OMG, is the government failing?

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The beautiful thing about OBSERVER media is that our house is transparent. It is not made of glass, but it is transparent, nonetheless, and that allows us to all sleep well at nights. Others, who live in heavily tinted glass houses, do not have the luxury of a good night’s sleep because the endless darkness eventually makes them paranoid or crazy. The burden of those sleepless nights drives them to become restless and they use the time to concoct all manner of stories to fool people. You know the saying, “idle hands make for the devil’s work”.
The delusional and paranoid behaviours that are exhibited by those who live this vampire-like existence have one key weakness though … light!  And by “light” we mean facts and the truth. You see, no matter how much you seek to deceive the people, light shall overcome darkness and the truth shall prevail. The conspiracy theorists call us naïve but we are okay with that. We will continue to stick to our motto “Let there be light!” without fear that the darkness may envelop us.
Now to the topic at hand.
Having recently become the favourite whipping post for the government and focus of their attention, we can’t say that we were too surprised to see that the Chief of Staff Lionel “Max” Hurst was sent forth to carry one of those dark messages to the people. For a man so married to the truth, it must have been difficult to get the job of weaving the obscure tale of OBSERVER’s “corruption” to the masses.
To get the job done, he decided to seek a safe harbour and shunned OBSERVER Radio; where he just might get challenged.In any case, the Chief of Staff, had this to say: “The United Progressive Party utilised taxpayers’ money to purchase the support of the OBSERVER Media Group.” He opined, “That is the only way that you can owe $2 million or some such amount. $2 million and yet no demand is made of you to pay it.” First off, if they “purchased” OBSERVER’s support, then how do we owe anything?
It was a good start by the chief of staff. Be bold with an unfounded assertion and surely people will believe anything you say. It works for other politicians, right? Plus, it is a strategy that seems to becoming preferred (and a global trend) with politicians as of late. The problem is, no such thing ever happened. There was a legitimate trade exchange established between the two entities and it was APUA’s laziness that allowed the reconciliations to slip. That is not to absolve OBSERVER from any responsibility because the fact is, we should not have allowed the reconciliations to slip either.
One does not need to dig very far to see the absurdity of Mr Hurst’s statements. Something which we suspect he knows and which was evident in his very shaky delivery – far removed from his polished utterings.
Anyone willing to set aside the blue or red spectacles will immediately notice that the management personnel that sit in the seats of general manager and finance manager at APUA are the same two gentlemen that have sat there for years during the United Progressive Party (UPP) Administration. Is Mr Hurst implying that these gentlemen were complicit in a web of corruption? If he is, then it is strange reward to have them continue to hold those top management seats.
If that is not the case, then it must be that the general manager and the finance manager were puppets and instructed by the then minister responsible for public utilities, or the Board to allow OBSERVER to miss payments.  If that is the case, then they need to come out and say that. Call the names of those who ‘forced’ them to look the other way while OBSERVER racked up an alleged big bill with APUA.
Neither of the scenarios paints an attractive picture of these gentlemen.  Scenario one, being an active accomplice to corruption, is obviously worse, but scenario two is not much better. In essence, Mr Hurst would be suggesting that these men lacked backbone, and abandoned their fiduciary duty to APUA, when they agreed to look the other way in his contrived OBSERVER story.
We happen to know both of these gentlemen and we doubt that either of these scenarios apply. That lays bare the lie that Mr Hurst has been charged to deliver. Of course, we vouch for no one, so if either scenario is accurate, we wait to hear if these gentlemen come forward to “out” anyone and further, how they defend their roles during that time.
Another couple of points delivered by Mr Hurst that need clarification. He said, “They agree that the amount that they owe the government must exceed $1.5 million.” In a word, that is incorrect. We have never conceded anything of the sort. The fact is, we do not know what is owed and neither does APUA. That is the reason why a reconciliation is required. OBSERVER could jump up today and say that APUA owes us $20 million, but we will have to prove it and we will have to reconcile the facts.
Lastly, the chief of staff said, “If you are in business and you cannot meet your obligations then your business is failing.” We would think Mr Hurst would know that people in glass houses, no matter how tinted, should not throw stones. By his own definition, the government, for which he works, is failing. Imagine the headline … “Chief of Staff Says Government Cannot Meet Its Obligations And Is Failing.” After all, there is a long list of people and businesses that are waiting for the government to meet its obligations to them and are greeted by one excuse after another.
And if Mr Hurst deems OBSERVER a failure, then we do not have to wonder about his assessment of a company that cost taxpayers an estimated $8+ million in 2016 and only generated about $800,000 in revenue. A company that loses taxpayers’ millions of dollars every year, and does not pay APUA a dime for any utilities! If that got your attention, Mr Hurst, then you should turn on your television, or listen to your radio, because that is the cost of “Public Information and Broadcasting” and ABS Radio and Television.

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