Opposition anger over Bush claim

Opposition leaders yesterday rejected corruption charges by Premier McKeeva Bush, denying any wrongdoing and saying the claims were an effort to distract people from greater issues of top-level dishonesty.

At the same time, Bodden Town’s ”anti-dump” coalition dismissed Mr Bush’s allegations that they were affiliated with – and led by – the PPM, calling the claims “ridiculous”.

Speaking at a Thursday UDP rally in Bodden Town, Mr Bush accused both PPM chief and George Town MLA Alden McLaughlin and East End legislator Arden McLean of corruption, saying he would write to Commissioner of Police David Baines seeking a formal inquiry.

Holding up a letter he claimed was addressed to Mr Baines, the premier asked “why, for more than one year, was Arden’s electric bill not paid?
“You want to talk about corruption? Between 2005 and 2009, the Minister for the district admitted he had not paid his electrical bill for one year while he was negotiating a new agreement with CUC [Caribbean Utilities Company],” Mr Bush said, “and I am asking for an investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission.”

Commissioner Baines is also the Chairman of the five-member commission, formed in January 2010 to probe official wrongdoing.

Mr Bush said he was preparing two more letters, asking the commission to investigate the PPM leader. While he did not detail the charges, he hinted that they surrounded the 2006 approval by Mr McLaughlin, then-Minster of Education, of the appointment of UCCI President Hassan Syed, who fled Cayman in 2008 after revelations of “financial irregularities” totalling as much as $350,000, and fraudulent credentials.

Mr Bush also indicated a probe of Mr McLaughlin’s appointment of Tom Jones International to build the Clifton Hunter and John Gray high schools, halted in late 2009 after both government and company claims of at least $100 million for breach of contract.

Mr McLaughlin yesterday called the claims “a patent attempt to deflect attention from the interests and concerns about his conduct,” referring to a joint RCIPS-Governor Duncan Taylor probe of corruption allegations in a 2004 real estate deal between Mr Bush and Atlanta-based developer Stan Thomas.

“After two years, he has consistently refused to explain to the country about the criminal investigation against him,” Mr McLaughlin said, “and most recently his use of public funds given to John McLean Jr”, a reference to Mr Bush’s allocation last week of $200,000 for community improvements to the district’s independent political candidate, bypassing Arden McLean.

“This is McKeeva Bush’s typical response to charges against him,” Mr McLaughlin said. “He never addresses them, but is prepared to point fingers at the Opposition.”

Arden McLean yesterday denied allegations about his electric bill.

“This came up a couple of years ago and was discussed in Cabinet and a letter was written to the governor. It never happened. It is not true. There was no bill waiver. I had to pay like everyone else.”

If CUC had waived his bill, he said, they would have expected a favourable contract agreement, ”but we lowered their rates,” Mr McLean said. “What kind of sense does that make?”

Both Mr McLaughlin and Alain Benier, spokesman for the Coalition to Keep Bodden Town Dump Free denied any connection.

“The coalition is quite independent,” Mr McLaughlin said. “They founded themselves over this one partcular issue, and while the PPM also opposes the crazy idea to move the dump from George Town to Bodden Town, they are not a part of the PPM in any way.”

Mr Benier called Mr Bush’s charges “a smokescreen and an attempt to avoid the answers and documents we’ve demanded.  While individual members of the PPM may well support the coalition’s campaign – as do a number of UDP members – the coalition has nothing whatsoever to do with the PPM, or with any political party.  There isn’t a single MLA or PPM official on our Coordinating Committee, and the coalition has not received a penny from the PPM.

The group, he said, “supports no political party, and condemns equally past and present governments for neglecting their responsibility in regards to proper management of the George Town Landfill and the elimination of Mount Trashmore.”