…being exposed
When all hell broke loose over the unilateral appointment of eighty-something-year-old Justice James Patterson by President Granger as Chairman of GECOM, your Eyewitness focused on the latter’s deliberate violation of the spirit and substance of the Constitution. This now seeming reflexive reaction by the PNC leader didn’t bode well for our republic. Shades of Burnham!!
As for Patterson, there was his age…and when we found out he’d asserted on his CV he was “Chief Justice” of Grenada – which couldn’t be verified either in Grenada or by the regional reports, it was either he’d gotten confused – because of his ageing grey cells – or he was being parsimonious with the truth!
There were also objections from the Opposition to his candidacy because they said he was a member of the PNC and also a pastor – both disqualifying him for the delicate job of GECOM chair by the criteria announced by no other than President Granger!! But it became clear that those criteria only applied to the list of candidate submitted by the Opposition Leader – and not to anyone Granger might’ve wanted from the beginning!! “Power” is to decide what a word means!!
Anyhow, while a legal challenge has been filed, Patterson blithely slid into his role of GECOM chair to tie up all the loose threads that developed in the absence of a chair – and to get on with the business of conducting elections. The biggest loose thread was tied to an audit conducted by the Auditor General’s Office, on some extremely egregious purchases overseen by GECOM’s Secretariat, headed by the CEO Lowenstein. Now these purchases weren’t chicken feel and included one for over $100 million for obsolete radios that were never used. All the threads pointed to Lowenstein.
The AG’s report was submitted to GECOM last April but vegetated until Patterson assumed office mid October 2017. Yet two months later he still hadn’t shared the report with the six other Commissioners who along with him ran GECOM. Not unreasonably, in the opinion of your humble Eyewitness, the AG wanted such a serious breach – committed since the elections of 2015 – to be brought to a head. He declared if the matter wasn’t turned over by the Commission to the Police for action by February 2018, he’d be forced to call in the Police himself.
So imagine your Eyewitness’ surprise when Patterson denounced what he called “unsubtle attacks on the integrity of the CEO” by the AG, who he sarcastically “assumed” “to be a man of integrity and does not suffer from any form of cognitive decline as far as I know”!!
On the “cognitive” question, it does seem the octogenarian doth protest too much!!
…of GECOM chair
But the Pretender to the GECOM chair didn’t stop there with HIS unsubtle attack on the head of a co-equal autonomous State institution, who was simply doing his job. He concluded his letter thusly: “The worthy Auditor General seems to have been eroticised by power, naked power, dare I say, and he should attend the proper place for the appropriate therapy.” Whew!! Is this coming from the mind of a pastor?? One wonders how exactly he ministers to his flock!!
“Eroticised”? “Naked power”?? It would seem that the octogenarian is determined to prove that while his flesh may be weak, his spirit is certainly willing!! But what would that make him? Just another dirty old man!! Exactly what is the “appropriate therapy”, he’s recommending for the AG who he accuses of using power as an aphrodisiac? A house of ill repute?
One would assume he has some experience with this form of therapy to so publicly recommend it!!
…of avarice
One commentator said the reason for “Energy” – real “oil” – being transferred to the Presidency is to rejig the distribution of power between the AFC and PNC in the coalition!! ROTF, LMAO!!! AFC and PNC?? Isn’t this a distinction looking for a difference??
Trotman returned HOME after “Nassau”!!
