly two million dollars
in an effort to try and get it off the ground.
And the sad thing is that the Prime Minister is now prepared to
give the "green light" to the private sector once again
to pick up the pieces if they so choose to implement the project.
It is a total and full 360 degrees turn-around by the Prime Minister
and his New National Party (NNP) government. The people of Grenada,
Carriacou and Petite Martinique might recall that a resident of
Victoria, Curtis Baptiste and a group of interested private persons
first hatched the idea for the poultry farm.
He formed a company known as Sunset Enterprises Limited (SEL) and
approached the Mitchell government to guarantee a loan of US$6.9
million in 2002 from Exim Bank in the United States to start the
project.
Although the loan was approved by Exim, the government in its own
wisdom refused to accept the money on the grounds that the interest
rate was too high and the terms and condition too rigid. The developers
were able to source funds from another financial group, Caribbean
Money Market Brokers (CMMB) in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Mitchell government initially agreed to this and Parliament
passed an SRO for the developers to tap into the funds and to finally
get the poultry project going in order to make a significant dent
to the unemployment situation in Victoria and surrounding areas
in St. Mark's.
However, it appears that a smart man who has the ears of the powers-that-be
in the Mitchell government had a different plan. He seemingly was
able to influence the administration by selling them the idea that
government could get the money from other sources at a much better
rate and terms and condition.
As part of the new deal that was in the making, the Mitchell government
through the Minister of Finance, Anthony Boatswain demanded 90%
of the shares in the new company instead of the previously agreed
51%, as well as the lion share of Directors to serve on the company.
It is also interesting to note that people of little substance and
stature were chosen by government to help incorporate the new company
called Grenada Broilers Inc. What serious contribution can Andre
Donald make to the poultry industry?
It is clear to us that government was intent on making a bold and
decisive move to take over the project and to ditch Baptiste and
company.
This led to a virtual stand-off between Baptiste and the Mitchell
government as the NNP regime attempted to go it alone in the face
of threats by the other side to take the matter to court. With the
approach of the 2003 general elections, the poultry project became
a key issue for the NNP Member of Parliament for St. Mark's, Clarice
Modeste-Curwen and government moved to reach an accommodation with
the Baptiste group.
A new deal was struck and a plan worked out for the coming together
of the previous warring factions in order to get the multi-million
dollar project off to a new start. Now we are hearing that the Mitchell
government is seeking to distance itself from the project after
committing over two million E.C dollars from the tax-paying public.
There is need for full disclosures from government of all financial
transactions relating to this project. It appears that thousands
of dollars were spent in questionable circumstances on acquiring
a number of things that never materialised.
We need to know something about the $US 25, 000.00 that was given
to Dominion Capital of Trinidad and Tobago to secure funding for
the project. Who are the people at Dominion and what is their relationship
with the smart man that likes to fly around the globe and pose as
a special diplomat and ambassador? What has this group done to show
us for the $25, 000.00U.S that was given to them?
We also understand that some local lawyers were paid tidy sums from
the company. We need to see what work these lawyers did in order
to justify the payment of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The Prime Minister also needs to clear the air on the $300, 000.00
U.S which is nearly one million E.C dollars that was paid to an
equipment supplier in the United States "to hold down the price
of the equipment" that Grenada Broilers Inc were trying to
obtain in the United States.
Why spend so much money when the government might have already known
that the chances of guaranteeing any loan for the poultry project
in St. Mark's to purchase equipment for the venture was indeed very
slim? This payment was made sometime in late 2005 after Ivan had
already ravaged the country and left our finances in tatters.
It is clear that the Mitchell government knew that the country could
not afford even a letter of comfort far less a financial guarantee
to anyone whether inside or outside the country for that project.
There needs to be a serious financial audit into all the transactions
that took place at the St. Mark's poultry project in the interest
of transparency, accountability and good governance.
The people need to know the ins and out of that project in which
hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars were spent by this government.
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