Editorial


With each passing day, the New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is embarrassing itself more and more in office as members are caught either trying to twist the truth or openly telling lies to the public.

Take the case of Deputy Prime Minister, Gregory Bowen who is engulfed in a $US500 million bribery law suit with American oil investor Jack Grynberg over the 1996 secret oil deal that was signed with the Grenada government.

The Minister called a press conference before Christmas and attempted to hoodwink reporters into believing that he was a late player in the oil and gas deal that was struck with Mr. Grynberg. He was pushing the line that he only got involved in 1999 - a whole three years after the agreement was signed by Senator Patrick Bubb, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance which held the Energy portfolio at the time.

Both the GRENADA TODAY newspaper and local attorney-at-law, Reynold Benjamin provided letters from the government itself to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Minister Bowen was openly lying.

With the U.S oil investor moving to have the court in New York institute a default judgement against the Number Two man in the Grenada government, he was forced to put in a defense to the claim.

And in that court proceedings in the U.S, Mr. Bowen admitted that he was involved with Mr. Grynberg since 1995 and not 1999 as he was trying to make the people of Grenada believe at the onset. What deception of the highest order!!!

This newspaper has obtained copies of certain documents submitted by our deputy Prime Minister to the court in New York. And in one of the documents, Mr. Bowen said: "I first became involved in the RSM (Grynberg Oil Company) matter in late 1995/early 1996. At that time I was the Minister of Works, Communications and Public Utilities. I became involved because, prior to entering public life, I had managed an energy company called Grenada Electricity Services Ltd during the years 1985 1994. I thus had comparatively greater experience with energy matters than other senior personnel in the Finance Ministry, although I must say that my own past experience did not involve oil or gas exploration matters".

The words above came from Mr. Bowen himself and not something fabricated by anybody including GRENADA TODAY. And to add further insult to injury, Mr. Bowen's boss, Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is making the bold statement that some people in this country should apologise to Mr. Bowen for trying to scandalise his good name on the oil and gas matter.

How laughable!!! It is Mr, Bowen who should apologise to the people of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique  for blatantly telling a lie about his own role in the Grynberg matter. As a matter of fact, if this particular minister who is a regular church-goer among Catholics had any decency left in him, he would have tendered his resignation from the energy portfolio a long time ago.

He should have done what Kenrick Fullerton, the embattled M.P for the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) did a few months ago amidst allegations of wife abuse and battering. But then again, that is not the kind of stuff that one can expect from NNP and its leaders.

Mr. Bowen also gave a very good insight into the manner in which the NNP administration was handling the affairs of the country when it came to negotiating with foreign investors. If anyone wanted evidence of why so many crooks rushed to Grenada under the Mitchell government and opened all sorts of corrupt offshore banks and defrauded people in North America of millions of dollars then the evidence came from the Number Two Man himself.

He was very candid about how the NNP was caught and taken for a ride by one of the officials of Mr. Grynberg who negotiated  the oil and gas deal with the Mitchell government. In the words of Mr. Bowen: "Grenada has no confirmed petroleum resources in its waters and never before had an oil or gas exploration program. To put it simply, we were complete novices in that field. RSM's representatives, Mr. Max Flaxman, was a good salesman: he had claimed ..... that RSM and its president Mr. Grynberg were serious players; that they had the capability and experience to carry out an effective exploration programme; that they would do so with expedition; and that they were confident that they would make a find.
"This was of course all music to the ears of our government officials at that time, since it suggested access to a revenue stream that could vastly improve the lives of all of Grenada's people. Sadly, as we now know, all of those confident statements of Mr. Flaxman turned out to be erroneous".

This is a classic example of how Dr. Mitchell, Gregory Bowen and Company have been dealing with the resources of the country over the years in office. And the same Keith Mitchell is being promoted as the visionary leader and King-maker in Science and Technology not only in Grenada but the entire Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region.

Grenada has people at the international level like Dr. Carl Mitchell who is a respected figure with the Canadian government and whose knowledge, expertise and experience could have been sought by the current government in oil and gas matters. But the government did not want people like Carl Mitchell around for reasons best known to them.

If the negotiations with Mr. Grynberg were handled in the right manner from the onset, there was no way in the world that this American oil investor could have turned around and accuse Mr. Bowen of wanting a bribe to facilitate the agreement. Mr. Bowen needs to prayer hard and fast that there is no change of government in Grenada soon because he would be left to the wolves for Mr. Grynberg and company to chew upon for the squalid betrayal of our oil and gas resources.