Hello Alaska – Hello VECO Employees – We See You Visiting Barbados Free Press
The continuing VECO scandal and ongoing FBI investigation is being watched closely by citizens of the Caribbean nation of Barbados where VECO and its subsidiaries are involved in government construction projects totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The Attorney General of Barbados recently gave a press conference announcing that “any issues in relation to the United States has absolutely no connection to Barbados, or no connection at all to the construction of the prison”
Going even further in that interview, Barbados Attorney General Dale Marshall said “But I am satisfied that the company’s relationship with Barbados and the work they are doing for the Government of Barbados has at all times been entirely above board, and at no time is there any hint of a scandal in relation to the contracting of that company for the work on the prison or other work that they have previously done for the Barbados Government.” (Nation News article here)
Barbados Government Attempts To Defuse Questions About Relations Between VECO & Government Officials
Many Bajan citizens and local bloggers took issue with the apparent attempt by the Barbados Government to put “closure” on a scandal that is directly connected with Barbados – contrary to the Attorney General’s statements. It is alleged that Peter Kott, one of the accused in the FBI investigation, was offered a position at the new Barbados prison that is presently under construction. That project is hundreds of millions of dollars over the originally announced cost and Barbados citizens are concerned that VECO’s bribery techniques were used to obtain the prison contract and their previous major Barbados project, an oil terminal.
Barbados has no Conflict of Interest laws or Integrity Legislation for elected or appointed government officials.
There is no Freedom of Information law that allows Barbados citizens or others to obtain information on government contracts. Recently there have been detailed allegations of corruption by government officials carried by that island’s independent web-based media, which the Barbados government ignores with increasing difficulty as an election is expected for the winter of 2007-2008.
Most recently a lawsuit was filed by a Canadian corporation against Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, Chief Justice Simmons, Attorney General Dale Marshall and many other prominent Barbados politicians and corporations. The lawsuit apparently alleges corruption and behind the scenes dealings surrounding lands and government actions in Barbados. (see a BFP story list here)
While We Have The Attention Of VECO Employees…
The citizens of Barbados have a few questions to ask of you concerning the building of the new prison – which according to various news sources is over-budget somewhere in the $200 million dollar range.
Please refer to the comments section of this post.
Thanks!
A search of “VECO” on the Barbados Free Press website will reveal previous articles.
Barbados Free Press 
Dear Veco
1/ Please provide a list of all the subcontractors working on the Barbados prison project.
2/ Please list all “entertainment” charges you have had in Barbados since your initial bid for the oil terminal project.
3/ Please list all the “campaign donations” that VECO has made to Barbados candidates.
thank you
Dear Veco
Please list all Home Improvements you have effected here in Barbados.
‘Pete Kott met Allen in suite 604 as part of his effort to secure a job in Barbados’.
Kott told Allen, according to court records ‘I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie’.
Exactly how many other prisons have Commonwealth Construction, a wholly owned subsidiary of Veco built?
Which other companies tendered for the contract?
AL:
Q1. None
Q2. One consortium, comprising:- Jada, Rotherley, Rayside, COW, Bizzy, First Caribbean and Carillian.
The latter being a large UK firm which builds and operates jails in the UK.
Stinks doesn’t it?
Thank goodness they have whistle blower laws in USA because the honest Veco employees don’t want to be part of a cover up which will just make things worse. Their stories are still coming out, as they should be, so Veco can move forward with honesty from top to bottom.
29 June 2005 – Daily Nation
‘US firm to build new jail at Dodds’
Attorney-General Mia Mottley announced yesterday in Parliament ‘that VECO Inc., was the company chosen out of two proposals which were submitted’.
She said ‘that the proposals was evaluation by a technical committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance which unanimously recommended VECO for the job’.
‘I accepted the recommendation and last Friday the memorandum of understanding was signed by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and representatives of VECO. It is anticipated than within 21 months we will have a new prison at Dodds’ she told the House of Assembly.
Mottley said ‘Government would have to await the completion of the designs to quantify the finance of the prison but she estimated it would cost around $100 million’.
So ‘around $100 million.’
And one other question, WHY would you award the contract to ANY company BEFORE ‘the completion of the designs to quantify the finance of the prison’ ?
Adrian
These questions you ask ……… man …….
…… and the thing is they work for any aspect of government in Barbados!!
It is like shutting your eyes and throwing a dart at a dartboard …….. and scoring a bull every time.
How fortunate the participants are that this originated in Canada and not the USA, where corrupt payments to foreign politicians have been outlawed since 1977.
