BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, January 19, 2010 (Labour Secretariat) - For over one week now, Leader of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Lindsay Grant, has been embroiled in a “cash for land” bribery scandal with a so-called international property investor, that has seriously called into question his sound judgment, sagacity and integrity as leader of a political party, a candidate offering himself for political office and an aspiring Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has called for Grant to resign as leader of his party saying that he has shown serious “corruption tendencies” that render him unfit to hold public office.
A video posted on YouTube shows Grant meeting with an international property investor (who turned out to be an undercover journalist) on Sunday January 10, in which he negotiated the sale of 200 acres of land in Brotherson’s Estate on the outskirts of Newton Ground Village at a price of US$20,000, a terribly underestimated price for land in that area.
Grant, in agreeing to the prostituted land price of US $20,000, asked the investor for “some other benefits to offset that” in return for US $1.7 million to fund his party’s election campaign.
Mr. Grant has time and time again accused the Government of selling off prime crown lands to “white” foreign investors and has said that his party’s land policy is to lease large acres of land instead of selling it.
However, the YouTube video has revealed what others are calling “Grant’s downright hypocrisy”.
He has also been pushing for the Integrity in Public Life Bill, but the latest revelations have uncovered in the minds of many, supporters and non-supporters alike, a serious lack of integrity on Grant’s part.
Grant could be heard on the video telling the unknown investor how the funds can be transferred to his accounts clandestinely.
“I have some outside accounts I operate, which are trust accounts, so that when I filter the funds, it won’t really show,” Grant said to the investor.
He also appeared to be very desperate for the money and power-driven in his conversation with the investor, who he described at a public meeting as a white “business executive representing some large company” with a British accent by the name of Graham Wells.
“As you appreciate time is of the essence…But I can assure you, that if you are able to pull this off, you will be given top priority,” Grant could he heard telling the investor.
Grant has accused Prime Minister Douglas and members of his team of entangling him in the bribery web, a charge that the Prime Minister and his team have repeatedly denied.
“Grant has set himself up and entangled himself in his own web,” Prime Minister Douglas has said.
