marshall.jpg

MARSHALL CHARGED. Member of Parliament Rommell Marshall was in court yesterday to answer charges brought against him by the National Insurance Department. He was accused, among other things, of failing or neglecting to pay contributions due from the Delmar Group, of which he is a director, on behalf of people employed by him. Here, Marshall (right), leaving the District Magistrates Court with his attorney Michael Yearwood yesterday.
Source: Nation News

Is it not typical in Barbados to have a former Minister in the government charged with a serious crime, evasion of social security, and then nothing comes of it?  Is this what is going to happen with the charges against Marshall in the social security fraud charge?  The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) whose leader, Prime Minister Owen Seymour Arthur is on record committing the BLP to a high level of accountability and transparency, which has been echoed by the media, including our most vocal call-in program moderators, and Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Yet all are happy to operate business as usual.  If convicted, should Marshall, a Member of Parliament and a Public Servant, not be forced to come to the people and make some public statement? We assume this is the same Rommel Marshall who participated in the award of an insurance tender to Consumer Guarantee Insurance (CGI) which it is alleged was higher than the nearest offer. On top of that, there is the conflict of interest angle where a Director of CGI, Mr. David Shorey, is known to be a very close friend of Prime Minister Owen Arthur.  It seems that our people have become intoxicated by ignorance regarding issues of good governance.

Prime Minister, O$Agclarke.jpg

News coming from a BU source indicate that a swanky Barbados Labour Party function, held at the Sea Breeze restaurant in New York, was organized by the Counsel General of Barbados. The buzz among the partisan crowd, which was by invitation only, was the plan to toss Rommel Marshall to the wolves given his recent ensnarement with the law over the non payment of national insurance deductions, coupled with his public support for Mia Mottley as leader to take over from Arthur before the elections are called. There was even talk about a candidate, whose name is the opposite of “high”, continuing the tradition of the politics of inclusion in the St. Michael West Central.  It was reported that Prime Minister Arthur delivered a 50-minute speech after which he refused to entertain questions from the floor. There was some tension at the function because some BLP supporters from a visiting Barbados Domino team were invited at the expense of DLP teammates!

There was also discussion about the political future of the convalescing Wuk Fuh Wuk who is heavily involved in the 3S Barbados and Jonathan Danos affair. There is heavy concern in the BLP camp over this political quagmire. Our source has informed us that Minister Gline Clarke is seriously contemplating his political future with the General Elections imminent. Apparently, the increase in the flyover project is directly linked to the deep foundations that 3S have to dig for the 95 pliers to support the flyers, which was not scoped accurately in the original proposal; this cost was grossly miscalculated. Remember our previous article mentioned that the engineering company Hill-Carnes specializes in limestone topography. Our source alleges that the government of Barbados and 3S Barbados are currently locked over this issue.

drug-runner-rib.jpg

Finally, one of our readers sent us an email which expressed concern that the Barbados Coast Guard is not equipped to confront the drug running boats coming out of Venezuela and Colombia. Apparently, these drug boats are believed to be equipped with rocket launchers and other “high octane” artillery. We tried to confirm this information late last night but our source clammed-up on us.

Come on, let us debate the issues because the VOICES of the PEOPLE must be heard!

26 responses to “Dateline Bridgetown, Barbados”


  1. Does anyone know who foot the bill for this sweet lime?


  2. What is is this source afraid of?

  3. 15 MORE SWEET ONES Avatar
    15 MORE SWEET ONES

    http://www.nationnews.com/story/293786251916223.php

    MORE BLP

    Published on: 9/29/07.

    by TRACY MOORE

    GIVE ME 15 MORE YEARS!

    To great applause from a supportive audience, Prime Minister Owen Arthur suggested Thursday night that Barbados elect him for another three terms.

    But then he quickly added: “Me, meaning the Barbados Labour Party (BLP)!”

    “We are strong in social capital and if we have done so much in three terms, give me 15 more,” he said while addressing the third annual Tom Adams Memorial Lecture at the Frank Collymore Hall, Central Bank.

    Listing his party’s achievements, he said Barbados already had the most developed economy in the developing world, with many aspects already attained at First World status.

