Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw has called on Attorney General Dale Marshall to reopen an investigation into allegations made 15 years ago against Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne that were reported to the Commissioner of Police.
She also wants to hear from the current and former president of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), as well as former general secretaries Guyson Mayers and Derek Alleyne about allegations she put before the House of Assembly.
Bradshaw, who was speaking during the Appropriation Bill 2024
last night, read from a letter by Alleyne and a report prepared by Mayers which came out of the Urban Development Commission (UDC) in 2009, questioning transfers of land deeds for Barbadians in several communities, purported to have been done by Thorne.
“I would like on the floor of this House to request of the Honourable Attorney General to ensure that the file in this matter that was sent to the Commissioner of Police is reopened and that a senior officer is put in place to deal with this matter to determine whether there is any truth to what is here,” Bradshaw said.
“Because what disturbs me, Madam Deputy Speaker, is that people can come in this place, and try to cast aspersions on the characters of all of us in this place, throw couple sprats out and hope that something lands. You make the public believe that people on this side are doing something untoward; you don’t have to bring the facts anymore.”
The Deputy Prime Minister said the document arrived after Thorne’s Budget Reply on Tuesday. She read from a letter dated November 29, 2009 to the then Commissioner of Police from UDC director Alleyne, who said some of the activities may be considered “maladministration at best”, but it had also created tension within the organisation and he asked the top cop “to move quickly to have any matters in the report fully investigated, so that the Commission can make a determination on the way forward”.
Mayers’ report, said Bradshaw, “concerns a number of irregularities that had developed in the handling of the transfer of title proceedings by an officer . . . who was the principal legal counsel at the Urban Development Commission”.
She itemised cheques for $12 250, $6 705.97 and $12 500 drawn on the UDC capital works account for three lots at Nurse Land. There was also concern raised about funds being held in escrow for two lots at Lower Burney, St Michael. Two years after that transaction, Bradshaw read, the documents were not delivered and the money that was forwarded was not paid to the named beneficiary.
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