Grenada’s Oil & Gas resources in its maritime space was at the centre of national discussion and debate this week.
It came to the forefront once again following the decision of the Dickon Mitchell-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to ask a high-powered Technical Working Group to address a Joint Sitting of both Houses of Parliament on the work undertaken thus far for the country.
The sitting was boycotted by the main opposition New National Party (NNP) which sought to influence the people on the ground that the sitting was illegal as the experts within the Working Group are “Strangers” to Parliament and should be kept out.
The House Speaker Leo Cato agreed to allow the “Experts” in and relied on the precedent in the House of Commons in London, England where “Strangers” are invited from time to time to address the legislators.
The records show that 85 persons including former South African President, the late Nelson Mandela did address the British Parliament on two occasions in the past 91 years.
THE NEW TODAY was not surprised at the NNP boycott of the sitting in light of the Congress government’s decision a few weeks ago to tear up the agreement that the Keith Mitchell-led government signed with the Russian outfit trading as Global Petroleum Group (GPG) to exploit our Oil & Gas resources.
It was rather sad to see former Energy Minister Gregory Bowen address a press conference called Tuesday by NNP on the issue and demonstrated that he was a spokesperson for GPG – and not Grenada – on the Oil & Gas issue.
The best description that could be used was just plainly “shameful and disgusting” the statements made by Mr Bowen who ran the risk of being accused of making a number of misleading and false statements during his performance.
This powerful figure within the NNP told the nation that GPG had dug “Wells” in Grenadian waters without providing any proof.
Back in 2018 on the eve of the general election, the then Prime Minister Keith Mitchell announced that GPG had drilled “one well” and it was exciting and that several more will be drilled and that Grenada was on the verge of becoming a major player in the industry.
The Working Group of Experts said that based on the documents seen, GPG had drilled “one” Well – the same figure given by Keith Mitchell.
It is our view that officials of GPG should inform the people of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique – and not Gregory Bowen – on the exact number of Wells that they had drilled since signing the agreement with the NNP Government.
Our call is for GPG to make itself available for a group of about 3 or 5 of the leading Journalists on the island to ask them questions about Grenada’s Oil & Gas.
GPG has a lot of questions to answer including one concerning correspondence seen in which they were at odds with a senior member of the NNP government on the request made to him to account for EC$1.2 million dollars that should have been lodged in the Treasury.
This money was the subject of an investigation by the Senneth Joseph-led Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the 2008-13 Congress government of Tillman Thomas which did not heed the advice of former Prime Minister Sir Nicholas Brathwaite to set up a Special Prosecutor to handle the investigation.
Former Trinidad & Tobago attorney-general the late Karl Hudson-Phillip was retained by the State to help in the investigation and went so far as to draft the list of charges that should have been slapped on the major figure within the NNP government on the money issue.
In addition, the head of the FIU had prepared the questions to pose to this significant figure in the NNP regime who was to be taken into custody and detained at the St Paul’s Police station pending formal charges being laid on him.
The people of the tri-island State are not aware that one of the first acts of the NNP on winning the 2013 general election was to move in on the FIU and take away the keys to the office from Mr. Joseph.
Our investigation with legal experts indicates that the Superintendent of Police who took away the keys from Mr. Joseph on instructions from a certain lawyer did so illegally.
This lawyer held no State position at the time and had no authority to issue any such instructions to the Police Officer who at the time was head of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Even the NNP Political Leader Keith Mitchell was not yet even sworn in as the new Prime Minister of the country when this particular lawyer issued such instructions.
The only person who was legally entitled to issue that instruction with respect to the FIU was the Governor General as Head of State in the absence of a Prime Minister and not this lawyer who presented himself as having the power to do so.
In simple terms, the Police Officer had no right to carry out the instructions and should have ignored it.
Today, the question can rightfully be asked – what has become of the files during the NNP rule of the island from 2013-22?
Did the former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Christopher Nelson know anything about these things that were taking place on the Russian Oil & Gas issue?
As Congress seeks to chart a way forward, Grenada should also be mindful of the fact that those now running Washington sees this hemisphere as their sphere of influence and not inclined to allow any Russian or Chinese companies to tap into Oil & Gas reserves in this part of the world.