    “The notion that a small society cannot become a developed country is contradicted by history,” he said.

    “For the first time in human history natural resources and the possession of natural resources do not matter as much as the availability of skills and the ability to master knowledge and how you carry out your policies and that is the benefit of globalisation,” Arthur added.

    “When we picked up the Government in 1991, Barbados had minus $4 million in reserves and we transformed that in less than 12 years. We have increased that reserve by $2 billion,” he said. “In addition, in this year alone Government increased the reserve by $350 million.

    “We are in the process of building out a more modern economy and the projection I am making to you is if in the last ten years we can increase the reserve by $2 billion, imagine what more we can do in the next ten, 15 or 20 years,” he said.

    The Prime Minister noted that the BLP had also inherited an economy in which unemployment was 24 per cent, and that it “reduced and kept in to lower levels”.

    “As we build out this more modern economy, you have to give us the chance to do it too, because the investments that we are making now will allow the Barbados economy, despite the criticism that we have, to abolish unemployment.

    “We can give you the assurance that by 2025 we can have a modern economy in which, I feel, full employment and full growth can be attained,” he said.

    He also stated that if Government “stayed on course by 2025″, cause we are near there, poverty in this country will be eradicated”.

    “We can build the social capital through education and training and these are the key few things that matter to be able to equip Barbadians.

    “Those who say that Barbados could not be a fully developed country by 2025 are people who believe they want a change in Government,” he said.

    Please also see Pages 20 & 21.

  4. YUM YUM I like it! Avatar
    YUM YUM I like it!

    “We are in the process of building out a more modern economy and the projection I am making to you is if in the last ten years we can increase the reserve by $2 billion, imagine what more we can do in the next ten, 15 or 20 years,”

    Owen Arthur

    In this statement he is making a projection for the listener to imagine something based on a event which he said happened in the past!!!!

    EH?

    I think he missed the point of a projection.

    In this speech, littered with poor grammar and inept English, 12 years changes to 10 years within a paragraph.

    Owen Arthur truly is an intellectual midget!


  5. Is Owen Arffa asking for 15 years? Is this all the time he and his men will get in prison?
    He had the Frank Collymore Hall pacdked with his hangers-on so they had no choice but to applaud. If I were paid to go there and applaud as a BLP supporter I might have done the same. But being me, I stopped supporting them since 2001


  6. RR the Frank Collymore Hall was two thirds empty. You are right about everything else. Arthur must be drunk to ask for another term far less fifteen years.


  7. Great speech from a great man! Sorry that ‘King David’ will never be able to reach the imagination of a people or to speak to the nation from the perspective of being the country’s leader.
    Arthur showed the importance of a nation knowing its history, recognising its builders, and the hope that augurs well for the future given that social change demands a sense of caring and continuity. With social capital and social justice being centred into the development agenda for Barbados, this country is destined for more great things under the leadership of Prime Minister Arthur and the BLP administration.


  8. Geoge:

    Sorry I missed such an inspiring oration.

    Can you define the social capital and social justice which have been so centred into our developmental plan?

    Or not?

    Anticipating your considered reply.


  9. George
    Never heard so much BS in a long time. What de @*%! you mean by “social capital and social justice”?
    Does that statement make any sense to you? Thought so.
    BTW, George, what will history record in the column next to Arthur’s name?


  10. The Blp are at it once again they have posted on thier site where someone was asked to donate $ 500.00 to BFP and got robbed, I felt it necessary to defend the BFP blogs and I think others should as well these people are not only dishonest they are bastards at spin.
    Dear Blp,
    You have reached a new low in your example to the citizens of this nation, because at the BFP site they throw some lashes your way which in my view you are most deserving of because you have given them the fuel to do so with, your attacks are not exclusive so to the DLP gets their share the only difference is that according to the recent posting on the BFP you have the method and the means to spy into the living rooms of the average Barbadian and intrude in their privacy as per their report of yesterday.
    To publish the story above as you have is a clear indication as to the extent that you percieve this blog to have hurt your standings in society, by printing or creating this trash as above is a sad sad statement of your intent and your standing, for you to write something as dishonest and as misleading as this as your mission to discredit BFP is a dishonest and bastardly act.
    You know not all that you see on these blogs is real but then again much of it has truth attached to it, why not address the question asked on BFP such as why the tripling of the cost of the Prison, why the tripling of the scope of works of the road works project but only a doubling of the cost according to Mascoll moving from $ 120 million to the unbelievable figure of $ 360 million ?
    When you address those issues it may negate the role of BFP, until then we the taxpayers are left to ponder is their real corruption and dishonesty in gov’t or is it a myth or is it just BFP?
    Smarten up guys you are suppose to represent the gov’t of the day and when you slide into priting dishonest untruths as you did above it does nothing to enhance your reputation as being an honest gov’t.


