The Customs Department in Grenada has apprehended four containers belonging to a Chinese company at the centre of an ongoing investigation into alleged corrupt practices on the island.
Informed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the containers, held on the St. George's Pier, had misleading labels aimed at defrauding the State of thousands of dollars in revenue.
The Chinese firm was granted the contract by the government in Beijing to rebuilt Grenada's national stadium that was flattened by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004.
The company is being investigated by local Customs officials for diverting construction material from the stadium site to a "hotel" that it is currently erecting in the south of the island.
A source confirmed to this newspaper that Comptroller of Customs, Carl Felix has ordered a three-man team to spearhead the investigation into alleged wrong-doing by the Chinese.
He spoke of Felix also being annoyed that the investigation was leaked to the GRENADA TODAY newspaper and had initiated a probe into its happening.
According to the source, the probe has so far uncovered a total of 21 suspicious containers that were brought into the country by the Chinese construction firm. He said that one of the Chinese official questioned by Customs "admitted" that the firm had imported several containers into the country for the hotel under the duty-free status granted to the stadium project.
"What he (the Chinese) said is that they brought in the container under the stadium project while waiting for duty-free concession for the other project. I can't see how they will get away with that", he remarked.
The documents used by the Chinese indicated that the items in the containers "are for the sole use of the national stadium".
A check by Customs revealed that the items in the container consistently mainly of goods for the hotel project like television and telephone sets and household items.
Speculation is rife that the Chinese firm received approval from the Physical Planning Unit in the Ministry of Finance to construct "a hostel" to accommodate its workers on the island but it used the permit to build a hotel.
The Customs Department is said to be trying to quantify the amount of goods imported into the country under false declaration by the Chinese.
An insider at Customs said that the Comptroller could impose a fine running into hundreds of thousands of dollars against the construction firm from the Asian country.
