It is rather sad and embarrassing that 20 years later the government of Grenada is still engulfed in the controversial oil and gas agreement signed with the Russian outfit known as Global Petroleum Group (GPG).
THE NEW TODAY was disappointed with some aspects of Wednesday’s press conference by the Congress administration to inform the nation that it had terminated the agreement with those Russians that took place under the former New National Party (NNP) government of Keith Mitchell.
What was missing from the press briefing is an announcement that a former top member of the NNP regime would be finally arrested for committing fraud against the State in connection with the disappearance of $1.2 million dollars given by the Russians that never ended up in the Consolidated Fund of the Treasury.
The new oil and gas czar Nazim Burke who served as Minister of Finance and Energy under the 2008-13 Congress government of Tillman Thomas has virtually all the information that is available about the missing money.
Former Prime Minister and Congress Political Leader the late Sir Nicholas Brathwaite had advised those involved in the last NDC government to appoint a Special Prosecutor to take charge of the investigations into the Russian money fiasco involving this particular former top minister in the NNP administration.
This was not done and then PM Tillman Thomas and Mr Burke and company cannot explain to the Nation what went wrong as Karl Hudson-Phillip, the former Trinidad & Tobago Attorney General and Leading Criminal Prosecutor in the Maurice Bishop Murder trial had been retained to look at the files and recommended that the NNP government minister be arrested and charged with Fraud.
Mr Burke is fully aware that instructions were given to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) to pick up the minister, take him to the St Paul’s Police Station to be questioned in connection with the missing $1.2 million as part of the process to lay a criminal charge against him.
All the Police Officers given the assignment received calls on the day that the operation was cancelled.
Bob Linquist, the U.S Forensic Accountant hired by the Congress government was able to trace the missing money as it never reached the Treasury but was lodged in a bank account outside of Grenada.
20 years later, neither ex-PM Tillman Thomas or Nazim Burke can shed any light to the people of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique on who intervened and blocked the criminal charges prepared to be slapped on the former high-ranking NNP government minister.
Is this another case of politics having its own morality and politicians protecting one another as they all have a certain disposition when it comes to money which has been described as “the oxygen” for politics.
THE NEW TODAY can recall that when NDC was voted out in the 2013 general election, one of the first acts of the NNP personnel as soon as he was sworn into office was to request the files from the FIU pertaining to the pending charges against him.
A Superintendent of Police with close ties to the NNP was instructed to get the files from the then head of FIU, Senneth Joseph who was the person in charge of the criminal investigation into the missing $1.2 million dollars that never reached the Treasury.
Mr Joseph reluctantly handed over the files to the RGPF Superintendent of Police but was smart enough to make copies of critical documents which were later handed over to Mr Burke in his new capacity as oil & gas Czar under the Dickon Mitchell-led Congress government.
Over the years, the NNP of Keith Mitchell and Gregory Bowen never gave the impression that they were prepared to hold GPG accountable under the oil & gas agreement.
These two elderly figures in the NNP administration more often than not showed a preference that they were more interested in receiving a few millions in donation from the Russians instead of getting them to perform under the terms of the oil & gas contract.
If those now running the country are serious about tackling fraud and corruption, the investigation would be re-opened under a Special Prosecutor as suggested by the late Sir Nicholas Brathwaite to get at the bottom of the missing $1.2 million.
It is time to bring to a complete and total end this saga with Grenada’s oil and gas and this will have to be done between GPG and the government going before the International Arbitration body in Washington to resolve this matter once and for all.
This was the same body that ruled in favour of WRB Enterprises after the American company took Grenada to court and was awarded nearly EC$300 million dollars in damages and the company left the island and allowed the utility to fall back into the hands of the State.
It should be recalled that the NNP of Keith Mitchell was very hostile to WRB Enterprises which took over Grenlec under an agreement signed with the previous NDC administration of Sir Nicholas Brathwaite.
In our view, GPG is a group of Speculators and its principal figures do not have the finances to engage in serious oil and gas exploration on their own but are looking for foreign investors with money to partner with them to carry out what has to be done under the agreement.
The former NNP Energy Minister Gregory Bowen stated this publicly when he announced that GPG was cash-strapped and was looking for Chinese investors to join them in the battle to explore for oil and gas in Grenada’s seabed.
The government has stated that the conflict with GPG is related to only 4 of 44 blocks in our territorial waters.
Will serious investors with money come forward to get involved in the other 40 blocks with the case now heading for international arbitration?