UWP leader skeptical about PM’s IMPACS promises

The leader of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Allen Chastanet, has said that he is skeptical about promises reportedly made by the Prime Minister, in regard to the IMPACS matter.

European Union Ambassadors met Prime Minister Doctor Kenny Anthony yesterday to discuss the IMPACS affair.

They reported that Anthony had promised to appoint a new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and a Deputy within months and provide the resources necessary to pursue the IMPACS case.

The diplomats also told a news conference of assurances that a new Police Commissioner would be appointed.

However Chastanet, with whom the EU delegation also met, remains unconvinced about the Prime Minister’s intentions.

The UWP leader said:

“Here we have a situation in which he has been dealing with this for four years and he has not been able to resolve it and he has not made the resources available, why would I believe or anybody believe that in the next four months he is going to do that?”

According to Chastanet, the Prime Minister has shown by his behaviour and his actions that he clearly does not have an intention of resolving the IMPACS affair.

He asserted that the matter has dragged on for far too long.

According to the UWP leader, the entire case has been botched with the reputations of the Commissioner of Police, Vernon Francois, business people and politicians being sullied by statements made by the Prime Minister.

It was an obvious reference to a March 8, 2015 address to the nation during which Anthony read excerpts from the IMPACS report.

“The Jamaicans came down and acted as an ad hoc committee to the PM. I have never known in the history of Saint Lucia that the executive is involved in a judicial matter.

The executive branch should have no role in this entire investigation,” the UWP leader declared.

Chastanet said the investigators should have been working through the office of the DPP.