CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - DEPUTY PREMIER of Nevis Hon. Mark Brantley has accused the Hon. Robelto Hector, the former Minister with responsibility for Lands and Housing in the then Nevis Reformation Party-led Nevis Island Administration, of providing lands at very cheap prices to himselfand family members.
Brantley, who is also one of the Deputy Leaders of Team Unity, made the accusation on Wednesday night (Jan. 28) during his weekly talk show programme ‘On the Mark’ on VON Radio.
He claimed that that accusation, among others, was in response to Hector going on air and attacking his record as a Minister in the Nevis Island Administration.
“I have said publicly and I continue to say my name is Mark Brantley. The voters call me the Sheriff. I have been elected in 2007, in 2010, there was a fox in the Cox box in 2011 but by 2013 all had been set right and I have been elected then again in successively greater margins. It suggests that the people of my Constituency have been willing to invest their trust and confidence in me.
“Tonight I will take some time to discuss what I have been able to achieve for them in two short years, and I will take some time to look at my opponent, who I am told is one Elhansville Hector. I gather he has been on the air and I, no doubt, heard by the thought that new boundaries are going to give him a chance when he had none. He is beginning to come out from whatever cold he was hiding in and is now starting to make comments and to make certain suggestions. And he has sought indeed to attack my record.”
Brantley declared that he was elected to the Federal Parliament in 2007 and also elected Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, noting that in the Honourable House he had contributed in numerous ways to debates as one of the strongest voices on the issue of safety and security in the Federation.
He also declared that he was always fighting for the betterment of Nevisians in particular, and the Federation as a whole, but there was only so much he could have done at the Federal level.
The Deputy Premier however claimed that he and the CCM Government had done much with limited resources for the people in the Parish of St. Paul’s but Hector saw it as not being enough.
“We have a situation where one Elhansville Hector has come, having been in Government for six and a half years, and having done all manner of things during that time, to say that I who have only been there for two years have not done enough. And so I am not even going to look at the wider, broader spectrum. I will just look at St. Paul’s, which is the Constituency that he represented for six and a half years in Government and he continues to represent now; a Constituency which is an integral part of Number Nine.”
He said that he wanted the public to be judge and jury in comparing what was done in that Constituency under his watch as against what Hector did.
Brantley said what were done in two short years included: the complete resurfacing of Hunkins Drive with a refurbished parking lot and lights along that thoroughfare, compliment the Taiwanese Government; creation of the Boulevard Flats; beautification of the Waterfront, which is the finest in the Region; refurbishing and beautifying of the two public squares in Charlestown; creation of a modern courtroom in Charlestown by employees of the Public Works Department; the installation of closed-circuit TV in Charlestown, making it the only capital in the Caribbean that is fully covered by CCTV; refurbishing of the highway that is now being done from the top of Government Road; and construction of the Hamilton Road.
“What really pleases me most is that that Hamilton Road was done by our Public Works Department; it was done by our local engineers, Pemberton and his team; it was done under the leadership of the Hon. Troy Liburd as the Minister; and that road was done at a cost of some two million dollars less than the NRP had contracted with a foreign company to do that road for,” he added.
He noted that all trucks used for the construction of that road were locally owned as well as all labour and equipment.
Brantley continued: “When this fellow called Elhansville Hector was there, everything that had to be done was done through Surrey Paving. Whatever arrangement there was I can’t speak to, but all that was done was done through Surrey paving. And that road was going to cost us two million dollars more than having our own people do it.
“And let me remind you the public that when the question was posed by us in opposition, then Premier Mr. Parry’s response was that the Public Works Department could not do the road. He said these young people go away to study, they don’t know what they doing. He said there’s a road at Brown Pasture, let them go at Brown Pasture and practice...”
Brantley stressed that records determine a politician’s success or failure when in office, and highlighted some of the things he had done at the Alexandra Hospital, including the re-hiring of retired nurses and sending young people to train overseas in Pharmacology, Physiotherapy and Radiology as well as students attending nursing classes in St. Kitts.
He also made reference to the purchase of a new ventilator for the Paediatric Ward; a brand new bus for the Mental Health Unit; and work is on the front burner for the Diagnostic Wing at the Alexandra Hospital, which will house a new laboratory, X-ray, CT Scan, Ultra Sound, Physiotherapy, Dialysis and Mammogram Sections.
Brantley further spoke of erecting new water pumps in the histhree main wells in Charlestown; 25 percent reduction in fuel surcharge for every household in Nevis; the development of a relationship with one Dr. Rouse and his group from Atlanta to provide cardiac care; and also the development of a relationship with Georgetown Public Hospital and the Doobay Dialysis Center in Guyana for technical and nursing support when the Diagnostic Wing is completed this year.
The Team Unity Deputy Leader claimed that his two-year-old record depicts progress and could be clearly seen, while insinuating that Hector’s own is blemished.
