YOU CAN'T
SQUEEZE BLOOD OUT OF A TURNIP
A TeaserThe average cost of a 30 second advertisement slot on a major television station is about US$350,000. The opportunity of a lifetime came by when the PM was invited to do an interview with the CBS 60 minutes program. He had the perfect opportunity to dispel the negative reports about Dominica’s passport selling program and he had access to free promotion for Dominica on prime time TV - something that would otherwise cost millions of dollars particularly on a prime time slot like CBS 60 minutes. Had Mr. Skerrit been smart or if he even have a modicum of integrity there would have been no need to pay a US company ( Mercury LLC) US$30,000 /EC $81,000 per month to do damage control. Dominica would have received millions of dollars’ worth of free advertisement.
THE TALE OF THE EXPIRED POTATO SEEDS
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BAGS OF POTATO SEED GROWING DREAD LOCKS
ONLY UNDER THIS LAME DLP ADMINISTATION
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We have to report on yet another shameful and
embarrassing episode of wasteful spending, corruption, incompetence and total
disregard for the limited resources of our country. Another shipment of
agriculture inputs is heading for the dump and they don't want the public to know about it.
Before we get into the details it is important to recall a MiTC article entitled “Everything Upside Down Inside Out”. In this
article we reported that the government of Dominica spent Millions of dollars
to import coffee beans in an effort to kick start the Coffee factory and to our dismay all
of the coffee beans were allowed to rot and pulverize. Needless to say the
coffee factory remains a white elephant. Because we presented the hard evidence of the
rotting coffee beans and the exasperating presence of a white elephant (coffee
factory) is a monumental shame , the government and spin doctors have remained quiet and are unable to
refute our report.
One would think that after the coffee bean embarrassment
,the Roosevelt Skerrit administration would put people and systems in place
to insure that failures like that never happen again. Would you believe that the
government together with Ricky Brumant, director of Agriculture is currently
preparing to dump one and a half container load of spoiled/expired potato seeds?
It is estimated that the cost of the spoiled potato seeds is roughly $400,000. We
hope that Mr. Letang, the PWA and the Teachers Union take heed of more money going
down the ravine.
We have been reliably informed that Skerrit’s hand pick Director,
Ricky Brumant, took upon himself the responsibility to order the potato seeds,
before leaving for vacation. Upon leaving for vacation Brumant gave his
department the assurance that he ordered the seeds but according to reports it
was a Big Fat lie. Brumant only ordered the seeds after returning from over a
month of vacation. We were also informed that while on vacation Rick Brumant
held on to government vehicle for his own personal use and entertainment. It is
also alleged that Ricky Brumant submitted mileage claims while on vacation. We hope that an investigation will ensue.
During our investigation we found out that Ricky Brumant wants to have his hands on everything that he can use to facilitate
his idiotic partisan politics. He wanted to insure that when the seeds arrive
that he would be able to personally handle the potato seeds the Labor Party Way-Where Farmers around the island must grovel and pledge loyalty to Skerrit and his gang. We also learned that Potato is a seasonal crop and so the seeds need to be sewn
within a specific time frame. By the time the seeds arrived in Dominica the
planting season was closing in.That coupled with the
prohibitive cost of $80.00 per bag, the farmers were unable to go into planting the potato seeds.
In an effort to stem the tide of embarrassment the Ministry
of Agriculture reduced the cost per bag of seeds to $20.00 but by then the
planting period had been surpassed and the seeds were already in the state of
germination. We spoke to a farmer who said that “at this point I would not even
accept this bag of seeds for free”. The attached photo show bags of potato
seeds with sprouts protruding from the bags.
Some may wonder whether or not this Roosvelt Skerrit
administration has any shame or even capable of learning from past mistakes but the
truth is, you can’t get blood out of a turnip and according to the popular
mathematic idiom “ Garbage in Garbage
Out”. The quality of output is determined by the quality of input. To compound
the situation PM Roosevelt Skerrit appointed the least qualified member of
cabinet as Minister of Agriculture- “Happy Go Lucky” Johnson Drigo. Talk about
total disrespect for the agriculture sector.
The conspicuous failure of Dominica’s agriculture industry
is as a result of weak governance. This theory has been proven repeatedly
for the last 13 years. This week the Ministry of Agriculture will be looking to
dump $400,000 worth of expired potato seeds which we understand may have been
imported from the Middle East.
With effective quality control, quality assurance and
available markets we can only imagine what a good yield could do for the struggling farmers.
Until we see the removal of misfits like Brumant, Happy Go Lucky Jono and the
entire Roosevelt Skerrit cabinet ,the dysfunctional agricultural sector is not likely to
change.
What is not within the public’s view is the crippling
effect of everyday corruption and racketeering within the Ministry Of
Agriculture and since Satan wont dispel sinners we are simply asking PM Roosevelt Skerrit to just Fix It. If not we will begin to expose details
of various racketeering activities. For example we may just provide intimate
details of a DLP operative who received government paychecks while incarcerated
at the Stock Farm prison for a multiple burglary conviction.
Those who have eyes to read let them read.
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