Antigua PM responds to opposition allegations

Sunday, November 23, 2003

ST JOHNS, Antigua: In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Prime Minister Lester Bird dealt with the issue of three cheques made payable to the Antigua Labour Party and two of its constituency branches by Mr R Allen Stanford.

Mr Bird said that the donations to the constituencies of Ministers Molwyn Joseph and Gaston Brown, were not paid to them personally, but to their constituency branches.

In response to the opposition leader, Mr Spencer's allegation that the payments to the constituencies of the two Ministers amount to inducements because, according to him, they negotiated the sale of government property to Mr R Allen Stanford who made the donations. Mr Bird said that in reality, the two Ministers did not negotiate the transfer with Mr Stanford. The negotiation was carried out by the entire Cabinet. 

According to Mr Bird, Ministers Joseph and Brown, were instructed by Cabinet to implement the Cabinet negotiation which, in the end, will be to the benefit of Antigua, increasing its national wealth and improving the downtown area of St John's.

Mr Bird described the essence of the transaction as follows:

An independent valuation has been placed on the Government property where the present General Post Office is located and the land adjacent to it.

An independent valuation has also been placed on the building which now houses the downtown branch of Bank of Antigua. 

In the valuation, the Government property has been valued at EC$5.9 million more than the Bank of Antigua property.

The arrangement is that Bank of Antigua will swap its downtown property for the government property that now houses the General Post Office and the adjacent land, and that the sum of EC$5.9 will remain due to the Government.

Bank of Antigua will then construct on the site of the present General Post Office, a modern, landmark building which will considerably improve the appearance of downtown St John's, and will also increase the level of the national wealth. 

Within this new, modern, landmark building, Bank of Antigua will be required to provide facilities for a state-of-the art General Post Office facility which will be paid for by the sum of EC$5.9 million that remains due from the exchange of properties.

Therefore, in the end, the Government will get the current property presently owned by the Bank of Antigua in addition to a state-of-art Post Office facility in the modern, landmark building that Bank of Antigua will construct on the site of the present Post Office building. In addition, downtown St John's will be significantly improved, with tremendous benefits for the businesses that operate in its vicinity.

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