Part 2

Too Many Crooks Trigger Crumbling Infrastructures

By Kwame Nkosi Romeo

Part 1 relates the seriousness of water shortage, rickety fire trucks, and the ALP's inadequacy of priority and urgency in emergency crises.

Part 2 connects our present-day dilemma to ALP's past failures in not establishing an adequate water supply and self-sufficiency of Antigua and Barbuda power generation sovereignty.

Antigua Public Utilities Authority's (APUA) decrepit environment at Crabbes shone a dreadful light on Antigua and Barbuda's dilapidated infrastructure: A failed infrastructure of rusting tanks and an out-of-commission US$33 million Japanese-manufactured Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Company Limited (IHI) power/desalting plant. ALP commissioned this plant on March 1, 1985. 

This infrastructure failure results from IHI corruption involving the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) government ministers, detailed in George Wehner's Real News investigative report. (Lindquist Forensics/Government of Antigua vs. Lester Bird et al. in the 'IHI' MATTER)

The Wehner Report exposed one of many ALP worthless pledges and inadequate infrastructure on Friday, May 13, 2022.

Because of ALP corruption, APUA's social contract could not provide residents with affordable, reliable, and international quality electrical power, telecommunications, and water services, underscored in the World Bank document 38 years ago.

The World Bank Report (WBR) No.4695-CRG cited APUs's inefficient infrastructure on January 4, 1984:: "Currently there is a shortage of water supply of adequate quality, primarily because of incomplete utilization of existing facilities and poor maintenance"

Also, the WBR pointed to a USAID study calling attention to the government's failure "..to expand capacity in Antigua at a relatively low cost through rehabilitation and groundwater development." 

-Antigua and Barbuda Economic Memorandum - World Bank Document.

The ALP government is the traditional saboteur inhibiting Antigua and Barbuda's sustainable development goals (SDG) 6: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." This non-delivery of water, a basic need, connects to ALP not prioritizing SDG 9, building resilient infrastructure, promoting sustainable development, and fostering innovation. What's more, ALP's failure to manage the nation's essential infrastructure sabotages poverty alleviation, evident in lowering the standard of living and plunging the country into the abyss of poverty. 

This lack of efficiency and water management processes originated with an Aqua-Chem desalter's US$2.5 million purchase in 1969, and useless investment continues 53 years later at a cost estimated to be more than US$850 million.

ALP politicians were reckless with the IHI loan. APUA guaranteed the IHI loan in a Letter of Guarantee signed by VC Bird on April 7, 1985, 85% financed by IHI Japan and repaid over ten years.

Despite the Japanese plant providing electricity, desalting never happened due to the IHI grand corruption scheme. This rip-off devastated taxpayers with excessive financial burdens. For example, the Customs Service Tax (CST) increased by 100%, from 2.5 to 5%.

This ALP criminal act was legislated, compounding the Cost of Insurance Freight (CIF) CIF+Duty and applying the taxes plus the 5% CST charges of the CIF. Not to mention, the RNM/OECS Country Studies criticized ALP's wicked CST imposition:

 "...the high rate of customs service charge at 5.0% exceeds the permissible limit of cost recovery under the GATT protocol" and called for the CST to be reduced "within the permissible limit of recovery"-(RNM/OECS Country Studies to Trade Negotiations: Antigua and Barbuda- Alick Lazare, Patrick Antoine, Wendell Samuel, March 2001 page 5)

Another was APUA as guarantor of the Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago ( RBTT) loan for US$16.5 million to the little-known and corrupt APUA Funding on March 12, 2004, occurring 11 days before the March 23, 2004, general election under the Lester Bird administration. This loan also added to the looting of the public treasury and the nation's ongoing water crisis. 

On winning the March 23, 2004 election, the United Progressive Party (UPP) reported: "...that APUA funding is a sham corporation set up for the purpose of unlawfully siphoning off funds due to the authority." (The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the High Court of Justice Claim No. CV 2007-02269 - RBTT Trust Limited and APUA Funding Limited).

ALP's decades of plundering the public treasury gave rise to the nation's water crisis, affecting households, schools, hospitals, and agriculture, causing agonizing health concerns, and widespread poverty, which is an economic crime.

