by Linda Straker
- Construction challenges had to do with financial management of fixed-term contracts
- Contracts issued by Ministry of Mobilisation, Implementation and Transformation and or Ministry of Housing
- Several contractors awarded contracts under Hurricane Beryl Response Initiative failed to complete construction
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has confirmed that financial corruption has occurred in the rebuilding or construction of new houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated the northern part of Grenada on July 1, 2024. However, the illicit practice is not widespread.
“I am sure that with any government programme from time to time you may have mistakes, or you may have issues that need addressing, but as far as I am aware there is no widespread corruption, no systematic corruption, in any of these instances,” the Prime Minister responded to a question during his weekly Tuesday “DMs with the PM” interactive talk show.
Admitting that there are challenges with some construction contractors who were awarded contracts to build the homes, the Prime Minister said that a lot of it had to do with the financial management of fixed-term contracts issued by the Ministry of Mobilisation, Implementation and Transformation (MIT) and or the Ministry of Housing.
“I have said that repeatedly with many of the contractors because in many of the instances, the ability to manage their money, the ability to have the type of financial literacy that is required, is sometimes not there,” he said without providing details of the financial wrongdoings.
“Now you could say you [are] not dealing with them, in which case that homes are not going to be rebuilt because we simply don’t have the capacity,” he said, pointing out that the government awarded fixed-term contracts for rebuilding the homes.
“If you give a contractor a fixed price contract, say EC$75,000 to build, or EC$85,000 to build a “Build Back Better” house and he does not realise that he cannot pay his workers per day, because if he pays them per day and if they unproductive and if rain falls and they don’t work and they still have to be paid, he will quickly find himself running out of money and will be unable to build a home because he ought to have said if the price is fixed I then have to give a fixed labour price,” the Prime Minister said.
Recently, Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall announced that the Audit Department will be conducting audits into several contractors who were awarded contracts to construct houses under the Hurricane Beryl Response Initiative and failed to complete the construction.
The Ministry of Mobilisation, Implementation, and Transformation was allocated EC$15 million under the 2024 supplementary budget to assist with rebuilding homes. It was approved by vote 0048564 by the Finance Committee in the Lower House of Parliament. A total of EC$50,000 was allocated for each house, including labour, material, and equipment costs if deemed necessary.
Speaking about the alleged financial misconduct, malfeasance and irregularities of public funds through the contracts, Cornwall said that he has heard of one or two cases where contractors have started houses and disappeared. When asked why this is happening, he said… “I don’t really know, but I believe that the persons issuing the contracts to those contractors need to basically make sure that they vet these people properly,” he added.
The contracts were awarded by the Ministry of Mobilisation, Implementation and Transformation.
Sharing details of the financial wrongdoings, Cornwall said that he has heard stories and though he didn’t want to talk about the stories, he gave an example. “I don’t want to talk about it here right now, but for example, a guy got money he put it in an account and so on and every now and again he goes and takes a little EC$200 and he does not appear on the person’s site to confirm and continue the project.”
Announcing that all government funds must be accounted because of the various supporting legislation, Cornwall said, “I want to put out a warning to persons who have collected government moneys and did not do what they should do with it, or you used it for other purposes and so on, we will have the Audit Department audit those things, we will have the necessary steps taken to make sure you can account or account for the moneys you were given,” he said.
The Prime Minister did not admit any corruption. This kinds of articles reminds me of the western media destabilization attacks on the Grenada Revolution, 1979 to 1983. This article is not somebody’s opinion, it is a misrepresentation of what someone said.