Someone has just sent me a video that has been obviously put out or sponsored by the Government of Grenada, by the Don, better known as Khief, regarding the GRENLEC matter. I was so taken aback and shocked by it that I had to go straight to my computer to deal with it. I am deeply appalled that, at a time like this, when we have officially announced the fact of the first positive COVID-19 case in Grenada, when many Grenadians are so very scared, that Khief would use our money to engage in such a disgraceful and dishonest pursuit.
Worse yet, Khief even used his COVID address, which he did all safe and secure and in hiding, to take a pot shot at the GRENLEC issue. This man clearly has no shame and no limits! But this is the end of the road for him! He will not get away with it this time.
If I raise talk about the unaccounted sum of money that Khief received in the briefcase in Switzerland many will say that this is stale news. But that news is even more recent and relevant to the present, because for one, the sum was never reconciled. The security man of Resteiner said it was US$500,000 and Khief said it was approximately US$15,000. Khief made empty threats about suing but never even tried to sue, and then said, “is me damn money, I shoulda take more”!
What a demonstration of a public figure that is unrepentant and utterly vile! But he is our Prime Minister and talks about respect. That briefcase revelation was long after the year 2000 while the sales of majority shares to WRB/GPP took place in the year 1994! Can you believe this? Khief has been Prime Minister for over 20 years since the sale of shares for the $16 million that he promotes in the video, and has done nothing but play politics with our electricity sector to the disadvantage of all Grenadians. How can he now be heard to even mention about the price at which the shares were sold way back in 1994?
Over the years Khief, in spite of his ardent efforts, has been unable to unearth and disclose even one shred of evidence that the price paid for the shares was unfair or improper. In fact, he mounted a public enquiry on the matter that disclosed no wrongdoing. That is why I now say that the matter of Khief and the briefcase is currently fair game because no one even believed that he took just $15,000. Grenadians, please don’t let that trickster and his sidekick fool you. His sidekick was relieved from his post as manager of Grenlec.
Lest you forget, let me remind you that, he for years had presided over a GRENLEC that was notorious for, the following:
i. Frequent electricity blackouts;
ii. Gross inefficiency in its operations;
iii. Political maneuverings with respect to staffing, service and materials;
iv. Little or no reinvestment into the plant, which led to outdated machinery and equipment;
v. An electrification program that failed to meet the needs of a growing population that was expanding more and more into industrialisation and tourism.
Remember those dark and uncertain days! It is an indisputable fact that one of the main reasons why investors have chosen to come to Grenada to invest over the last 20 years even in the hotel and other tourism-based industries has been the high quality of our electricity services.
In other words, in 1994 Grenada had one of the worst and maybe the most unreliable electricity service in the entire Caribbean. We were ashamed and rightly so, of GRENLEC. Maybe the shares were objectively actually worth less that EC$16 million. If you buy a run-down Rolls Royce for say $16,000, and put in new doors, fender, chassis, lights and engine and give it a paint job, is it unfair to sell it for $160,000?
The value of the dollar has changed and it is no longer the same unit, it only has the same name. The price to be now paid was not set by WRB but by an international panel that was objective and who rather scathingly commented that Khief and co. had no real evidence and worse yet, no law to support their contention! Wow! What a slap in the face!
How can Khief even think of comparing electricity services to telephone services? If Khief and his sidekick really believe that such a comparison of apples with oranges is a serious one then I have lost all respect for the intelligence, honesty and scientific acumen of these people. In reality, Khief and his sidekick are showing gross disrespect for the intelligence of Grenadians and just on account of this we should all just ask the whole group of them to resign and walk out of our Parliament.
Why can’t someone convince Khief and his sidekick that what they are promoting is just utter nonsense of the highest degree? I thought that we were dealing with intelligent people, a doctor and an engineer, and that their thinking processes would have been sound, but it seems that their thoughts are only about trying to mislead our Grenadian people.
