Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler’s sleazy conflict of interest

Kickback? What kickback? Wuhloss! Surely you jest! It’s a CONSULTING FEE!!! For consulting. Plus the politician owns a piece of the company getting the government contract. Just another business entrepreneur. Nothing to see here folks. Move along, move along…

Should a Minister of Government have a financial interest in the outcome of a company’s bid for a government contract?

Finance Minister Chris Sinckler smiles. You’d smile too with a piece of a $700 million dollar government contract!

Anywhere in the civilized world the answer to that question is a resounding “NO!!!!”

But not in Barbados.

In Barbados we have no conflict of interest laws. No Integrity Legislation. No disclosure of assets for elected and appointed officials. No transparency laws that allow citizens to monitor elected or appointed government officials.

So if our DLP Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler stands to personally profit from the awarding of a government contract to his own company to build a $700 million dollar waste-to-energy plant… that’s just too bad for you taxpayers and ordinary citizens.

Barbadians accept that elected politicians become wealthy in office. This is so ingrained in our culture that when former Prime Minister Owen Arthur donated US$150,000 in after-tax dollars to Cricket Legends of Barbados, some folks said what a wonderful man he was. Only a few in the blogging world and none in the oldstream news media bothered to say “Think about the wealth it takes to give away US$150,ooo.”

Where the Hell did Owen Arthur get that kind of money?

When Owen Arthur was caught money-laundering campaign donations through his personal bank account, what was the official response of Barbados? Ha! The DLP government appointed former BLP Prime Minister Arthur as head of a Commonwealth team in the Maldives tasked with ensuring the elections were conducted legally! HA!

So back to Finance Minister Chris Sinckler…

According to news reports, Sinckler has an interest in a company looking for a $700 million dollar government contract, and the true cost of the project will be $4.8 BILLION over the next 30 years.

How corrupt. In the USA or UK he’d be headed for jail. But not in Bim!

No laws being broken here folks… because there are no laws about this kind of thing. Nothing to see. Move along… move along…

“Members of the DLP and BLP had an opportunity to remedy this vulnerability with the passing of integrity legislation… but we all know how that turned out.”

Central Bank of Barbados still hiding from news media

That’s Governor ‘Weasel Words’ Worrell on the right… er, left!

Over a year ago Dr. DeLisle Worrell, the head thug of the Central Bank of Barbados, took issue with a Nation News story about the central bank.

So did Worrell ask the paper for space to present his thoughts to the citizens? Did he demand an apology, retraction or correction? Did he write an article to be published in the media or on the bank’s website?

Nope… Worrell banned Nation journalists from all bank events. Worrell wants to control what the press says about him and banning them was his stupid, thuggish reaction to an article he disagreed with.

This is so typical of the Bajan elites’ contempt for freedom of the press and the right of citizens to hold government officials and institutions accountable.

Journalist Ian Bourne

Then the central bank issued a press release in an attempt to backpedal, but as our friend Ian Bourne of Bajan Reporter points out, the Central Bank of Barbados hasn’t held a quarterly statement media briefing since then.

Bajan Reporter is sticking to its guns and hasn’t published the bank’s quarterly reports, and won’t until the institution resumes press briefings. In return, the bank has cut off advertising revenues to The Bajan Reporter, but as Bourne says, he will not sacrifice his dignity at the alter of CBB’s coffers.

And as Worrell is showing – once a thug, always a thug.

Check out The Bajan Reporter for the whole story on how the Central Bank of Barbados is failing to be accountable and transparent to citizens and government alike: Bajan Reporter will carry CBB’s media statements as soon as Quarterly Press Conferences resume.

Porn profiteer Minister Donville Inniss cautions Barbadians against websites that “deliberately spew filth”

“Inniss also voiced concern about people using social media to spread “the nastiest” and “most untrue” reports about fellow Barbadians, and warned that the state would do what was necessary to tackle the perpetrators.” (Nation News, April 8, 2015)

Above: One of the porn websites that made Inniss money

Donville Inniss made a fortune on Internet Porn, now he wants to censor political debate and truth

Pssst… Want to hear a good one?

