S2.E8: Gaston, Mr. Singh, The Rent Scandal

The Big Issues

Prime Minister Gaston Browne is being accused of side dealing. It has emerged that Browne and his son each signed separate deals with a wealthy Indian investor, "Mr. Singh" to rent to Mr. Singh properties in Jolly Harbour and in Villa, for US $20,000 a month, and US $12,000 a month respectively. The first of these deals - the one between PM Browne and Mr. Singh - was singed a mere three days after the PM issued a license order to Mr. Singh's company for a new and highly controversial special economic zone (SEZ). In real terms, PM Browne and his son together will earn XCD $1.036 million dollars a year from these two deals with Mr. Singh in addition to upfront payments.

This programme first aired on NewsCo Observer Radio 91.1 FM on January 16th, 2022. The host is Kieron Murdoch. The guests are:

1. Anthony Astaphan SC, attorney and Senior Counsel. He represents numerous Prime Ministers including Gaston Browne and has ties to the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP).
2. Akaash Maharaj, An Ambassador-at-Large for the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption known also as GOPAC.
3. Dwyer Astaphan, attorney and retired MP from St. Kitts and Nevis. He was also a cabinet minister there for 13 years.

More Background:

As a professed millionaire businessman, Gaston Browne is accustomed to making business deals with anyone he wants. But as Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and as the only PM to have ever publicly encouraged ministers to "enrich" themselves "legitimately" and "by virtue of your creativity" whilst they are in office, it can often be difficult not to appear opportunistic or rapacious when the public learns of any deal he enjoys which seems more a result of his public office than of his shrewd negotiating skills.

To be clear, using one's public office in any way to secure personal benefits in private business is entirely corrupt. But Browne flatly denies having had any such motive or in any way using his office to secure these business deals. This, despite such conclusions being reached by members of the opposition. His defense? The PM says it was by chance that a mutual friend of his and Mr. Singh's happened to be assisting Mr. Singh to find a luxury property to rent, and that it was by chance that the man happened to take a liking to his Jolly Harbour home.

He claims it was at this mutual friend's insistence that he reluctantly accepted the US $20,000 deal to rent the home to the same man to whom he had just issued a SEZ license order mere days before on behalf of the government. Interestingly, the PM has yet to offer any explanation as to how his son happened to be so well informed that he too snagged a second deal with the same investor for another property in Villa, a mere week after the PM inked the first deal for his house in Jolly Harbour. Another honest coincidence perhaps?

Remember Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather: Part II? Think back to the when Don Fancucci, dressed in his iconic white suit, tells a young Vito Corleone that the Don ought to be paid a fee by Vito and his friends for allowing them to operate on turf the Don claims as his own. Fanucci said, "Tell your friends I don't want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak."

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