October 26th 2010: Members of Her Majesty’s Opposition are calling on the Prime Minister Hon. Tillman Thomas to take a more serious approach to dealing with the increasing accusations of corruption in his Government.

According to former Prime Minister, Dr. the Rt. Hon. Keith Mitchell, to date the Prime Minister’s approach to dealing with these allegations has been to dismiss every claim without any serious investigation. Dr. Mitchell describes this as disturbing since Prime Minister Thomas himself had promised the people of Grenada that his Government will be transparent and accountable in all its dealings. He said the behaviour of the Prime Minister resembles one who is prepared to protect his Government at any cost.

Meanwhile, the Opposition is again calling on the Prime Minister to take serious the allegations of corruption recently made by the former project manager of GREP as well as allegations made against the current Minister of Finance who is said to have a number of offshore bank accounts and is engaged in the construction of a house estimated to cost over one million dollars. To date the Minister of Finance has refused to explain how he is able to finance such a massive project when his first home was allegedly for sale by the bank just prior to the last general elections.

The Opposition is also concerned about reports of corruption from various Government Departments and statutory bodies. Information reaching the Opposition indicates that contracts for large sums of monies are being issued to selected individuals for their personal benefits as normal procedures are being ignored.

In the interest of transparency, accountability and good governance and in the interest of the poor and vulnerable people of Grenada many of whom are denied basic needs because of the poor state of the economy, the Opposition is again calling on the Government to live up to its promise to be accountable and transparent.


OFFICE OF THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION


(The views and opinions expressed in the above article represents those of the writer and not necessarily those of the GC staff)