Minister of Industry Donville Inniss and his government are preparing a law against what he calls “cyber-crime” – but protecting people against hacking is only part of the law. Censorship is what it is all about.

Lately the Minister has been speaking to all who will listen that social media, blogs, twitter and facebook is “out of control, running amuck, spewing filth”

Donville Inniss has a good reason to want to stop the truth… for years he made money as the Online Porn King of Barbados, and no – it wasn’t that he owned a website company and other people put porn up on his servers. That’s what he loves to tell people, but a little digging on the internet shows that Inniss registered porn trademarks in the USA and Canada. Barbados Free Press covered that and printed proof in a series of articles listed below.

How low can you go?

Barbados Government Minister Donville Inniss was part of the lucrative online sex business for years. He profited from websites where desperate pregnant women and teenagers performed sex acts for money.

Inniss also profited from websites showing humans committing sex acts with animals.

You know we couldn’t say this if it wasn’t true folks. Our WordPress hosting company would take us down faster than a rum disappears at Oistens on a Friday night.

Inniss and Orgasm.com profited from websites with pregnant women porn, teenaged porn and sex with animals. All the proof is in our articles and after all these years Inniss hasn’t been able to make Barbados Free Press remove these articles. Because they are for true!

Only one journalist on this rock had the integrity to ask Minister Inniss about his porn business, and Inniss responded by savaging Ian Bourne whenever and wherever he could.

Go ahead, Minister Inniss. Pass your internet censorship law.

Everybody knows why you want that law.

List of BFP posts with proof of Inniss porn connections…

July 16, 2012: Barbados Health Minister attacks journalist over questions about Minister’s porn business profiteering    

Why weren’t charges laid in attack upon Barbados Immigration Officer?

We might be wrong here, folks. We HOPE that we are wrong.

BUT… we have two people telling us that a foreigner punched out a Bajan Immigration officer at the airport …. and that management backed away and laid no charges. The Immigration officer is still on sick leave but no charges were laid.

WTF?

Yes. Exactly.

President of the National Union of Public Workers Walter Maloney confirmed much of the story at a symposium at Workplace Violence Awareness Day.

So what is the story? Let’s hear it!

above: Walter “lots of excuses” Maloney; President of the National Union of Public Punching Bags.

Go figure… Immigration officer attacked 

Afra Raymond talks about Corruption and Citizenship at The Cloth Propaganda Space

by Afra Raymond

The ‘Unconquered‘ discussion series is hosted by Robert Young’s The Cloth at #24 Erthig Road, Belmont…Attilah Springer – aka Tillah Willah – is one of the livewires driving this initiative…

I was invited by Tillah to speak at the ‘Conscious Citizenship‘ meeting on Wednesday 13th August 2014, along with Dr. Kevin Adonis Browne, author of the searching new work ‘Tropic Tendencies’…the session was both heated and edifying…it was real, even when Browne ramoujayed on rhetoric!

Afra Raymond on the Invader’s Bay scandal and High Court ruling

“The entire process possesses all the ingredients for corruption, I maintain that view.”

Our friend Afra Raymond remains a solid asset to disgusted Trinis and the rest of the Caribbean in the fight against corruption by public officials. Trinidad’s Invader’s Bay scandal is representative of the types of corruption that unfortunately permeates the Caribbean, and Afra has been right on top of the story from the first moment. It is probably accurate to say that Afra’s detailed reporting on the story has the government vexed, and influences the government response and strategies.

Power of the press belongs to those who have one – and Afra has one.

Head over to Afra Raymond’s blog for the latest stories about corruption in Trinidad and Tobago.

Afra Raymond: Reality Check

The real reason greedy Bajan political elites want to dump the Westminster parliamentary system

Even the Captain of a floating wreck lives better off than the crew!

submitted by Not Michael Carrington

“Rare indeed is a Barbados Cabinet Minister without a bank account in New York, London, the Caymans or Zurich.”

Every few months we hear rumbling from our esteemed political elites that the Westminster parliamentary system is somehow “obsolete” or that it no longer fits a modern society.