Let us see the comparison and I will try to make it as simple as I can:
- The effectiveness of competition is obviously limited by the size of the market, to such an extent that in a market that is too small all the competitors will be driven out of business. If you have to cut up a pie among too many people then each person will be hungry, or it may revert to just one person being satisfied and the rest remaining hungry. In case you are unable to accept my argument, does it mean that the more car dealerships you have the price of a car will become less?
- The electricity market is much more limited than the telecommunications market. The telecommunications market is not just the number of phones used but also the various applications and connected services to be engaged. For example, talk, data, internet bundles and packages are sold with no parallel or comparison in the electricity sector.
- The electricity service is limited to use in Grenada while the telecommunications market has the entire world as its market. Can you directly engage some electricity service to relate to your mother in Brooklyn?
- To be connected to the electricity grid you need to be hard-wired to the system and you are restricted in that manner. There is no Wi-Fi, cellular or comparable electricity connection!
- AND even more importantly, the competition that Khief is talking about was essentially not concerning land line connection but regarding cellular phone connection only!
- Khief is deliberately covering up the obvious fact that, different to the telecommunications/telephone service sector, there is a clear difference between the electricity generation and electricity supply. Surely, the only competition that is possible will be in the area of electricity generation and not electricity supply.
Let us face it squarely, any talk about serious competition in electricity generation in the Grenada market is dubious and its real aim is to distract Grenadians from focusing on the fact of the immense debt that the conduct of Khief and his gang has put the country into. Khief is trying to talk, bramble and mamaguy his way around the debt of over EC$200 million that his reckless, spiteful and incompetent actions have caused Grenada. This is just an attempt at distraction!!!!
It is very interesting that the language of Khief has been modified a bit in the video ad to say that Khief has only been trying to reduce the unit cost of electricity. What a mixed message now:
- An unsound economic theory of reduction by the institution of competition, and,
- Putting us in an EC$200 million debt to try to make electricity cheaper.
So, here is the question, “Please tell us the godfather that will give us the grant or free money to pay WRB”? I have been taught that nothing in this world is free. We always pay in cash or kind and sometimes the kind is worth far more than the cash when viewed objectively.
If Khief really wanted to reduce the unit price of electricity, if he really thought that the WRB deal was bad, he would have acted before now to buy them out and develop the electricity sector. The cost of electricity was never a real priority area for Khief and his gang over the years. He was only focused on making quick money using high risk gambles with a host of dubious characters over the years.
Repeated quick fixes like selling passports, offshore banks, a host of honorary diplomatic appointments, any scheme that was likely to realise money in his party’s coffers to strengthen his re-election bid has always been his chosen method.
Look out! This is not about lowering electricity cost to Grenadians consumers but if I am wrong then Khief and his group must show us the plan because a clear and sensible plan is missing. If this was any genuine attempt to lower the rates of electricity then it was as unsound, reckless, cavalier, and careless as most of the policies of Khief.
The “no income tax” plan has come full circle around. The “offshore industry” plan has been so corrupted by Khief that he has had to withdraw completely from the sector. The “Imani” plan is now clearly a welfare plan mainly for the children of NNP supporters with little or no productivity and an obvious dead end.
No plan for agriculture except money to provide free labour to a select group of farmers, while Khief used to try to mock St. Vincent and now we have to buy agricultural products from them. No plan for health and little or no investment in that sector so now I genuinely fear for the fate of most Grenadians now that one little virus has crippled every part of Khief’s plans, because he put all of Grenada’s economic eggs in one basket, tourism.
If this really was an attempt to lower electricity rates, and I sincerely doubt that it was, then the attempt has fallen woefully short of what is expected from a man who has boasted over the years that he can see no other alternative but himself, to lead Grenada. This is obviously the case of the blind leading the blind into a ditch, because indeed we are now in a deep, slushy and stinking ditch.
Mr. Prime Minister, it is time to accept that you have played the game wrong and called the wrong shots in the GRENLEC matter. You have lost the match up so be a good sportsman and accept defeat graciously, even if you have to borrow the grace from somewhere.
Cajeton Hood is an attorney-at-law and served as Attorney General under the ruling New National Party government in the 2013-18 period