Guy Joseph at today’s news conference.
Castries South-east Member of Parliament Guy Joseph has sought to clear the air over to comments made by Infrastructure Minister Phillip J Pierre at the last sitting of parliament, regarding several infrastructural projects allegedly undertaken by the United Workers Party government after Hurricane Tomas.
Pierre in his delivery to the House on February 11, 2014 had responded to what he said were “aspersions” cast by Joseph, which indicated that several individuals chosen by government to work on post-trough projects following the 2013 Christmas Eve event, were allegedly favoured because of family relations or close relationships.
Pierre hit back by referring to a number of projects which he said were undertaken by the UWP government after Hurricane Tomas in October 2010. The infrastructure minister, while not naming any particular individual, said that much of the works at the time, which included water intake restoration projects, were contracted to the “brothers” at exorbitant prices. He quoted parts of documents, one of which he said came from Water and Sewerage Company Inc. (WASCO), which he said was proof that the pricing incurred for the works was “unconscionable.” Pierre told the House that these correspondences would be made documents of the House.
“Too many times people cast aspersions on other people’s character and when they come into this honourable house they give the impression that its only one set of people who do things,” Pierre had stated.
Meanwhile, at a UWP press conference on Wednesday, Joseph, in an attempt to clarify the matter said that while the minister did not mention his name he had “every reason to believe” that he was referring to him, since “at some point in time” he (Pierre) mentioned a name that “happened to be one of my brothers.”
According to Joseph, he was unable to respond to the accusations in detail ahead of today’s press conference since he had to travel out of the country immediately after the last parliament sitting.
In relation to the documents which he said were quoted by the minister in parliament, Joseph said that, “As of this morning (March 5, 2014) I tried to get the documents that the minister made reference to in parliament and they are still not available.
“Now, I am very concerned about this because it means that if the documents were not made documents of the House- the documents that he quoted from – how am I to know that what is going to come back to parliament is the document that he actually claimed that he used?”
Interim payment certificate for a project done by Asphalt and Mining
According to what was quoted by Pierre, “one brother” was given over $315,000 worth of work while another “brother” was employed for over $115, 000 and a third for $251,000. The latter allegedly involved the clearing of a river. He further claimed that “another brother” received $47,000 for clearing of trees with a chainsaw.
Pierre suggested that these “brothers alone” got over $2.9 million in work. He further mentioned a total of $65,000 which he said was awarded to one of them for clearing a site for the Vigie Terminal.
“Up till today no one can tell me what site needed to be cleared for a terminal in Vigie. No one can tell me that.”
He had stated, “Today I will put on the table what has happened in Bexon Marc, what happened during hurricane Tomas, who spent money where, whose brother and sister got employment and I will make it a document of the House because these aspersions must stop.”
“You do not throw stones at people when your house is all glass. You don’t talk about relations when you know perfectly well, Mr. Speaker, that you are deeply involved in relations and relatives with sums of millions of dollars Mr. Speaker,” he added.
But Joseph at today’s press conference said the letter quoted by Pierre is reportedly dated March 24, 2010 and pointed out that Hurricane Tomas occurred in October 2010.
He said that this “already establishes that there was no relation” to the works done regarding Hurricane Tomas.
“This was work in response to the drought which started in the later part of 2009 which carried forward into 2010,” Joseph said.
Joseph, while referring to a letter he said he “assumed” Pierre quoted in the House, defended the cost of the 2010 “refurbishing” of the two abandoned water intakes and pumping stations previously used by WASA. These structures, he said were abandoned sometime about 1993-1995 and had reportedly come at a cost of over $60,000 during its initial construction.
Joseph justified the pricing of the project by stating that with a 15-17-year abandonment period, one should expect that the cost of building them would increase considerably by 2010.
“Carried forward to 2010, would mean between 15-17 years being abandoned you are going back to revive these intakes [and] to reinstate them and you expect it in 2010 to cost what it cost back in 1993 and 1995 respectively? Isn’t that grossly attempting to mislead the people of Saint Lucia into believing that there was something illegal that happened and it did not happen?”
In relation to what Pierre described as the excessive rates of the contractors, Joseph challenged the minister to put out the list of what the rates for the rent/usage of construction equipment in the ministry.
He further accused Pierre of making statements which were convenient to his side, in order to attempt to make the opposition look dishonest and omitting other relevant information in the same documents he quoted from. “When they cannot get to you they try and damage your reputation,” Joseph said.
Joseph further spoke of another document he claimed Pierre had referred to in the House regarding payments made to “his brothers.” That document, according to him was an-”interim payment certificate” which was signed on February 15, 2012 for $2 million. This was in relation to a contract awarded to Asphalt and Mining (Saint Lucia) and involved the “Bocage-Sunbilt and Entrepot-Independence City Road Rehabilitation Works.”
Joseph argued that his party lost the general elections in 2011 therefore the project was not in his care since the document was signed in 2012. He said it is government’s duty to review every project when it comes into office. He said if the contract was indeed a bad one, it should have been terminated by the government.
In relation to other suggestions made by Pierre, Joseph said “I must say I have no regard and respect for some of the statements made by the minister for the simplest reason. He mentioned so many brothers of mine that got work that I wish I had so many brothers who got work from government. I’m from a family from ten…. I have two brothers who work for government. And I want the records to be clear, because a lot of accusations are being made about who works and who doesn’t work.”
He added, “Now if somebody in politics, their relatives cannot work when they are in government and they cannot work when they are out of government then this says something about us. Now if you claim that there is preference then you have to establish that preference was given to a family member over another person.”
Joseph said he is still awaiting the mentioned documents from the minister.