Former Saint Lucia Prime Minister Stephenson King and Castries Central MP Richard Frederick have both responded to reports that they were under investigation in the Robert Lindquist probe into a 2009 Hewanorra International Airport (HIA) redevelopment contract.
In his New Year address, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre disclosed that the probe by the forensic accountant, commissioned in 2012 by then Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony into alleged misdeeds by United Workers Party (UWP) officials, would resume.
Pierre declared that the move was consistent with the pledge to pursue good governance and anti-corruption policies.
And at a recent news conference, former UWP MP for Gros Islet Lenard ‘Spider’ Montoute disclosed that Stephenson King and Richard Frederick, had been subjects of the Lindquist investigation.
King and Frederick are now Ministers in the ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) cabinet.
“I have absolutely no concern. It doesn’t bother me. Mr. Montoute can spew all the venom, and nonsense that he does. It doesn’t bother me. Nobody has contacted me, nobody has ever told me that there’s (an) investigation,” King told reporters on Tuesday.
“I am not under investigation,” King declared.
“If there was an investigation in which my name was under consideration, I would have known in this cabinet,” the former UWP leader asserted.
He said no one was investigating him.
Richard Frederick, for his part, told reporters that the UWP was trying to ‘shift the buck’.
“I had nothing to do with the airport. My name is nowhere in that report,” the Castries Central MP told reporters.
“What UWP is saying now – they are trying to throw a cat among the pigeons by saying Kenny Anthony pointed me to Mr. Lindquist, hoping he would get something. So then they are saying that I was involved. But I had nothing to do with airport. I know nothing about airport. I was never involved in the redevelopment of the Hewanorra International Airport,” Frederick declared.
“Now the United Workers Party sees it as fitting basically to bring myself and Stephenson King into the fray. Why? Because we have done what we had to do in the best interests of the governance of this country and we no longer see the political arena through the same lenses as them,” the Housing Minister said.
EVERYTHING IS FOR A TIME
Both men are missing the point. Kings says: “If there was an investigation in which my name was under consideration, I would have known in this cabinet.” And then: “….nobody has ever told me there’s an investigation”. But Montoute’s comments have to do with the first (2009) investigation undertaken by the Anthony government not the one now being proposed by Pierre. That is what is relevant here. What did the 2009 investigation say about King and Frederick when they were in the UWP government then led y King. That is what is relevant here.
I wish you bunch of losers would be as responsive to the issues that affect us everyday in this country instead of the petty back and forth, juvenile game playing. Grow up and govern. I regret voting ya’ll
Too may saying I voted you all yet the win was notbby 90%
We just need to step up as st lucians and throw all these money mongrels out and take back our land our island