The nexus of ALP misuse of public funds is the resulting outcomes of APUA's outdated infrastructure, with more than US$29.6 million invested in desalting plants and access to US$37 million to replace old broken pipes, according to Governor-General Rodney Williams. Yet the water crisis persists. (Residents told to brace for the inconvenience from pipe replacement works in St. John's- January 16, 2020 -Antigua Newsroom)

Calling to mind in 2018, the Water Business Unit reported that APUA lost $2.3 million in revenue due to broken and leaking pipes, amounting to more than $9.2 million today. (APUA pushing ahead with a bid to supply 30% more potable water -21 January 2022 by Elesha George- Antigua Observer)

Subsequently, on August 31, 2018, the Antigua Observer headlined APUA revealed a solution for water problems. APUA lists the cost of purchasing 2,150 new membranes for the reverse osmosis plant at US$960,000 and continuing the deception.

Again, APUA broadcasted, "APUA has begun to replace broken cast iron pipes that cause significant water losses." Today, we are hearing the same refrain of broken promises! (APUA promises more water in 2022 -July 29, 2021- ANR)

Where is the US$37 million to replace the broken pipes?

Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), most necessary during the COVID crisis, is nonexistent. There is cause for concern since between April 29 and June 12, 2022, the COVID-19 figures moved from 22 to 811 cases and three deaths, bringing the nation's total to 8,492 and 140 deaths.

UNICEF emphasized the importance of water and the consequences of unsafe water by spotlighting the effects on health, nutrition, education, and learning abilities, particularly on young children: "Over 700 children under age 5 die every day of diarrhoeal disease due to lack of appropriate WASH services."

The two most egregious recurring features of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) corruption involving Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) and sanctioned by the ALP government are the Sembcorp Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plants (SWRO) in 1991 and Antigua Power Company Limited (APCL) for electricity generation in 1996. Both are build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) agreement that never ends and points to corrupt government mishandling public funds for private gain, with the IMF underscoring this concern in 1996 and alluding to the external current account deficit:

"The deficit was financed mainly by the drawdown of banks' net foreign assets, direct investment, and the public sector's further build-up of arrears."

(International Monetary Fund ISBN:978145180 Publication Date February 5, 1998)

Sembcorp BOOT's desalting plant US Security and Exchange Commission (USSEC) filings gave insight into the transference to other multinational water companies rather than Antigua and Barbuda.

Possibility APUA indicted words ring true after more than 30 years that the organization still lacked:

"..the technical abilities to operate a Reverse Osmosis Plant."  Water Production in Antigua – Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA)

Sembcorp -Eneserve was to supply APUA with approximately 0.5 mg and extended the plant in 1996,1998, and 2002, reaching back then installed capacity of 9,000 cubic meters per day (m/day) 2,377,548 US gallons per day.

According to the prime minister, Gaston Browne, Sembcorp was producing 3.5 million gallons per day, and within 14 days of the ALP's election victory on March 28, 2014, Sembcorp instantly increased its production level. 

Was there a conspiracy between Sembcorp and then opposition ALP to withhold 1,122,452 gallons from the public to assure ALP victory? 

The UPP government liability to Sembcorp was US$6,296,297, while the ALP was accountable for US$1,851,851 and not as misreported by the ALP government that UPP owed Sembcorp US$8,148,148. UPP's liability is traceable to escalating fuel costs during the 2008 to 2013 financial crisis. (3 new reverse osmosis and 10 million gallons of water per day by summer of 2022- February 10,2022- Antigua Newsroom)

During the Sembcorp SWRO BOOT undertaking in Antigua, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Imp Bank) gave a loan guarantee of $8 million to a US company to sell a seawater desalting plant in Aruba:

"..generating 1,100 gallons per minute of treated water to be used mainly for drinking and electricity production."

Within a short period, Aruba successfully supplied quality drinking water to the growing population, fulfilling SDG 6. In contrast, Antigua and Barbuda used the recent drought to excuse the existing water dilemma.

The IMF admonished APUA's abandonment of two 1 MG/D ( million gallons/day) desalination plants that:

"..are not always in operation and seldom produce water at full capacity, " Both were declared nonfunctional due to abandonment. (Antigua and Barbuda Country Environmental Profile -1990).

