I am calling on Prime Minister Gaston Browne to rescind the arrangement for Government’s rental of the property owned by his son, Gaston Andron Browne III, on the following grounds:
The arrangement stinks of nepotism. The Prime Minister’s wife sits on WIOC board which sold the Prime Minister’s son the property which houses three Government offices under her ministerial portfolio: the Ministry of National Housing, the DCA and the Land Office.
WIOC’s sale of this property to the PM’s son was not publicly advertised, raising questions about the use of inside information to gain an unfair advantage over the general public.
The Prime Minister has failed to provide any documentation proving that the repairs and improvements made to his son’s property represent value for money. An unsigned WhatsApp message without supporting documentation is wholly insufficient.
The Prime Minister has failed to provide figures and documentation on the quantum of monthly rent paid after the expiration of the initial $1 per month term of the Lease Agreement, laid out in Clause 2.1, which ended on March 1, 2023. Clause 5.3 of the agreement provides for
the renegotiation of rent every year after the initial 18-month period which ended on March 1, 2023.
The Prime Minister has left many critical questions unanswered, instead attempting to deflect, and he has breached the public’s trust with his initial misleading statement claiming the property was owned by an “investment group”.
The Prime Minister attempted to mislead the public with his statements in Parliament and therefore, cannot be trusted to protect the public’s interest if this questionable agreement were allowed to exist. Prime Minister Gaston Browne claimed in Parliament that his son, Gaston Andron Browne III had ‘some interest’ in an investment group company which acquired Government property, and
which is now being rented back to the Government.
It has been proved conclusively that there is no investment group, but rather, in the most recent company filing for IF Antigua Inc. which bought the property, his son, Gaston Andron Browne III, is the sole shareholder and therefore the sole owner of the property on Friars Hill Road now rented to the Government.
This revelation is contrary to what the Prime Minister said in Parliament, and even as he was saying this, he knew that he was deliberately misleading the public about the arrangement.
In a recent article published in the Antigua Newsroom on March 14, 2024, entitled “Richard Lewis: Recent filing proves that Gaston Browne’s son is still the sole director and owner of the property Government is renting on Friars Hill Road”, I showed the evidence and asked many.
pertinent questions surrounding the arrangement.
The public will not accept the Prime Minister’s refusal to provide credible, evidence-backed answers to their many concerns. Prime Minister Browne must come clean on this highly deceptive arrangement and make every effort to right this wrong committed against the people of Antigua and Barbuda.
I therefore call on the Prime Minister to terminate the rental agreement and provide full disclosure of all expenditures on his son’s property to date, accompanied by full documentation. To be pellucid about the “full documentation” the public deserves to access, I call on the Prime
Minister to publish:
All expenditures on repairs and improvements to his son’s property, with the required documentary evidence. 2. The figures for all rent paid to date, with the required documentary evidence, from the start of the initial term of the Lease Agreement, September 1, 2021, to the present day.
The Prime Minister must act with haste to publish the information I have requested. If he does not fulfill this reasonable request, I will write under the Freedom of Information Act to force his release of all relevant figures and documentation surrounding this matter, in the interest of transparency and accountability.