Speaker of Parliament Michael Carrington recently said the Westminster system “pits Government and Opposition inexorably against each other in aggressive, contentious and oftimes seemingly unnecessary confrontation.”

Mr. Carrington has it only half right. The two parties often go at it aggressively and unnecessarily, but not because of the Westminster system – it is because they feel the need to put on a show for the electorate to create the illusion that something is happening. The politicians certainly can’t have the public judging them solely upon actual accomplishments because, well, that just wouldn’t do. This would happen no matter what political system Barbados chose.

CL Financial Directors tell Afra Raymond (and you) “Don’t worry. Relax. Have a rum.”

Leroy Parris and good friend Finance Minister Chris Sinckler share champagne

The contempt of the elites for the rule of law continues in the CL Financial scandal.

‘We’ the people sometimes forget the primary rules of island life:

1. In any large scale fraud upon the public, initial Profits are privately owned by the elites who did the fraud. Later Losses are publicly owned.
2. There will be zero accountability or transparency by the elites charged with “getting to the bottom of things”.
3. No elite is ever charged with any crime, except if it is really necessary. In that event, the police are given marching orders and not enough time and resources to complete the task. The accused will be found ‘not guilty’ in a fair trial before a carefully selected judge.

“I’m sure there’s some good legal reason why High Court Justice Kaye Goodridge ordered the Barbados Police to put the CLICO criminal charges on hold. Always is some good legal reason for doing what is done.

It’s just that we predicted this months ago. Futures destroyed, pensions gone, lifetimes of work and savings stolen… and nobody will ever pay.

Nothing changes ’bout hey. Nothing. Ever. Changes.”

… from BFP’s Barbados court orders CLICO criminal charges stayed against Terrence Thornhill, Leroy Parris

And like we’ve said at BFP before, it’s a good thing that Prime Minister Thompson died before the public knew of his role in money laundering millions of CLICO dollars for his close friend Leroy Parris.

But still, there are those good citizens who keep pounding away at a corrupt system ruled by corrupt elites…

Afra Raymond is one of those good citizens looking for justice for us all.

See his email exchange showing how the caretaker CL Financial Directors duck, dodge and slide…

Afra Raymond: Compliance of CL Financial Directors with the Integrity in Public Life Act

Barbados Government forgives $2 million in taxes from sale of Almond Beach Village – Neal & Massey must have given political donations to DLP!

Tell me this, my friends…

When was the last time the Government of Barbados forgave you any taxes owed?

Be honest… When did the guvment look the other way for you or your loved ones?

Never? Yes, that is about right.

How much did Neal & Massey donate to the Democratic Labour Party in the last three years?

With no election funding rules or transparency, nobody knows… and the political class wants it so!

The government of Barbados is expected to waive more than BD$2 million in taxes from the sale of the Almond Beach Village, the Barbados Nation reported last week, citing a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. Almond Beach is owned by the local Neal & Massy group.

According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report: “Management has not taken into account any amount in respect of stamp duty or property transfer tax on the sale of the transaction as they expect these charges to be waived by the government of Barbados.”

PwC added: “While we have been provided with correspondence to support management’s expectation of an official waiver, we have not been provided with statutory instruments or other audit evidence adequate to support the actual waiver. Had the stamp duty and property transfer tax on the transaction been recorded, assets held for sale, total assets, revaluation reserve and shareholders’ equity would all have been reduced by BD$2.5 million.”

… read the rest of the story at T&T Guardian: N&M to get tax waiver on Almond Resorts sale

Tennyson Joseph: DeLisle Worrell’s folly

Tin-pot dictator, Insecure, drunk on power…

“To issue a ban and to accuse the Nation of “lack of professional integrity” is burning a house to kill an ant. Banning a media house for a misleading headline is the kind of action associated with backward tin-pot dictators, rather than very intelligent, highly placed civil servants.