  11. IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER.
    I sincerely hope that he also ask if Mascoll is involved with this company and what is his role within this company?
    Also I would like to know if Mascoll ever paid one red cent towards the cost of the office that Hardwood Holdings constructed for he Mascoll’s wife in Eagle Hall?
    If he has not as I understand he has not, why then have they not taken action to recover their money in that building.
    I would also like to know why it is that this man at Hardwood Holdings can molest three (3) women and he has not yet been taken before the courts?
    Could it be that there is a political coverup going on has Mascoll spoken with Owing and Owing spoken with Leacock and CJ Simmons and instructed them not to take action?
    Also how can it be that a company that is receiving funding from Gov’t to purchase various pieces of equipment that when these pices of equipment arrives in the island and is installed that this same equipment does not appear in the books of Hardwood holdings but rather it is owned by the director he is the owner of this equipment, in essence should the business fail the gov’t has no legal access to the assets of the company ie this equipment that has been bought with our taxpayers monies will not be recoverable for debts, this is a serious and very disturbing matter that needs the attention of the public and the PM, the AG and the DPP, someone needs to take the bull by the horns and resolve these sickening issues of corruption and dishonesty.

    PROBE CALL

    by CHRIS GOLLOP

    OPPOSITION LEADER David Thompson is calling for an investigation into the financial dealings of Hardwood Housing Factory Inc. – a company promoted
    by Government as the answer to low-income housing in Barbados.

    He said he was in possession of… [more]

    OPPOSITION LEADER David Thompson is calling for an investigation into the financial dealings of Hardwood Housing Factory Inc. – a company promoted
    by Government as the answer to low-income housing in Barbados.

    He said he was in possession of information which would suggest there were improper “sweetheart handouts” and “kickbacks”.

    “I am therefore calling for an independent forensic investigator
    to probe the company . . . someone
    of the standing of Mr Bob Lindquist because I am determined that
    there must be no cover-up in this particular instance,” Thompson
    said in an interview yesterday

    Lindquist, a Canadian, is
    an internationally recognised forensic expert who recently investigated
    a corruption scandal into a water project in Trinidad and Tobago.

    “It is amazing, for example, that this company – not on the corporate record as belonging to a Barbadian – could have benefited in less than two short years from royal handshakes from various Government agencies including direct cash investments,” Thompson told the SUNDAY SUN.

    “Not only that, I have been advised of the allocation of land which many other Barbadian enterprises were denied access to and the granting of contracts to build Government facilities that would both normally be built
    in concrete and are well within
    the capacity of ordinary
    contractors to build.

    “The question we must ask is who
    is the real brain behind Hardwood Housing Factory Inc. and what qualifies it above all others to benefit in this way from Government largesse?”

    “In addition,” Thompson went on, “the country has a right to know whether there are any criminal charges pending against any of the company’s senior operatives.

    “This potential scandal in the making must now be viewed against the backdrop of several alarm bells being raised in relation to other Government projects.”

    In this regard, the Opposition Leader identified the highway expansion project and the new prison, slated to be handed over
    to Government today.

    “I said many months ago that the next general elections in Barbados would be ‘the fly-over election’ in which I saw the move towards flyovers as
    a public expenditure project in which there would be a lot of ‘election fat’,” he recalled.

    “Without the fixed price
    for the Barbadian contractors increasing, the road project
    on the ABC Highway may be up to three times the original cost and counting.

    “This is a very serious matter. There has been a deafening silence from senior members
    of this Barbados Labour Party Government in relation
    to the currently on-going
    legal matter relating to one
    of the principals of the company undertaking the work on the ABC Highway.”

