[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the many promises by a campaigning Allen Chastanet in 2016 was to get to the bottom of the 17-year old Grynberg issue, centred on a 2000 controversial agreement between the Colorado oilman Jack Grynberg and then prime minister Kenny Anthony. The arrangement remained a secret for nine years and to this day remains, to quote current prime minister Allen Chastanet, “surrounded by suffocating smoke”.
In a related statement he delivered in parliament on April 3 this year, Chastanet said: “We are determined to deliver on all our election pledges, regardless of impediments deliberately put in our way. Our country was sick and dying of business as usual; we need to put an end to it . . . or die trying!”
Referencing a number of controversial subjects, the prime minister went on: “I repeat my party’s election pledge to get to the bottom of a number of suspicious undertakings by our predecessors. The undertakings were neither transparent nor accounted for. We must clear the suffocating smoke that conceals the truth about Mr. Walid Juffali, Robert Lindquist, St. Jude Hospital, the infamous minister’s account and Grynberg.”
This was the reaction of the former prime minister Kenny Anthony a day following Chastanet’s statement: “It is clear that his actions are motivated by revenge, malice, spite and ill-will . . . I have been through persecution before. He himself must never come to the altar of justice with unclean hands and mind.”
Citing Chastanet’s announced smoke-clearing undertaking, Anthony threatened: “Don’t do it, or you’ll pay the price.” His forefinger indicating the seated prime minister, Anthony said: “When he embarks on whatever action he embarks, I will make sure that he reaps the whirlwind for his actions!”
Nearly four months later, the prime minister has said not a word, not a word, not a word on the smoke-clearing expeditions.
On June 18, questioned on the matter by this reporter, Mr. Guy Joseph, for a change, sounded heavy-tongued.
“I stand by what I’ve already said publicly,” he said. “Dr. Kenny Anthony has refused after all these years to answer any questions on the Grynberg matter. How can it be that a prime minister can go into an agreement to lease our seabed to an entity, and not be accountable to the country? I want to know: Why are we still paying to defend and reclaim the seabed in Saint Lucia?”
“But isn’t it up to the government to investigate how that was possible?” I asked. He responded: “There are certain things government can do, and there are certain things government cannot do.”
Pressed further for a more meaningful answer, the minister said: “But how can you go into the man’s mind as the government and find out why he did what he did? Everyone knows the governor general is the only one under our Minerals Act authorized to issue exploration. And we know on good authority that the governor general knew absolutely nothing about the Grynberg transaction.”
All of which suggests there is no investigation in progress, so far as Grynberg is concerned. Readers are free to speculate about what is preventing the prime minister from keeping the particular promise that contributed to his party’s election in 2016. Could it be he is wary of Kenny Anthony’s “whirlwind”? Meanwhile the government continues to spend millions for the services of defence lawyers in the breach of contract suit brought by Jack Grynberg in 2011.