In a context of authoritarian political leadership, our leading public servants must lift the political culture above the paranoid vindictiveness we associate with insecure politicians, drunk on power…”

Good reading at the Trinidad Express – Tennyson Joseph: DeLisle Worrell’s folly

Anna Druzhinina murder: Persaud appealing sentence, Barbados Court stonewalls journalist

Zero Transparency or Accountability from Barbados courts…

One is not permitted to take notes or record in courts in Barbados, even public criminal proceedings. The press is gagged until after the trial is over. Then one cannot get any transcripts of the proceedings, motions, and findings.

Over a year later and I am still waiting on the High Court’s registrar’s office to provide me with DPP Leacock’s recommendations for sentencing of the two murderers of Anna Druzhinina, one in 2010 and one in 2012. They got manslaughter for hanging her.

So what is the definition of transparency?

Amy L. Beam, journalist and BFP contributor

Below article originally published on February 13, 2013…

Barbados Free Press

Censorship and a Travesty of Justice

By Amy L. Beam, Ed.D

As of today, I have waited over one month for the chief registrar in the court’s registrar’s office to provide me with the written statements of DPP Leacock in the sentencing recommendations for McCollin (2010) and Persaud (2012). In common parlance, this is known as stone-walling. Silence does not mean I’m finished with this issue.

Also, I was told at the court house that Persaud is appealing his sentencing.

So Barbados is a country with complete judicial secrecy. In the courtroom I was not allowed to have paper, pen, or recording devices. Now I have been refused ALL documents relating to both of the convicted men.

“The case is over, the verdicts and sentencing have been rendered, yet the documents are being kept secret. Does Barbados seal documents after a murder or manslaughter trial? Is the international community taking…

View original post 67 more words

LIAT Statement On Barbados Free Press Blog Post

LIAT Statement On Barbados Free Press Blog Post

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Jan 21 2014 – LIAT (1974) Ltd. has taken note of the post, dated 17th January 2014, in the Barbados Free Press online blog of an Article entitled “Report of Conflict of Interest: Saint Vincent PM Ralph Gonsalves said to own 2 LIAT aircraft”.

The anonymous author concludes that “The conflict of interest arises because SVG is one of the major shareholders in LIAT. Government funds are involved and Prime Minister Gonsalves is heavily involved in decision making about the airline”.

The two aircraft mentioned in the article are owned by a publicly listed US based Leasing Company trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). LIAT has always had arms length negotiations with this Lessor and its relationship with this Lessor is firmly set on a commercial basis. LIAT has no Aircraft Leases with Prime Minister Gonsalves or any shareholder of the Company and categorically denies the suggestion that the Prime Minister has anything to do with the leasing of aircraft to LIAT. LIAT views conflict of interest very seriously and abides by principles of good corporate governance.  

Barbados Hotels and Resorts debacle continues with another government loan guarantee. Where did all the public money go?

GEMS scandal keeps going and going and going…

Say ‘goodbye’ to your tax dollars as government guarantees a loan with zero hope of repayment.

Adrian Loveridge, small hotel owner.

Whatever was behind any honest intentions of the Hotels and Resorts Limited (HRL) or the “GEMS” debacle, it is difficult to imagine a worse outcome so far.

Government’s decision to guarantee yet another loan to this failed entity, despite the current austerity situation, frankly defies belief and clearly will not have a happy ending.

This latest loan is for BDS$5.55 million at an interest rate of 7.75 per cent, arrangement fee of $350,000 and monthly repayments of $55,000.

Included is a $300,000 overdraft facility which attracts an administration charge of $5,000 each month.

HRL now operate a single hotel – Blue Horizon with just 67 rooms. Another 50 additional rooms acquired at the time of purchase (1997) remain derelict all these years later. Savannah and Time Out at the Gap are leased and operated by private sector interests.

Where did the money go?

Three other properties originally in the GEMS portfolio were sold and it still remains unclear what price they realised and exactly where those funds went.

Dirty politics in Barbados? Sex Video said to be a well-known politician… but it’s not him

At least, we don’t think it’s him…

In the past few days eight readers have sent us a sex video that is supposed to involve a well-known Bajan politician having an excellent time with a woman not his wife.

Wuhloss! Who would have imagined such a relationship could happen on this rock?

