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| Jack Grynsberg |
A debate has started in the country about the real existence of a letter which government claims was written to Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell by U.S oil investor, Jack Grynsberg offering a public apology to his Energy Minister in a multi-million dollar law suit.
The letter was first made public by the minister himself, Gregory Bowen, who is also the island’s deputy Prime Minister when he made his contribution two weeks ago to the debate in the House of Representatives on the 2007 Budget.
The American-born Grynsberg, CEO of RSM Production Corporation, filed a US$500 million lawsuit against the Energy Minister for allegedly blocking his company from drilling for oil in Grenadian waters after it refused to give him a bribe.
The senior government has denied the allegation and announced plans to file a counter-suit against Grynsberg.
In his presentation to Parliament, Bowen said that the U.S investor indicated that he was willing to make a full apology for lying on him.
The oil deal which was secretly signed in St. George’s by the Mitchell government with Grynsberg in 1996 is expected to go before arbitration this year in a court in Europe.
Bowen was seen reading from a document which purported to be a letter addressed to Prime Minister Mitchell and allegedly signed by Grynberg.
He quoted the U.S investor in one section of the document as asking for the Prime Minister’s direct intervention to try and resolve the matter and to make a full apology to Bowen if certain conditions were met.
Checks made by this newspaper and other members of the media to get a copy of the so-called letter proved futile up to the time of going to press.
When contacted Tuesday for a copy of the letter, Press Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Barbadian Barry Collymore said that he did not have one.
According to Collymore, the Cabinet of Ministers were holding their weekly meeting and as such he was unable to get a hold of a copy.
There are unconfirmed reports that Collymore had promised to get copies of the letter to other media houses a few days ago but did not keep his promise.
Speculation is rife that the letter was not sent directly by Grynberg to Prime Minister Mitchell but was pulled from the internet.
This newspaper also attempted to contact the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture & Energy about the letter but was told that she was not available.
When quizzed, the Secretary to the Permanent Secretary said that she herself had never seen the controversial letter.
Minister Bowen said that the letter dated December 14, 2006, pointed out that Grynsberg’s company was in discussion with a potential partner and operator for a controlling interest of the RSM Grenada production license, and if acceptable to the government of Grenada could potentially provide a means to resolve the dispute.
He added that in the letter, RSM undertook to end both the arbitration proceedings which is before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the multi-million dollar lawsuit filed in a US court in New York.
The minister quoted the letter as saying that if a way is found for the license to be given back to RSM then Grynsberg was willing to offer a full public apology to Bowen.
In his presentation before the house, Minister Bowen questioned whether the request allegedly made by Grynsberg to now make a full public apology to him was enough to make Grenada want to do business once again with him.
He said that he had already discussed the matter with his Cabinet colleagues and would now seek the advise of his constituents in St. George South-east on the issue.
According to Bowen, the fallout from the Grynsberg oil affair has only served to cement the bonds that exist between the Cabinet members in the government.
When asked for a comment on the issue, a senior member of the local media said that he is disappointed that the government has not made copies of the Grynsberg letter available to the various media houses on the island.
“If that letter really exist then it would clear Mr. Bowen of all the allegations made against him in recent weeks. I call on the government to release the letter to us”, he added.
“I really don’t know why the government would continue to hold onto the letter after making all kinds of noises in Parliament about it especially the public apology that Grynsberg was willing to make to Gregory Bowen. Let it on, man”, he said.
