A top government official has denied that there was conflict of interest in a contract estimated at $EC1.2 million that was given to Water Engineer Alphonsus Daniel and his company to rectify a sewer problem at the Venezuelan-built Lacolme housing project in the Westerhall area of St David.
He said the project was never given to the state-owned Nawasa where Daniel was serving at the time as a member of the governing Board of Directors but was executed under the Ministry of Housing headed by senior government Minister Phillip Telesford.
Residents at Lacolme have been complaining for years about the need for a proper system to handle human waste coming from the housing unit at the scheme.
According to the government official, the Board of Directors at the Housing Authority of Grenada (HAG) looked at the skillset locally and the work previously done by Daniel and decided to “sole source” his company Daniel Engineering to do the treatment facility at Lacolme.
He said that another factor that landed the project to Daniel was the fact that “he had some in-depth knowledge of the existing plant that was there and what was needed.”
That (contract) had nothing to do with Nawasa – Nawasa didn’t make any decision on that – they were not part of it,” he added.
A female political activist who was a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and is now opposed to the party has been raising the issue of Conflict of Interest with Daniel’s involvement in the Lacolme project.
However, the government official acknowledged that Nawasa will soon become a party to the project as HAG has decided to award them a contract for the maintenance of the plant every quarter of the year.
“The plant belongs to the Housing Authority of Grenada and not Nawasa. Housing Authority of Grenada will contract Nawasa for the maintenance of the plant going forward,” he remarked.
The government insider acknowledged that there is a small element of the contract that was given to Nawasa at Lacolme and it related to the construction of the Manholes for the plant.
“Because they (Nawasa) are the ones servicing it, we gave them the contract to do the Man Holes but just for transparency there is no conflict there,” he said.
Within the past week, Daniel was removed as a member of the Nawasa Board of Directors in the wake of reports that differences had surfaced with other members.
In addition, one other reason given by a government insider is that Daniel’s company was in line to get some kind of contract with a German-funded water project for Nawasa and that will be a clear case of conflict of interest.
He recalled that in the past when CID was engaged in such activities it was able to retrieve a number of illegal firearms on the island, as well as get information on where to take the fight against criminal activities.
He charged that CID was now staffed by too many “nice boys” who “just sit down” in the office and doing nothing much to address the rising crime wave in the country.
He lamented that the officer currently in charge of the CID effort in the south of the island to solve the June murder of LGBT member Josiah “Johnty” Robinson of Beaulieu along with the Sergeant of Police on the case are currently “struggling” to crack the case and need assistance.
“You need more mature persons to come in and assist there (the Johnty case),” said the ex-senior cop.
He also took a shot at some members of the Police High Command who lack the knowledge and experience in policing to be put in serious leadership positions in RGPF at the moment.
He said that some of them can be considered as political appointees as they were given rapid promotion in quick order by the former NNP regime of Dr. Keith Mitchell due to their affiliation with the then ruling party.