BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – GRETSON ‘GOOGAL’ ISAAC owner of Googal Arts Graphics is making claims that the People’s Action Movement (PAM) owes him EC$147 000 for work he did for the Party under the direction of its Political Leader, Lindsay Grant.
Isaac, in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, said he had done a number of graphical works for the Party leading up to the 2004 and 2010 elections. The graphical works included branding political boards, making signs, flags, and banners etc.
He said that on several occasions he submitted bills that he continually discounted to the Party as a result of Grant’s refusal to honour his obligations.
He claimed he was unable to meet his financial obligation of loans that he took to do the job for PAM and, as a result, he suffered financial difficulties to the point where his utilities were disconnected and he had to lay off 15 members of staff.
Isaac said that in 2004 he submitted a bill to them in the vicinity of EC$205 000, and that after they lost the election he was asked to do a reduction on the bill.
“So I gave them a reduced bill of EC$168 000 and to my surprise they said to me they only have EC$130 000. I told them okay, I wouldn’t dry out their pockets. I proceed by giving them a bill for EC$128 000,” he said.
He said that Grant then paid him EC$4 000 towards the bill and told him he would ‘settle’ him shortly and that he should wait until things settled down in terms of the elections.
“Every month I keep sending him a bill. Every month I subtracted from it, and then to date he still ain’t pay me. He never indicated that he ain’t gon pay me, it was always a promise.”
Isaac said that also in 2004 Grant further told him to go to Don Boncamper at TDC and inquire about the money.
“Boncamper said to me, ‘Don’t come to my office and come on my job to ask about nothing for the PAM…up here is TDC.’ I asked him if he had an office somewhere else, and he told me not to come up on his job. I left it there. I went back on another occasion and he told me not to come on his job.”
By the time the next elections came around the PAM had already accumulated another bill.
Isaac said that Eugene Hamilton, one of the Party’s elected Parliamentarians and Representative for Constituency Eight went to him sometime before the 2010 election with work to be done for the PAM.
He said that he grew up with Hamilton and respected him so he accepted the jobs.
“So I did the work. He paid a deposit. I work for him, he pay me, then they wanted so many things done that we couldn’t bother with a strict bill anymore. Whatever we could do for them we did for them. Their thing is that they have a lot of work coming but then I put a freeze on them.”
Isaac said that Hamilton was bringing other work for the Party.
He said he had already installed a number of billboards, printed photos for constituency offices and a number of other stuff.
“So we started out doing business as business and then because of the rush, things didn’t happen in a formal way. They didn’t dispute the fact they owed me money, but they just wouldn’t pay me.”
Isaac said that the bill for work done for the 2010 election was to the tune of EC$68 000 but he was once again asked to reduce the bill, which he did to EC$32 000.
He was however told that the party only had EC$24 000.
“So, with respect to the bill, I went and minus EC$6 000 from the EC$32 000 and then they gave me a cheque for $EC3 000.”
Isaac said in 2012 he got word that the Party was not going to pay him because they had recently made announcements following the last election that they were the newly-revamped PAM.
He said in speaking with a friend, he was advised to pray about the situation and he did while attending a church service.
“When I got out of church, a voice just told me to go to the Prime Minister and I went. I told him I’m not coming to him as a Prime Minister but as the boss of the country. I told him I’m in the country, and I have a problem. He advised me that I should go see the Chief of Police.”
After speaking with the Chief of Police, who advised him to speak with the Criminal Investigation Department, Isaac made several attempts to speak with them but was unable to.
Isaac claimed that on April 5 Grant, Jonel Powell and Sly Boncamper showed up at his business on George Street, Newtown to see him and that Grant said he would like a word with him.
Isaac said he decided to prepare his small office to accommodate the men and even turned on his air conditioner for the first time for the year to make the office comfortable.
However after sending his son to inform the three men to go into his office and was told that they refused, he instead went out to them.
On approaching them, Isaac said Grant told him that he refused his offer because he would have been uncomfortable talking to him in the office.
“I said to Mr. Grant, ‘When you were supposed to be presumptuous and precautious you were not, now you want to punish me by talking in the hot sun? But the least I would ask is for us to go on the other side.’ So, I then walked over to the other side.”
He claimed Grant told him that he understood that he (Isaac) went to see the Prime Minister, the Police Commissioner, and also went to the CID.
