China has often used the route of execution to deal with high-up officials who engage in corruption and theft of millions of dollars.
In the most recent case, Yang Youlin, who was a key figure in Nanjing City was sentenced to death for taking more than US$325 million in bribes over a 30-year period.
The culprit was also convicted of embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering by a court in the eastern part of China.
In Grenada, the scamps will get away almost scotch-free and with a little slap on the wrist and might be sent home from the workplace.
There are too many questionable things taking place at the state-owned Gravel & Concrete and some of the ones involved are virtually not being held accountable.
It appears on the surface that there is no organised widespread corruption taking place there but simply the act of thieving by some employees in certain positions.
The latest issue in the company is an alleged act in which the construction board left the compound and ended up in the home of a female employee who was engaged in some kind of construction activities at her home in the St George North-east constituency.
THE NEW TODAY is not fully satisfied with the answers given by General Manager Arthur Olliverre about the ownership of the board in question.
He asserted that the board belonged to a Contractor by the name of Mr. Ali and that after the work was completed on doing over the roof on the garage the gentleman then came and took away his material.
Mr. Ali should be made available for some questions to be asked of him to fully clear up this issue.
The information in our position is that the version of the event as given by the General Manager is very suspicious as this Mr. Ali was never seen on the compound when the material was placed on a truck belonging to an employee of the corporation and taken away to a particular location in St George North-east.
Mr. Ollivierre might have merely provided us with information that was given to him by another person in management whom he relied upon.
However, the version as given by other employees who were present is that a certain person known to be very questionable at the company was the one who gave instructions to workers to load the material onto the truck and to take it away.
An employee who witnessed the event then followed the truck, video-taped its movement right to the home in St George North-east and then made the contents of the video available to the person then in charge of Security on the compound.
THE NEW TODAY has a copy of the video-recording.
A few years ago, the whole country went into uproar against former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell when he addressed a Town Hall meeting in New York and mentioned the amount of thieving that was taking place at the St George’s General Hospital.
The ex-Grenadian leader was speaking the truth but some people got upset out of the belief that he was using a broad brush to paint everyone including doctors as thieves.
THE NEW TODAY has received many complaints from Grenadians in the Diaspora about items that were sent to Grenada for use at the Hospital and they were stolen by staffers.
A few years ago a prominent Grenadian family in Brooklyn sent over 400 brand name sheet sets to the hospital and on visiting the island a few months later not one sheet set was found at the institution.
This is the kind of thieving that has become epidemic in Grenada by staffers including several at Gravel & Concrete.
Several workers at this state enterprise are not happy with the manner in which the Management are handling certain cases of thieving.
A few days ago an employee was dismissed for stealing three bags of cement but a member of the management Team who did several wrongs is virtually treated as an untouchable.
That individual is known to have laid her sticky and filthy fingers on the stipend of a member of the Board of Directors and the penalty was that the money should be paid back.
Gravel & Concrete falls under the portfolio of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell who has taken a very soft approach to putting the company under “heavy manners”.
The swamp needs to be drained.
THE NEW TODAY is fearful that the problem at this state body is that some of the new entrants who were hired after the change of government in 2022 are now teaming up with the leftovers from the NNP era and helping themselves at the expense of the State.
If the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) do not wake up and put much better persons to manage the corporation, they will only have themselves to blame when the brush of corruption passes over the party.