Last Updated on February 21, 2020, 3:52 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) candidate for St Christopher 7, Leon Natta-Nelson intimated Sunday that the failure of the members of St Kitts and Nevis Cabinet to deal with the scandal in which St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris begged British billionaire and property tycoon, Peter Virdee for campaign funds, a pair of shoes and an expensive watch, has opened the floodgates for corruption.
Two United Kingdom High Court judges in a ruling in London found that “Without going into particulars and putting the matter at its very lowest, we have no doubt that a judge considering the passages we have quoted would regard them as capable of giving rise to a reasonable inference that the claimants were willing in principle to make and to pay bribes but felt that Caribbean politicians (in which Dr Harris was named) were asking for too much.”
“When things start wrong, they end wrong. Ever since 2016 when the Prime Minister’s name was caught up in a bribery scandal in the UK Court, look at what has happened throughout our country,” said Natta-Nelson who pointed to the establishment of a company by the Minister of Infrastructure, Hon Ian Patches Liburd, since he became a government minister, to trade in construction materials and concrete.
“That is a loophole for corruption,” said Natta-Nelson, who is challenging Dr Harris for St Christopher 7 seat in the next elections.
Natta-Nelson also referred to the recent ruling in which three judges of the Eastern Caribbean Appeal Court denied St Kitts and Nevis’ Minister of Tourism and International Trade, Hon Lindsay Grant and Youth and Culture Ambassador, His Excellency Jonel Powell, leave of appeal and a stay of execution against a default judgment in which both are accused of breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and failure to account or misappropriation of US$460,000 (EC$1.2 million) belonging to a client,Tanzania Tobin Tanz.
Grant is seeking a second term as Parliamentary Representative in St Christopher 4 and Powell is making another bid for the St Christopher 2 seat in the upcoming elections.
Natta-Nelson during the meeting made reference to a sting operation in January 2010 in which Mr Grant was recorded negotiating US$1.6 million in campaign funding from a journalist posing as a developer, who wanted to purchase several hundred acres of land in St Kitts and deposit the money in an off-shore account.
Natta-Nelson also referred to a statement last year by Prime Minister Harris that he had sent over EC$200 million to the Nevis Island Administration and as Minister of Finance he had to “to ensure that monies aren’t squandered.”
Amid rumours that two Cabinet colleagues were plotting to remove him as prime minister, he hastily called a town hall meeting in his constituency.
“Whoever carried their suit to dry clean, to get freshen up for the swearing-in of a prime minister, tell them there is no vacancy. There is no vacancy in prime minister’s office. And I don’t care how much rumours they spread. I don’t care when they said where they said some people went to hold secret meeting for whatever they do in the dark has to come out in the light. And what will come out in the light is that none of them, none of them who are scheming can hold a candle of correction to me,” said Harris.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
