It’s Russia out there.
And we ain’t talking about no Russian
Regatta. This one is far better organized and has far more dangerous players.
It’s small-time China for big-time
Lucians. The kings of corruption are not the politicians we like to blame.
The kings of corruption are the snakes
who slither out of the party hierarchy onto all the green grass of the
stat-corps.
Like my friend Kofi says, “St Lucia
isn’t run by a government, it is run by a party in power.”
The recent case of Leotaud vs SLASPA is
only the tip of the iceberg.
It reveals only the smallest portion of
systemic vice, maladministration, nepotism, cronyism, and, in many more cases than we think,
outright corruption.
Files and records are being shredded as
we speak. If there is one way to know that something is amiss is for them to
tell you, “Well, the files are missing.”
Or “The system crashed this morning.”
It’s the oldest trick in the book. You
know what happened, you just can’t prove it.
If anyone thought the people in the
last government who managed to make US$29m in Taiwanese funds vanish while
misspending and misusing another US$28m were bad, it is my misfortune to tell
you that what is going on underneath the covers at SLASPA, Tourist Board and
soon, no doubt at Invest St Lucia, is far more well organized, far more
entrenched in the bureaucracy and far more dangerous than a few losers who got
voted out forever but made off with millions.
EXHIBIT A: If BET is no longer a media
partner in the Jazz festival, why do we keep over-paying them to book artists
for us? Why do we not seek new media partners? Why do we rebuff all the
smaller, more regional media partners that continue to offer their services?
The entire management of the foreign media has been a loss. It stinks. Smells
like Baker’s butt. To mess up that bad, someone has to be doing it on purpose.
EXHIBIT B: Hot Couture 2014. The dream
is already dead. Now will someone please give us a report of how much this
cost? Because last year’s Hot Couture was far better and yet, McDoom said it
cost waaaay too much. It stinks. Smells like Louis Lewis’ butt. But I’m sure
the files are missing.
EXHIBIT C: What is it with the lack of
transparency at statutory corporations? The regular civil service is more open
than they are now. What kind of state secrets are they protecting in there? How
much Tourist Board paid Hot Couture consultants? How Dwayne Mendes could book
Jazz for so much less than Paxton and BET, but he continues to play along with
the game? How Donna Regis, the public relations showrunner for SLASPA never has
up to date information or is simply not authorized to speak any words of
substance, ever, at any time in her life, ever again? Smells like Leo Clarke’s
butt. But then, he sits on every statutory board, so everything smells like his
butt anyway. And now, his wife is replacing career diplomat Sonia Johnny,
who is getting the boot after giving her
entire life and then some to St Lucia’s diplomatic service. And not because she
is his wife, of course, but because she is the most qualified person the entire
team of doctors in Cabinet could find.
EXHIBIT D: Southern Tourism Development
Corporation. People are getting paid. The Prime Minister approves. Southern
Tourism Development Corporation is the mother of the corrupt development
corporations that put all those Taiwanese funds to no use at all. It was
started in 1998 and hasn’t done a stroke of work to this day, in spite of
changes of government, change of personnel and more changes of government. The
unfortunately named STD Corporation is the mother of the cancer that has spread
to all stat-corps and created a network of parasites who define success
strictly by the size of their bank accounts. Che Flambeau could never have been
so bright to do what they did without learning from Che Labour.
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