Hallam Nichols, Owen Arthur and the Crooked Business of “Commissions” On Barbados Government Expenditures

How $100 Million Out Of Every Billion Dollars Spent By Government Goes To Crooked Politicians & Their Friends

See that new Government vehicle driving down the road? Maybe it is a SSA truck, or a supervisor’s auto from the Ministry of Public Works.

Your tax dollars bought those vehicles and the equipment in the back – but what you don’t know is that you paid five to ten percent more for the vehicles and equipment than you should have.

That extra “commission” (or “juice” as some call it) was paid to a middleman – sometimes called a “facilitator” or “coordinator” – who is said to have “put the deal together” or “arranged delivery” or “researched the purchase” or any of a dozen euphemisms that are used to conceal from the public just what is really happening.

Why doesn’t the Government of Barbados “research” its own purchases, or “arrange delivery” itself instead of paying “commission” to a “middleman”?

Why, indeed!

The answer is because crooked politicians and government officials approve paying the five or ten percent commission to the middleman – who then quietly pays a kickback to the politician or official.

What a cosy system!

Meet Hallam Nichols

Hallam Nichols is one of the foremost “middlemen” on the island. A close personal friend of Prime Minister Owen Arthur, he was invited to the PM’s recent second marriage when many Cabinet Ministers and others were not.

It is said that Hallam Nichols gets a piece of the action on a significant proportion of – some say the majority of – vehicle and equipment purchases made by the Barbados Government. He has been paid millions of dollars in “commissions” and “finders fees”.

Why has the Barbados Government directed millions of dollars of purchases through this one man, this close friend of Prime Minister Owen Arthur?

When the new DLP Government comes into power, we hope that they have the tenacity to look at every deal this man has ever made with the BLP government – because at the end of the money trail there are sure to be offshore bank accounts owned by the Prime Minister and other BLP big-ups.

How Barbados Flyover Middleman Jonathan Danos Operated In Jamaica

For more information on how these corrupt “middleman” operations are conducted, read a new story in the Jamaica Observer that explains how Barbados Flyover middleman 3S Structural Steel Solutions President Jonathan Danos and others took 8.5% of 45 Jamaican bridge projects valued at 22 million British pounds. (Jamaica Observer story link here)

Yes… when the DLP forms the new Barbados government, it is going to be exciting times ’bout hey!

Barbadians are sick and fed up with Owen Arthur’s administration

They say that a drowning man will catch at a straw.

Nowhere is this statement more accurate than in the case of the prime minister of Barbados Owen Arthur. Barbadians are sick and fed up with his administration and they thank him for the Christmas gift of calling elections here in Barbados just before Christmas Day so that they can remove him.

Everywhere in the country where political meetings are being held, the people are expressing a desire to be rid of this Barbados Labour Party from power. Noticing this ground swell of opposition to his party Prime Minister Owen Arthur has become desperate. His latest act of desperation is to try to involve the government and people of Taiwan in Barbados’ election.

He has stated boldly and publicly that Taiwan is funding the Opposition Democratic Labour Party. This is a bold-faced lie with not an ounce of truth to it. He realises that the people of Barbados are ready to dump his administration and he is drawing whatever red herring that he can find across the trail.

Prime Minister Owen Arthur it will not work this time around. We Barbadians have a burning desire to see the back of your Government.

What is even more disgusting in this situation is the blatant collusion of the main newspaper in Barbados, the Nation. They have banned all columnists who they perceive as writing any article which will give a balanced perspective of the election campaign. Anything that is not an out and endorsement of Prime Minister’s Owen Arthur’s Barbados Labour Party will not see the light of day in this Barbados Nation newspaper. This Nation newspaper is in the hip pocket of the Prime Minister Owen Arthur. If Prime Minister Owen Arthur wants something to talk about then let him discuss this sickening situation at the Nation newspaper. We Barbadians are disgusted with it.

No matter what Prime Minister Owen Arthur does and says between now and the 15th January 2008, polling day will not save his squandermania government. We Barbadians are determined to remove him from power.

Time for change, Owen.

Carson C. Cadogan
Eagle Hall
St Michael
Barbados

Read the original at Caribbean Net News here