After a thorough examination of the video, several times, with rum and beers in hand, your committee of Barbados Free Press editors and staff concluded that it sure looks like you-know-who, but it’s not. At least, we don’t think it’s him.

But that leads us to the next question: Who created or discovered a slightly-blurred sex video that looks like a Barbados politician but isn’t really? Who sent it around and put it up on the chat groups with his name? Was it done with a hidden camera? It looks that way!

Why it was done is an easy question to answer, and we’re not going to mention which party might have done it. *** (We’ve changed our minds… see the end of this post.)

All we can say is, politics is a dirty game everywhere, but especially in Barbados where there are no rules about conflicts of interest, there are no procurement standards for spending government money, and there is no Freedom of Information Act that would at least give citizens a hope of finding out the truth.

Do you want to clean up politics in Barbados? We have to start by stopping the feed at the piggy trough. Being elected shouldn’t be a guarantee of becoming a millionaire, but that’s the way it is ’bout hey.

As long as the rewards of being elected are that large, and the chances of being caught so small, the politicians of both parties will continue to use every dirty trick to discredit others and to get themselves elected to the piggy trough.

Afra Raymond on More 104.7fm – talks about his lawsuit against the Minister of Finance

Afra Raymond chats on the show ’Forward Thinkers‘ with David Walker on 104.7FM, dealing with the CL Financial bailout and my lawsuit against the Minister of Finance to get at the detailed information as to how the $24B in Public Money was spent. 24 October 2013. Audio courtesy More 104.7 FM. Listen here.

Programme Date: Thursday 24th October 2013
Programme Length: 0:45:41

Send us documents, articles: whatever you like! You can trust Barbados Free Press.

Some folks want to know the answers to these questions…

How can I post a news article on Barbados Free Press?

Easy! Just email the article to us here: barbadosfreepress@yahoo.com

OR… you can use our Contact Us form.

How can I get a letter or document to BFP?

We don’t reveal our mailing address because we’re an anonymous blog. You’ll have to scan or photograph the document and then email it to us.

If the document is too large to email, try using one of the free document posting services where you can upload the document and then send us the secret link – all anonymously.

Try: anonfiles.com  Wikipedia has an updated list of anonymous file sharing sites

Will Barbados Free Press keep my identity secret?

Of course we will keep your identity secret. You don’t even have to tell us who you are. We publish anonymously-written articles all the time.

We’ve kept writers’ identities secret at their request since we started in 2006. That’s a long time and nobody has a better track record – not even WikiLeaks!

Does Barbados Free Press keep records of emails and files sent to you?

No we don’t. Once we publish something, read your email or otherwise finish with what you send us, we delete everything securely. Only what is posted on BFP’s WordPress blog remains.

Court issues order: Afra Raymond can drag stonewalling Trinidad government before Judicial Review

Tough guy, that Afra Raymond. Won’t take “NO!” for an answer from a government that doesn’t think it needs to obey the Freedom of Information laws.

They fired Afra from where they could in the news media and thought he’d go away – but still he walks on in search of the truth. They tried ignoring him and now he’s gone to court and obtained an order when most people thought he couldn’t.

Yup, this is getting even curiouser and curiouser!

Order granting leave to file judicial review in Afra Raymond vs Ministry of Finance and the Economy.

CL Financial scandal: Government ignores Freedom of Information request, Activist heads to court

At least Trinidad and Tobago has a Freedom of Information law!

What is being pursued here is our right as citizens of a modern republic to the details of these huge expenditures of Public Money – the CL Financial bailout is costing some $24Bn, about $3.5Bn USD! – and the background to how critical legislative support is obtained.  It is my view that S.34 was not the first time and that the spectre of ‘regulatory capture’, which underlines much of the discourse around the Great Depression 2, is in fact founded on a sinister degree of ‘legislative capture’.

Having had a series of ‘cat and mouse’ exchanges with the Ministry of Finance since my Freedom of Information Act application made on 11 May 2012, this is my pre-action protocol letter sent to them by my attorney on Thursday 7 March, seeking their proper reply in 7 days…that time expires at midnight today, Wednesday 13 March.

So stay tuned, because we are going to the High Court after that…

Afra Raymond