    He charged that there was also a “foul smell” coming from
    the construction of the new prison in St Philip.

    “Again the public wants
    to know why we have not heard
    a word from any senior Government official in relation
    to the serious investigation by the FBI of certain principals in the company contracted to build the prison,” he said.

    “The question that the people of Barbados must begin to ask
    is why are so many characters
    of dubious background following our reputedly clean, honest, transparent Government.
    This is the first case I know
    of flies following vinegar.

    “Or perhaps what we were
    led to believe was vinegar
    is actually syrup.

  12. Dr. Cliverton Jones Avatar
    Dr. Cliverton Jones

    http://www.nationnews.com/story/294271679288620.php

    New Caricom passport
    Published on: 9/30/07.

    THE NEW PASSPORT.

    BARBADIANS now have a new passport.

    The CARICOM passport (seen here) looks similar in colour, shape and size to the present document. It, however, bears the Caribbean Community title and logo.

    “We just received the first batch of the new CARICOM passports and from Monday (tomorrow), all new applicants will be receiving the new passports,” said Chief Immigration Officer Gilbert Greaves.

    He told the SUNDAY SUN the new passport had enhanced security features and was “machine readable”, meaning that it was compatible with the scanner equipment now installed at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

    Greaves said the cost of obtaining the new passports would remain at $125 for adults and $75 for children under the age of 16. (CG)

  13. Dr. Cliverton Jones Avatar
    Dr. Cliverton Jones

    New passport… I LOVE IT!!!!

    Cliverton.


  14. The government will let Rommell Marshall sink/bury himself because they want to get rid of him. They wanted to put Edghill in his place, but he would not retire, and the council would not accept no one but him, so the bigups in the part had no choice. He will NEVER get another ministry they only want him to get the seat back. Which he still seems possible of doing, cause his challenger is strong but I don’t think that strong. Regardkess of what he did at the time he was/his the best minister of Transport that we had in a long time, certainly better that Clarke or Payne. By far.

  15. Wishing in Vain Avatar

    Undertaker On the scheme of things nowadays the $ 500,000.00 that Marshall stole is mere chicken feed to what these guys are stealing now a quick check will reveal over $ 400 million in only two projects would be enough to make you want to vomit.
    And the shorty idiot saying that he wants 15 more years what so that nothing is left of this island but every inch sold to non nationals that prevent nationals from getting to the beaches?
    I want people to ask Mike Pemberton when his project is completed if locals will be granted access to the beach!!


  16. We think that it is a heavy indictment on our system if Rommel Marshall is not wanted by the leaders in the party but he would still insist on running. If elected how effective can he be? What does this say about the people (constituents) who love Marshall? Should they vote for a representative whose position in the party makes him ineffective? In a democracy they have the right of course to vote for whoever they want but the whole thing seems so …

  17. Wishing in Vain Avatar

    Ladies and Gentlemen,
    This is about as bad as it gets to have Barbadians restricted from freedom of beach access allowed by a short drunkard because of his greed for his bank account this is a very sad day in the lives of Barbadians.
    NO ENTRY?
    Published on: 10/1/07.

    This access road to Batts Rock Beach will be no more if developmentof a multimillion-dollar condominium project gets underway. (GP)

    by CARMEL HAYNES

    VEHICULAR ACCESS to the popular Batts Rock, St Michael beach will disappear if those behind a new upscale condominium development get their way.

    According to the physical scoping study and social impact assessment documents at the Town Planning Department, the developers want to remove the current public access road, instead creating a footpath that would lead to the Batts Rock beach and public facilities.

    The developers, identified as “Mr and Mrs Lee Simon”, want the road removed because it divides the almost four-acre property in two.

    Plans for the development, which will consist of an undisclosed number of four- and five-storey residential apartments with associated parking, swimming pools and other amenities, were submitted to the Town Planning in August 2006.

    The developers promised it would be “quite different to previous privately-owned development projects in that it introduces a significant public gain through the grant of public right of access and use of the attractive coastal cliff-front section”.

    The development will include landscape lighting, water features, focal paving, garden gateways and parking, and will incorporate a sea turtle management plan.

