Contracts signed on hood of cars days before 2007 elections!
“It seems that it is ok for the NDP Government to indulge in this but it is wrong for the VIP Government. I well remember on the Saturday before the election in 2007, the then Minister for Communication and Works (Elmore Stoutt) signed contracts in Gun Creek, North Sound, on the hood of cars,” claimed Hon. O’Neal in a statement that was broadcast on ZBVI radio last evening December 20, 2011.
“I saw him myself in Virgin Gorda and the NDP Government signed a contract worth thousands of dollars with Smith Ferry Service the day before the election, to run between Anegada and Tortola for two years. We must be up front and honest when we make remarks and not try to mislead people into believing that so and so is the case.”
The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) was heavily criticised by the NDP for awarding contracts in various districts prior to elections and one candidate, Dr. Hubert O’Neal, said he was defeated at the polls by the incumbent 9th District representative Ralph T. O’Neal , because the district representative allegedly gave out last-minute contracts, which Dr. O’Neal described as bribes, and had called on Governor Boyd McCleary and Supervisor of Elections Juliette Penn to investigate allegations of “bribery” among other things.
Hon. O’Neal had explained that the contracts that he signed two days before election were for guard rails on the alternative road on Virgin Gorda and was given to several different contractors for which the money had already been approved.
“If this young man has made the first attempt, the second attempt, the third attempt and he hasn’t beaten me, he thought he would beat me the fourth go round, and he didn’t, I think he should just accept what happen. I cannot see the reason for his going on,” the Opposition Leader had told Virgin Islands News Online in an exclusive interview on Thursday November 24, 2011 from his office at the House of Assembly Chambers.
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