By Lesroy W. Williams Observer Reporter
(Basseterre, St.Kitts)”Deputy Leader of the People’s Action Movement and Member of Parliament for Constituency #5, the Hon. Shawn Richards, has said that the Labour Government has a credibility problem. Mr. Richards made his remarks at PAM’s monthly press conference at the Ocean Terrace Inn (OTI) on November 25. “When we had the outages back in 2004 just before the last general election, the Prime Minister came on” air and indicated to the entire Federation that a commission of enquiry would be put into place to look at not only the purchase of generators but what was happening with the electricity situation. To date, we haven’t seen that commission of enquiry and there still is the question as to the purchase of the generators. When one is speaking of credibility, right there and then you have a question of the government and credibility,” Mr. Richards said. Richards further outlined that Minister of Public Works, Assim Martin, said that the electricity problems have been solved and we can put away our flashlights and candles but within a couple of hours the country was once again plunged into darkness. “You have a question of credibility there again as to the government,” Mr. Richards said. “You have further statements that were issued by the government to the consumers that when there appliances are mashed up, the government will take responsibility for fixing them. To date, I don’t know of one consumer who has been able to claim from the government for appliances being damaged by the electricity problem. Again you have a question of credibility with the government,” he said. Mr. Richards also mentioned that the two workers who were sent home over the power outages were used as scapegoats because the problem has persisted. “You had a number of outages between Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I”m sure the electricity went off about 10 times and those gentlemen are home. One has to wonder if they have a key or they have some computer from their homes which can tap into the system at the power plant because if they were the ones sabotaging it and we still have the problems, again you have a question of credibility with the government,” Mr. Richards said. “Certainly, one can look at the facts and realize that when it comes to the issue of credibility with the issue of the electricity, the government has absolutely no credibility,” Mr. Richards said. “Our story has been the same from day one, that the generators are prototypes and we need a reliable supply of electricity. The government ought to commission some sort of investigation into those generators,” Mr. Richards added.