This recurring feature ended the functioning of the Wadadli Power Plant (WPP) engine with no accountability and a most bungling announcement from Electricity Business Unit Manager André Mathias:

 "...we lost one of the two to serious damage, and last month, we decided to close down the other engine because it was uneconomical to continue operating." The $47 million 30-megawatt Wadadli Power Plant was closed and used as scrap metals. Mathias proved both the IMF and Stan 'Megatron' Richards right; APUA needs transformational leadership, and the country urgently needs an enlightened government to free the victims of poor governance.

(APUA announces closure of the Wadadli Power Plant- Antigua Newsroom September 16, 2020)

The ALP sanctioned the never-ending BOOT from Sembcorp to Calligan-Eneserve. It continued with Cascal N.V. acquiring the desalting plant from Veolia North America on December 15, 2009. Subsequently, Sembcorp acquired Biwater 17,868,543 or 58.4% common shares in Cascal N.V. to repossess Eneserve.

Now and again, the public is aware of such duplicity. After the ALP's two five-year term election losses in 2004 and 2009 to the United Progressive Party (UPP), the ALP regained power on June 28, 2014, and the ALP's known directive came to light in 2017.

On February 27, 2017, the managing director of NS. Management Ltd (NSML), Tomas Hellier, was given 72 hours by the ALP government to vacate the property, claiming Hellier's "company's occupation contravenes the respective Acts of Parliament with respect to the tendering process." There is a need to investigate the Sembcorp -ALP BOOT arrangement.

(Possible shut down of former Sembcorp Water Plant -February 28, 2017- Antigua Observer)

In the opinion of prime minister Gaston Alfonso Browne, Sembcorp fulfilled the BOOT contractual arrangement in 2017. On January 18, 2018, Governor-General Rodney Williams reiterated Browne's conclusion in the throne speech: "..the desalting plant formerly owned by Sembcorp, a private operator, has become the property of APUA."

That it took 25 years before the BOOT was in the hands of the people is an indictment of ALP's crooked deal for short-term political gain and lack of planning.

What does that say about the APCL power generation deal and domination of subsequent LNG contracts?

ALP's subsequent demolition of the US$47 million Chinese-built 30-megawatt WPP gave APCL absolute control of electricity generation and brought to view the meaninglessness of Governor-General Rodney Williams's 2018 Throne Speech guarantee:

"The APUA has agreed to resuscitate the 30-megawatt power plant so it too can contribute to the growing demand for more electricity."

That never happened. But it gets more sinister; MP Asot Michael's website captioned infrastructure remarkably criticized the United Progressive Party (UPP) for the nation's water crisis, but Michael's words describe decades of ALP mismanagement: 

"Poor management, lack of planning, and malfeasance all contributed to the people of Antigua and Barbuda being deprived of water for household purposes, sanitation, and growing food." 

Michael trickery claimed the ALP "Turned debt for water supply to another people-ownership benefit: Sembcorp Antigua Ltd..." Indeed, a lie! Asot Michael - Economy -2- ALP Turned the nation from a debtor to owner)

Now and again, Michael talks about ALP dishonesty and malfeasance, concealing all contracts and arrangements, burdening the people, and robbing the treasury for decades. (Asot Michael money laundering - IHI/Asot Michael world press.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne implicated MP Asot Michael in misappropriating public funds and applying pressure to restrain Michael from criticizing the ALP government: "Kindly note that it's not beyond me to get law enforcement to reopen the IHI case." 

Could you reopen it now?

Once more, Browne failed to disclose two others participating in the IHI misconduct: former prime minister Lester Bryant Bird and Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador to the US Ronald Michael Sanders.

The intrigue of the IHI robbery is far more significant than the US$238,888 jewelry heist on May 11, 2019. Yet swift justice followed; three were sent to prison for 14 years by Justice Ann-Marie Smith. 

Are ALP political bandits any different from the trio?

High-level embezzlement by ALP elected officials is overlooked, justice is absent, and ALP leadership incentivizes terrible behavior. A viral forward circulating alleges 100 acres of the people's land to be handed over to MP Asot Michael "to abandon his fight for a place on the Antigua Labor Party (ALP) fight in the next general election." This allegation is unproven, but there is truth in the giveaway of 31 acres of land in the National Park at Devil's Bridge for a measly sum of $2 per sq ft. It is criminal. The people must take it back.

Charles Tabor, Attorney-at-Law, straightforward response to the giveaway of the people's inheritance was clear: "An act like this justifies revolutionary action by the masses."

With all that is happening, the revolution is long overdue. Enough is too much.