"There is a contract and it shows when the development was approved. All you have to do is to check the public records. That should have gone through everybody before me. All the dates that I saw were before my time!" says Dr. Karl Blythe who became minister in 2000.
"It didn't come in my regime at all! It's after I left in December of 1994. I had nothing to do with the project. It didn't come at all before me," explains Mr. Ramtallie on hearing the allegations. "If I had something to do with it, I would accept responsibility," he adds.
Mr. Easton Douglas who appears to now be under some quiet fire from his own party, explains that when the project came before him, all the relevant agencies including the Ministry of Health, all the offices under the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Clarendon Parish Council gave positive feedback on the project and it was based on these recommendations he would have signed an approval, if he did.
A representative of the Clarendon Parish Council familiar with the project, told The Sunday Gleaner, however, that their office did not grant approvals and the minister at the time should have known that.
"All we can do is recommend. We can't grant approval. That rests with the minister, but I am not into the blame game at this time," says the source.
Recent checks with the Prime Minister's Office about the status of the investigation did not yield any results. Also, requests made of NEPA to see approval documents regarding both the Kennedy Grove and Nightingale Grove developments are yet to be granted. The housing order document for Kennedy Grove could not be located at the Ministry of Housing.
Mr. Douglas also denied he had advised Kennedy Grove residents to sue the Government and the developer of the housing project which Dean Peart, Minister of Land and Environment, admitted should not have been permitted. The project was a joint project between the Government and K.I.D. Development Limited.