  18. Wishing in Vain Avatar

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    How timely my post was last night, without knowing anything about the story in the newspaper of today’s date.
    This was on the cards from the moment this project started and I would never have expected the gov’t to tell that they have granted these permissions to affect the beach access to locals and residents alike.
    This gov’t is sold out to the highest bidder and Pemberton has them by the short and curly and pulling hard and getting any and everything that he wants including restricting the access to our beaches thanks Owing for selling out our country and us the citizens.
    How corrupt and dishonest you and your party are is unreal.


  19. DAVID – “Should they vote for a representative whose position in the party makes him ineffective?” The people of St. Andrew have been doing it for about the last 2 elections or so. Furthermore their’s could not even speak. It is only now that it seems he needed a “pretty/sexy” challenger to wake him up.


  20. Undertaker~do not underestimate the influence the man of hats has in the BLP. We think that he has a powerbase, cant’t say the same thing about Rommel.


  21. DAVID – you do make some sense there.


  22. last week i wrote that rommel marshall had been put out to sea by the the p m because he said he back mia now it has come to past owen set him up by telling the police to start court proceedings against him and the pm want to buy out DR.Dennis lowe to come over to run on a blp ticket for rommell seat

  23. Wishing in Vain Avatar

    Have a read of this it says a lot about where our country is heading!!

    “YOU SHALL WAKE UP ONE DAY AND FIND THIS COUNTRY NOT YOUR OWN”
    Jump to Comments
    “You shall wake up one day to find that this country is no longer your own”. These were the words of The Rt. Excellent Errol Walton Barrow. These were not the words bred in nationalistic fervour but a deep reflection on the manner in which, countries such as Barbados tended to be overtaken by foreign capital development.

    Over the past 12 years Barbados has seen an unprecedented onslaught of upscale development to cater to the foreign rich and famous. These persons bring a lifestyle to the country that is disrespectful of the values, mores and culture of Barbados. They believe that everyone can be bought, that those we place in positions of authority will bend to their will and give them their every obscene wish.

    The nation newspaper of (2007-10-01) carries a story (see below), which gives testimony to that assertion. The beach at Batts Rock will only have pedestrian access because some rich foreigner has deemed that his property must not be soiled by so many Barbadians mainly of African orgin having access to that location. Do not care what the fancy statements are used by the developers. Many of them come from backgrounds which are hostile to indigenous people and they take for granted the acquiescence of the local population to their every wish.

    This kind of view can only be substantiated by the connivance of the governors of the state. These governors must have sent out messages either overt or subliminally that the foreigner, with money to spend can do whatever they will in Barbados. This manifestation is exemplified in the numerous gated communities, which have sprung up on Barbadian soil in the last ten years and the number of closed access to beaches. No matter what is said, where persons are frustrated from gaining access to a beach they eventually abandon that beach to the exclusive use of the foreign element. The Barbados Labour Party’s government has to take the fullest responsibility for the destruction of the Barbadian patrimony and the wholesale sell out of the country. The people of the country has to state emphatically that it cannot be business as usual. We will welcome all persons to our shores, but they must respect our laws, values, mores and cultures. The BUCK cannot be all to a nation’s soul

  24. Wishing in Vain Avatar

    An Extract from the DLP site!!!
    ARTHUR COMPLICIT BY HIS SILENCE
    The Democratic Labour Party has struck a raw nerve with the tabling of some probing questions revolving around the Hard wood Housing Factory Inc. A company promoted as a technology solution to housing and one the Minister of Housing seems to have distanced himself from despite the glory painted by ‘Gems’ Minister Clyde Mascoll.

    David Thompson alerted the taxpayers the said company was “not on our record belonging to a Barbadian” yet benefiting from “royal handshakes from various government agencies including direct cash investments” in less than two years. The real question posed by the party leader was “WHO IS THE REAL BRAINS” behind the factory “AND WHAT QUALIFIES IT ABOVE ALL OTHERS TO BENEFIT IN THIS WAY FROM GOVERNMENT LARGESSE?”

    What is even more discerning is the lack of interest shown by Arthur, Mascoll’s current political role model, to the machinations at the St Philip plant. It is clear that he has lost all control.

