ACTING PRIME MINISTER Freundel Stuart should relieve Michael Lashley of his duties as Minister of Housing, says Opposition Leader Mia Mottley.
She told a Press conference yesterday that Lashley misled the Parliament of Barbados on two occasions on August 17 “by seeking to convey the impression that there was a contract in place with Clico at Constant, St George”.
Fired chairman of the National Housing Corporation (NHC), Marilyn Rice-Bowen, insists that such a contract did not exist.
During a public meeting in Heroes Square last Sunday night and again yesterday, Mottley quoted from the minutes of an NHC meeting on August 17 in support of her charge that no such contract had been executed.
“You cannot have a Member of Parliament, far less a minister misleading Parliament. This is a basic precept recognised by all civilised nations across the world.
“We believe that this matter is of sufficient import that the minister, having failed to do the honourable thing, should now seek to have his instrument withdrawn by the Acting Prime Minister,” Mottley stated.
Deputy Opposition Leader Dale Marshall said he was in the House of Assembly when Lashley made his statements, and that Lashley “intended to convey that there was a contract”.
“In our view, Parliament is not a place for Members of Parliament, either on the back bench or the front bench, to play fast and loose with facts,” Marshall said, adding that the Barbados Labour Party was “horrified” at the attempt to mislead the country.
The Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) also has issues with the lease between the NHC, which was signed by then deputy chairman Anthony Wiltshire and Housing Concepts SRL dated July 1, 2010.
Mottley said the signing of that lease would have been enough to merit a call for Lashley’s resignation because of the “shameful act which has taken place in respect of the giving of this land at such a paltry price that it can easily be considered as injurious to the country of Barbados”.
The grouse is with the leasing of 220 000 square feet at Coverley, Christ Church, which is meant for a town centre, at $100 a year for 99 years.
“So that the Government itself will find itself having to pay rent back to these developers, over the course of the next 99 years,” Mottley stated.
The BLP also took issue with the clause which allowed the developers to have approval on anything unless refusal came within 30 days of the writing of the application.
“I have said that this is the most shameful and scandalous giving away of land and revenue for a century that I have ever seen since this country has become independent,” Mottley declared. (YB)
