The following was extracted from a comment posted by Walter Blackman to respond to BU commenter Bush Tea on another blog Nation Publishing MUST Do Better – Blogmaster
… However, I must express great disappointment and dismay at the level of stupidity you are displaying with respect to the Astrazeneca vaccine procurement scandal. I am a moderator, so I cannot give anyone the impression that the Astrazeneca Vaccine Procurement Scandal is an item on my personal political agenda. After reading the various articles in the press, I have analyzed the situation and agree that Barbadians only needed 300,000 vaccines at US$3 per dose. That means that Barbadian taxpayers should have been asked to only pay US$900,000 for the Astrazeneca vaccine.
Instead, we have a situation where the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health & Wellness (the Accounting head of the Ministry) wrote Astrazeneca and told them that she was ordering 1 million doses of the vaccine, and the million doses will be for the exclusive use of Barbadians and will not be resold.
Meanwhile, the PM of Barbados, from an interview in NY, said that Barbadians will have to pay US$24 per vaccine dose. Although Astrazeneca said that they will only be dealing with governments or COVAX to limit the profitability of the vaccine , the Government of Barbados asked them to deal with Radical Investments Ltd., a foreign company owned by Mark Maloney. So straight away, Barbadian taxpayers were being asked to pay US$24 million for Astrazeneca vaccines that should have only cost US$900,000.. The Minister of Health & Wellness said that he did not know that Radical Investments Ltd. as a company existed, so he would be bringing his political career to a sudden and unexpected end.
Barbados only needed 300,000 vaccines, so the extra 700,000 vaccines that Barbadian taxpayers would have paid for, based on the order placed by the PS of Health & Wellness, were now to be sold to St. Lucia and the Bahamas at US$27 per dose. The amount of money destined to pass through the hands of Radical Investments Ltd., owned by Mark Maloney, amounted to US$42.9 million. This is the heart of the Astrazeneca vaccine procurement scandal. The plot was hatched in secrecy, and everything would have worked like a dream if Mark Maloney had not been robbed by the “3-card men”, and forced to produce documents in a USA court..
The Government of Barbados, so far, has been unable to provide a credible defense against the scandalous allegations.
Now, in order to ventilate and discuss this matter further, I would have needed a caller to call the Brasstacks program and initiate discussion on the matter. That caller could have been you. Unfortunately, instead, you chose to sit on your backside and criticize me. Useless, lazy, dim-witted Bush Tea.
So far, you have wasted your time, my cursed friend. The opportunity is still there, though. Let us see if you can seize it. Call Brass Tacks and raise the issue. Or is that too much for your lazy backside to handle?
Feel free to cuss me if you want. I simply do not care.
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