Yardbroom:
How come you think this affair originated in Canada?
VECO is a US corporation and this corruption case is to be heard in Alaska.
Yardbroom..
Explain please!
Isn’t the contract with VECO Inc., or is it with Commonweath Construction (a wholly owned VECO company)?
Remember the headline ‘US firm to build new jail at Dodds’.
Anchorage Daily News
7th June 2007
‘Interim leader named at VECO’
‘Armel (the new CEO) said ‘that if anything, it encouraged him to take a closer look at VECO’s operations in Barbados, to see why people there might be critical of the company’.
Well Done BFP..
An error was made, but you corrected it and look at the result. Mr Dan Armel has promised to look into the situation PERSONALLY and I am sure he will not disappoint us.
Thats all many of us want from a respected Government.
If you make a mistake, tell us, explain it, correct it and move on.
The question must be this chap Armel if he is part of this corrupt company is it not likely that he is aware of their method of operation and by extension also likely to be dishonest as well???
Well done BFP I have seen where the Alaska press has a link to this blog now and I am sure it is making some waves there.
What needs to be reveiled is the local component to this jail fraud.
Straight Talk & Adrian Loveridge
I have no inside information, and it was not my intention to give the impression I had.
I take your word that it originated in the US.
Adrian Loveridge
Veco has never built a prison in their lifes. They have no tack record in this area. Apparently Jada had tendered but according to a source the Gov’t or the Minister was so impressed with the work they were doing on another project on the island that they asked VECO if they could build the prison. One of the senior managers at the time told my source that they were not comfortable since they had never built a prison, they had reservations but that they were going ahead with the project.
My suspicion is that the Minister/Gov’t did their home work, knew who they were dealing with… and most likely arranged the usual kick back!
No-Name…
It seems almost incredulous.
How such vast amounts of taxpayers monies be spent without seemingly any due dilligence checks.
From media reports the FBI have been investigating links between VECO and various suspected corrupt political figures since at least summer 2000.
One Senator’s house was doubled in size apparently at no cost to him.
What is the logic in thinking that a company that had experience building oil terminals was a good one to contract for the construction of their first ever prison?
And what of Minister Motley’s statement in Parliament, $100 million and 21 months to complete?
There can only be two explainable answers to this question.
She either did not know or was deliberately misleading Parliament and the public.
Its time to tell us which!
Maybe, if reports of Minister Mottley’s recent American citizenship are true, she forgot which country she was addressing when announcing the estimates, and mistakenly used the dollar of her new U.S. allegiance.
This could explain why every project she announced at least doubled in price.
Congrats BFP. Do these politicians not realise that this is a different time. Do they really believe that this is all going to go away when and if they are voted out. Do they recognise that stemming from this investigative work(BFP) may herald the birth of a local NGO charged with asking/pressuring foreign Govts to search out THEIR ill-gotten gains. this would not set a precedent such can be found in Africa i.e Nigeria – Abacha, Haiti- Papa Doc, Congo- Mobutu Seso Seke etc etc. The result would be repatriation of funds back to public purse. First World Politics is replete with similar episodes. What about the FBI story attributing large sums of money to certain people in this country. These people should be gone after as well. To the local scene the foreign owned banks could be forced to release any information pertinent to possible coruption by their Govt ( Canada). Keep up good work.
Adrian L
“From media reports the FBI have been investigating links between VECO and various suspected corrupt political figures since at least summer 2000.
One Senator’s house was doubled in size apparently at no cost to him.”
Start with the statement that the FBI was investigating VECO since 2000 according to media reports.
Look at some local media reports also about the FBI.
There may be absolutely no link but then again these are things that make you go hmmmmmmm..
2nd March 2002 The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States of America is investigating a high ranking Barbadian public officer. And Prime Minister Owen Arthur has promised there will be no cover up.
He told a press conference yesterday afternoon that he had talks with Attorney General, Mia Mottley, who confirmed investigations were being carried out.
The paper quoted him “If there’s an investigation there will be an investigation, but you can be sure of one thing; that if there will be an investigation there will be no cover-up and if there is any matter to be faced, we will face these matters directly and within the four corners of the law”.
22nd March, 2002 Criminal charges have been recommended against two senior public servants arising out of an on-going intensive investigation into the conduct and business practices of a number of Government employees and private sector leaders.
Informed sources in the United States confirmed yesterday that the report was forwarded to the Prime Minister, Owen Arthur’s office late last week through the office of the Attorney General, Mia Mottley.
However, Arthur is out of the island and will not return to office until sometime next Tuesday. Mottley is also out to the island on holiday.