“So he said to me, ‘But I want you to understand, the Prime Minister cannot f*** with me, when I get up in the f****** morning I cook my own f****** food, I light my own f****** stove, and no f******* body could f*** with me.’ In response, I said really! Well, unfortunately for me you owe me money, so I ain’t got no money to buy no stove, I can’t cook nothing, I can’t do most or many of the things you say now. But I must mention that it got something money can’t buy and you either got them or ain’t got them. And I’m particularly referring to class…you have no class. If I owe somebody I don’t have to be elusive or derogative just to don’t pay them, because that ain’t gon help.”
Isaac said that Powell told him he could not understand why he had agreed to work with someone if that person had not paid him for work previously done.
“I said to Powell, you don’t understand and you don’t want to understand because your job is words. Your aim right now is to make me say something that didn’t happen. But this is the reality…it’s straight and simple. I work, you all owe me, so just pay me…simple.”
He said Boncamper told him that he should not have gone to the Prime Minister.
“Hadn’t I gone to the Prime Minister you all wouldn’t have been here. So, as dumb as a move it was, I get some attention from you all,” Isaac said was his response.
Isaac said that during that encounter he was also accused of sending threats to Grant and his family about kidnapping his sons; an accusation which he denied.
He said that he went to Grant’s home in 2011 shortly after 6:00 a.m. to inquire about the money owed to him.
He added that Grant inquired of the amount of money the bill was and he handed him a bill, as he had been doing every month.
Isaac explained that he went to Grant’s home because on numerous occasions when he tried to reach the party’s leader at his Church Street office no attention was paid to him.
The businessman said while at Grant’s home, he told him that he had encountered a number of problems because he has not been paid the money his Party owes him and that a bailiff is waiting to collect EC$12 000 from him.
Isaac said Grant told him that he would see what he could do.
The businessman said Powell told him that the manner in which he handled the situation was not the right way.
“I was doing business with some people who knew better, not as lawyers and businessmen, but as a set of people who were destined to become leaders of the country. And it’s their technique that led me wrong, prostitute the circumstances because it suit them, and now they want criticise me as a businessman. If I was doing the business as business, they would have never gotten anything from me,” Isaac said.
Isaac said that before the three men left they asked for a copy of the bill and that Grant told him he would be back in two weeks.
Grant however told SKNVibes that he did not contract Isaac in 2004 or owed him any money.
In terms of the EC$4 000 payment that Isaac said Grant paid him, Grant said that was from the Party itself and that he does not sign Party cheques.
Grant also said that because he was the political leader of the PAM, people would automatically think to go to him in terms of when they are owed money, but that there is a system in place.
He said that all bills go to the Financial Controller and they would be dealt with by him.
He explained that Don Boncamper was the Financial Controller at that time.
Grant claimed that the 2004 bill never arose until 2012 and that the Party engaged Isaac in more work and he never mentioned an outstanding bill, because there was none.
“So he had a bill in 2010 and did not say anything was outstanding from 2004,” he said.
He said that when Isaac went to his home one morning after 6:00 a.m., he told him that he owed EC$6 000 and that a bailiff was waiting to collect the money.
The party leader claimed that Isaac asked him if he could help his situation and give him half of the monies, to which Grant said he wrote him a cheque for EC$3 000.
He also said as far as he knows Isaac was paid in full for the work he did for the Party.
Confirming his visit to Isaac’s office with two other persons, Grant said he kept hearing that he owed him monies and he went to ascertain exactly what he was talking about.
He said that he met Isaac on the outside of his business and told him he would like to speak to him.
Grant said Isaac went inside to prepare his office for them to speak and that he spent about eight minutes doing so and “I decided I was not comfortable going in there”.
Grant said that he told Isaac as far as he is concerned they did not owe money for the 2010 or the 2004 elections.
“I said to him, since you are making claims I will investigate the matter and get back to you,” Grant said.
Grant said he is still investigating the matter which he would discuss with his Treasurer and Financial Controller.
He said that he had reported the matter to the police because he had learnt that Isaac had been making threats against his family that he was going to kidnap his children if he were not paid the money.
In terms of what is next, Isaac said he was advised to take legal action.
“I can’t support PAM and their bad habits. When I work I want to get paid. I’m a supporter of PAM. That’s all I got to say, and all he has to do is pay me. I done work and all I’m looking for is to get paid.
“I’m not a confusion man. I don’t be in nothing with nobody; all they gon say is that he does sing or always working,” Isaac said.