“My opponent, Mr. Hector, entered the House in July 2006. He was elected to Government as part of the NRP Government. By May 24, 2007, that is just a mere 10 months later, he and his father had a house at Marion Avenue. It is nothing wrong in having a house, but the house at Marion Avenue was built by the Nevis Housing and Land Development Corporation,” Brantley said.
He told his audience that he is in possession of documents to support his statements and that they could acquire same from the Registry for $5.00.
Brantley made further reference to the house built by Hector’s father.
“That house, I found there was a bid to build that house for $498,000.00, but the Corporation build the house. The money I see on the paper here is $300,000.00. But you may ask what is the relevance of all that? But the relevance is that Mr. Hector at all times was the Chairman of the Corporation. Mr. Hector at all times was the Minister with responsibility for Lands and his first order of business upon being elected on July 11was to build a house for him and daddy.
“Within 10 months he had a house at Marion Avenue. By the time the house was finished the land was issued in his dad’s name. By the time it was finished his name was added to the title, and that was done on May 24, 2007.
He also accused Hector of providing soft deals for a number of members in his family.
“January 5, 2010, one Harcourt Hector, the brother of the Minister of Lands, conveniently had transferred to him some 18,106 square feet of land in exchange for 6,672 square feet that he had in Craddock Road. That is three times the amount of land. January 5, same date, one Tedson Hector, brother of the Minister, had 15,000 square feet of land transferred to him in exchange for 5,409 square feet that he owned. Three times the amount of land. All of this land is for the Nevis Housing and Land Development Corporation of which Hector, Robelto Elhansville is not just Minister but Chairman.
“February 5, 2010, Leonaldo Hector, is another brother, 5,999 square feet, his brother the Minister arranged for him to get 15,000 square feet in exchange for that.
Brantley also claimed that on September 22, 2010 Hector’s sister, one Mellocent Scotland, received a house from the Land and Housing Corporation, while on October 29 of the same year his “brother Tedson came back again and he gets another lot of land from the Corporation at Cherry Garden”.
He further claimed that Hector’s wife, Ramona, had gotten land at Cadres Ridge for $2.00 per square foot “when others, Nevisians, were being asked to pay $5.75 to $6.50 per square foot”.
“When we got into Government,” Brantley said, “this transaction, she had made a down payment on the land and he has asked back for his money, and so the Land and Housing Corporation is doing whatever negotiation with the Minister to pay him back whatever down payment he had made.”
Brantley also said that he had found a very interesting transaction between the now deceased John Clarke and Hector.
“...Mr. Clarke bought some land from the Corporation [in 2008] at Cades Bay for $1.78 per square foot...not long after in 2009 the same Mr. Clarke sold nearly an acre of land in three parcels to Minister Hector the Minister of Lands. And guess what the price Minister Hector got it for? Two dollars a square foot in Clifton’s Estate!
He also included the Hon. Patrice Nisbett in a similar deal.
“Patrice Nisbett, who was then Legal Advisor to the NRP-led NIA, he got some too. He got a half acre for $3.00 a square foot at Clifton’s Estate. So, 2008 Government land is sold to Mr. Clarke for $1.78 a square foot. Couple months later in 2009 Mr. Hector, Minister of Lands, buys land from Mr. Clarke – three lots – at $2.00 per square foot, and his sidekick Patrice Nisbett buys half acre for $3.00 a square foot.”
Making a comparison of the price at which land is being sold in Clifton’s Estate, Brantley said he spoke with a friend who lives there and he said that he bought his land for $3.00 a square foot in 2001.
He informed his audience that he is aware that the Inland Revenue Department Corporation has assessed lands in Clifton’s Estate at $6.50 -$7.00 a square foot, and that the signatories to the transfers of land were signed by Hector as Chairman and Nisbett as Member of the Corporation.
Brantley claimed that the transactions were scandalous.
“...The scandalous part is that the lawyers on each and every one of these numerous transactions were a firm call Oualie Attorneys, and Oualie Attorneys was the firm of Robelto Hector and Patrice Nisbett.
He reiterated his call for the public to judge his performance against that of Hector.
The Hon. Robelto Hector on Tuesday (Jan. 27), while on Freedom FM’s ‘Good Morning St. Kitts-Nevis’ talk show programme, labelled Brantley and the CCM as failures to the people of Nevis.
“Mark Brantley has been a failure at all levels of governance, and the Concerned Citizens Movement has been a failure as the Nevis Island Administration.”
Hector stated that since elected to the Federal Parliament in 2007, Brantley had brought nothing to the constituents of Nevis Nine, in particular, and the people of Nevis, as a whole.
He said that Brantley had lots of talk while in opposition, ”messing with the minds of many, creating confusion, giving the impression that he could deliver. But we have not seen anything from him but empty talk”.
“He is all talk, and no action,” Hector said, adding ,“If you go through the island of Nevis and ask a small child who is the minister of mouth, they would tell you that is the Hon. Mark Brantley.”
