The government seems to have information in its possession that could exonerate Energy Minister Gregory Bowen and put to rest the allegation made by U.S oil investor, Jack Grynsberg about the inducement of a bribe in order to explore for oil and gas in Grenadian waters.
Two media houses have been provided with copies of a letter that was reportedly sent to Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell in which Grynberg was prepared to offer a public apology to Minister Bowen.
And the Minister himself who is our Deputy Prime Minister was seen in the recent 2007 Budget Debate reading extensively and exclusively from a document, which seemed to have been the all important letter.
After all, the bribery allegation against Minister Bowen had attracted international attention and the name and image of the country was badly affected.
GRENADA TODAY is hopeful that government would see wisdom in circulating the letter as far and wide as possible to reassure the nation that nothing of the sort took place.
Any authentic letter of the kind would give a clean bill of health to Minister Bowen and totally clear him of any wrongdoing in dispensing his duties on behalf of the government and people of Grenada.
This letter should have been submitted to all the media houses in the country and not only to the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN) and Grenada CableVision for airing.
There are other media houses in the country like Spice Capitol Radio, Sac-FM, Real FM, City Sounds, MTV, Sun FM, Grenadian Voice, Spice Isle Review, Grenada Informer, Lighthouse Television, Grenada Advocate and others.
It is still not too late for government through the Press Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Barry Collymore or the Government Information Service (GIS) to provide the local media house with copies of this very important letter that allegedly came from the Grynsberg camp.
We at GRENADA TODAY have made several attempts to get a copy of the letter but without success so far.
We can also inform the nation that other media people on the island have failed in their bids to get copies of the letter.
Why all the secrecy about this letter? Is it real or imaginary? Who sent that letter to Prime Minister Mitchell? Was it faxed or emailed to him or come through the post? Was it just pulled off from some site on the Internet? Did somebody manufacture the letter? These are questions that are currently occupying the mind and attention of the local media.
And those media houses that received the letter for airing are extremely silent on who gave it to them. Isn't that rather interesting?
If recent developments are anything to go by, the Minister of Energy still needs to offer some explanation to the nation on outstanding matters that fall within his domain.
There is a very interesting letter on Page 20 of this week's issue of the newspaper that was supplied by attorney-at-law, Reynold Benjamin of the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) that needs some explanation from Minister Bowen on the Grynsberg/Grenada/Russian oil connection.
Mr. Benjamin who seemingly lays his hands on a number of important documents should be congratulated for bringing the matters about this secret oil deal between the New National Party (NNP) government and Grynsberg to our attention.
If only Grenadians would pay more attention to the business of the nation.
It is important to revisit the questions that were asked at a recent press conference hosted by Minister Bowen and the answers given to the editor of this newspaper on the Russian connection.
Worme: Is there any agreement between the Government of Grenada and Russian people concerning oil and gas?
Bowen: To explore for oil and gas?
Worme: Yes
Bowen: There is no agreement between the Government of Grenada and the Russian people sued with me.
Worme: Any agreement between Government and any Russian people, any people whatsoever?
Bowen: I don't know of any such agreement to explore for oil and gas.
Worme: So, can we safely say that no Russian group has paid any money into the Treasury?
Bowen: There is no exploration agreement with Russian group.
Come clean Mr. Bowen and tell us whether this letter is real or a figment of somebody's imagination.
Neither Mr. Bowen nor government have categorically denied that the Deputy Prime Minister himself had brought before the Cabinet a few years ago a particular proposal concerning some Russians who wanted to explore for oil and gas in our waters.
Mr. Bowen, did you inform your Cabinet colleagues that the Russians were willing to pump 10 million U.S or 27 million E.C dollars into the Treasury right away to get the rights to our oil and gas resources and to help us get out of the Grynsberg arrangement?
The answers to this and other questions might be forthcoming "all in the fullness of time"