Does anyone know the answers to the following questions?
When exactly did VECO start doing work in Barbados?
Was it prior to March 2002?
What was it doing?
Where was it working?
With which Government agency was it working?
Yardbroom
“How fortunate the participants are that this originated in Canada and not the USA, where corrupt payments to foreign politicians have been outlawed since 1977.”
What would the FBI do if it uncovered a US citizen or firm making corrupt payments to a foreign politician?
Putting 2 and 2 together can give 5 ……. but sometimes, …….. once in a while, ….. you may actually get 4.
Wuh!?
Sumbody want locking up bout here. how dem cud keep dis quiet so all dese years?
John:
Can’t help much with your timeline.
In the last couple of weeks, the despicable Nation News appears to have removed all references to the Oil Terminal project from its online archive.
From VECO’s own website though it seems ground was broken on the Oil Terminal Jan 2004, with Phase 1 preliminary studies being undertaken the six months previous.
I definitely remember that we were originally quoted $60 million and it came out at $120 million.
I advise anyone researching our “free”
newspapers to take a hard copy of any items of interest.
They have a habit of disappearing at the first sign of public interest.
Straight Talk
June 2003 would probably be when the contract for this (anyone know if this was a BOLT job too) was awarded to VECO. There would have been a time period when decisions were being made on who should get the job.
I realise that until the Alaska scandal, I was completely unaware that there was a company called VECO undertaking contracts in Barbados.
It just seems like something is out of synch given the whole set of press the BLP likes to have for its “development” projects. A low profile for such a job invites suspicion.
When you speak of the Oil Terminal do you mean the tank farm at Grantley Adams and the pipeline from Oistins to the new tank farm?
Can anyone remember when (or if) tenders for the construction went out?
Does anyone know if VECO was involved in any other works in Barbados?……… like say the Deepwater Harbour.
Apart from the Newspaper, where would one go to get a list of capital works projects completed in Barbados by year?
Does Hansard appear in a searchable form so that any references to VECO can be easily found?
Looks like Barbados awarded the contract to build the oil storage facility on 16th November 2002.
Did anyone know that it is to replace the storage facility at the old MOBIL refinery?
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnl25020.htm
Straight Talk
… looks like it was a $40 million Canadian contract, …… well at least in 2002.
Guess the vagaries of inflation took it to the $120 million mark.
John:
Go to VECO’s website and Search Barbados.
The first ref. I can find is:-
December 2002
VECO receives Barbados National Terminal Company award.
Not a BOLT project, it is ECP as is the prison.
Oil terminal at GAIA, pipeline to Oistins and Woodbourne, along with Oistins offshore mooring is the spec.
Straight and Straighter Talk
This is starting to get interesting.
The C$40 million from the article on line was for the oil storage facility to replace the one at the old MOBIL refinery. This might be the $60 million Straight Talk gave as the start figure.
The final figure from Straight Talk was BDS$120 million.
So the difference could be the pipeline to Oistins and Woodbourne along with the Oistins offshore mooring.
The Woodbourne pipeline would feed raw crude from drilling for storage in the C$40 million facility. ……. makes sense.
…. and the pipeline to Oistins could carry the raw crude to tankers and refining.
Also makes sense.
Do either of you know anything about the pipeline which was leaking which took aviation fuel (not raw crude) to the Airport from tankers berthed of Oistins?
The leak nailed the water supply of farmers in the area and there was/is an ongoing battle between Shell and the Farmers.
Maybe Shell paid part of the difference between start and finish numbers to fix the pipeline.
Apparently it was the Barbados National Terminal Company project that impressed a certain Minister that Veco should be awarded the Jail contract! Does anyone know who was the Minister in charge of National Oil at that time? Who ever it was along with the Attorney General (Mia The Bribe Vampire Mottley would have facilitated the contract for the jail. There should be public documents detailing the number of companies that submitted a bid for the contraction of the jail. Maybe we can ask Bizzy Williams….now there is one man who knows about what went down…..of course he will not say anything to bring down this gov’t.
Folk…I home you see why Bizzy and Party will not want us to say anything negative against the P.M
This and most things done by this current adminstration needs to be looked into for signs of corruption and under hand deals.
This jail, oil storage facility, the slot machines, gems, shall go on???
This is one dishonest bunch of criminals that should be placed in that same new jail managed by the one Knott.
VECO and BLP. Who is guarding the guards?
Anthony Wood, Minister of Energy.
The ever present Dr Leonard Nurse,
chairman of BNTC.
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