    Arthur has led an unapologetic administration at every turn of accountability. He promised transparency and accountability from his team yet all the public gets are spin doctors trying to account for the wastage of taxpayer’s monies.

    How can Arthur speak of a developed Barbados? When the only development that seems to be taking place can be seem among the cronies of his administration. This country is now experiencing a level of corrupt practices unlike any other Caribbean county. It cannot be right for taxpayers to be sitting every night watching Minister after Minister bundle their way through half truths regarding the wastage of our taxpayers’ dollars. We have seen the Golden shower, Airport expansion over runs, the NHC Warrens building, the Prison cost , the highway cost tripling and now the Hardwood project, all poorly managed at the expense of our taxpayers.

    The Barbadian taxpaying public is demanding answers from the mighty Arthur who can do no wrong .His recruitment strategy of politics of inclusion and his doubled edged tongue have all been answered by the daily cries of hurt and suffering of our taxpayers.

    Arthur’s call for fifteen more years must not be taken lightly as a request. The Democratic Labor Party is seeing it as threat to a future stable Barbados. The more the BLP realizes its fortunes are dwindling the more damage will be done to our already fragile existence. The recent announcement about works at the National Stadium, lights at the Oval, construction of schools, police stations, Municipals centers and daycare facilities all form part of the election carrot that this BLP is hoping to dangle in front of the voting public.

    But the Barbadian public has been awoken. David Thompson and his team have been uncovering the “GEMS” and the “JAWS” of the BLP’s corrupt political pot. David Thompson at every turn has being warning tax payers of this county about the wastage and corrupt practices of this BLP administration. Arthur and his bunch have asked for proof and the public has been presented with the truth. David Thompson has gone on record as vowing to unearth the political dirt wherever it settles and they is a big pile in Roebuck street.

    There is no way that Arthur can wriggle his way out of a response to corruption charges against his administration. The last budget wrap up indicted that something was fishy from the top and the scent goes right down to the bottom. David Thompson smelt a rat and he found an even bigger rat at Hardwood Housing Factory Inc. The question that all taxpayers must be asking is when will the rot stop and where is the sensitivity to the needs of the public?

    The solution lies in the election of David Thompson and his team. He has promised Integrity Legislation and a look into the “change in scope of works” as authored by Arthur and his team. He has the political will to deliver while his opponent sharpens his tongue and remove his gloves to sink into his element.

    David Thompson’s focus is not on a sharpened tongue or removing gloves, it is in securing an improved quality of life for all Barbadians. This is possible by electing the Democratic Labour Party.

  25. Trying to make a comment but Avatar
    Trying to make a comment but

    As was posted on the blp blog a short while ago.

    It is becoming very amusing that suddenly after 22 years of Tom Adams death that he is suddenly remembered.
    Does this have anything to do with you trying to resurrect the dead to help in winning the upcoming general election, is this the same ploy that you have tried to expose the DLP for having done over the years?
    Actually while you are at it maybe you should awake Bree St.John for his support and counsel on matters at hand at present.
    More importantly to me, to get my vote will be to be honest with the taxpayers of this island and fully explain where the money has gone in these wild cost overuns on nearly each and every project undertaken by your admistration in the last few years.
    You will buy many more votes by trying to truthful and honest as opposed to standing tall and delivering blows.
    Why is it that MR N. Lynch should feel offended when asked about the sudden gain in his personal wealth this is a question that should be asked and a response given by any politician, then there is the question of the cheque, the question of Hardwood Holdings, the question of 3 S Danos and his court case, and VECO and their court case, as time is going by the questions are becoming more and more plentiful and sadly no one from within the top rankings of the BLP are coming forward to quell the chatter with facts or proof, this then leads to widespread rumour and chatter on the blogs at the street corner, in the rum shop, my advice to you is if these things are not what they seem please come forward and explain them to John Public and quell them once and for all but by standing quiet it only fuels the feeling that there is dishonesty in gov’t based on these happenings.
    I do not know the status but would surely love an explanation to many of these exposed items.


  26. looks like Marshall has seen the error of his agnorant ways and settle his debts with NIS. according to the nation all charges now dropped.

    What an idiot.

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