Cartwright’s wife collected some $84,850 from roads and parks contractor! What the money given in trust? Contractor said he had to help her out with the kids!
NASSAU| NASSAU| Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) suggested that, in its opinion, what transpired between the Bahamas Public Beaches and Public Parks Authority (BPPPBA) and Chairman Shanendon Cartwright’s brother-in-law Clement Penn Jr. “given the circumstances of this case that there is not cogent (clear, logical, and convincing)evidence for a charge of Bribery….”. But let’s look at the facts.
We now know the BPBPPA operated a slack operation spending millions on contractors ( who did not know where their areas of cleaning were), and allowed employees (including members of the board) to sign off on contracts in the millions for friends, family and lovers without checks and balances.
While The FNM Deputy Leader Cartwright could not tell investigators when he first met the woman who would become his wife, his wife, at the centre of funds transferred, told investigators that she and the Chairman of the BPPPBA began a relationship in 2020.
We also know her brother (Clement Penn Jr – the awardee of some $190,000 between 2017 – 2021 at the BPPPBA) financially had taken care of Cartwright’s side-kick since 2017.
Penn Jr, we also know, paid his sister (Cartwright’s wife) some $84,850, according to financial records, since 2017.
It is important to note here that Cartwright was made Chairman of the Authority in July 2017. And what is unclear by the DPP’s report is at what point was Penn Jr’s company formed. Or whether it had done previous business with the BPPPBA prior to Mr Cartwright’s appointment as Chairman.
It is established that there was no evidence of a direct advantage of the contractor and the former Chairman and Deputy Leader of the FNM.
Moreso, could it be that Mrs Cartwright (then a partner and friend of Chairman Cartwright) received funds in trust for the accused or collected those funds as a gift for her then partner? Neither the Police nor the DPP’s office (WE BELIEVE) explored this possibility as stated in section 16 (2) of The Prevention of Bribery Act.
And there is another side to this story which speaks to the practices inside the BPPPBA, a culture we might add, where millions in contracts went to Friends, Family and Lovers right under the nose of the Chairman Shanendon Cartwright.
The Chairman must have known his wife collected funds from a contractor at BPPPBA.
Chairman Cartwright should have known that his Deputy Chairman of the FNM (Francis Sawyer) behaved similarly. Chairman Cartwright’s Senior Inspector Walter Saunders exercised the same practices with his wife and his side-kick (sweetie) with contracts and funds at the
BPPPBA.
Chairman Cartwright’s Secretary to the Board Marisol Morley Pinder did the same at BPPPBA, awarding millions in contacts to relatives and friends while collecting kick-backs from the assigned contract holders that she and FNM Deputy Leader Cartwright signed off on.
Listen, we at Bahamas Press can go on for days, months and weeks through the 235 files which link a cesspool of corruption played out at BPPPBA when the FNM Deputy Chairman served as its CHAIRMAN.
The facts are: how is it the DPP, after reviewing mounds of evidence, as we have, conclude – in penned advice – that they have a hesitation to proceed with these matters.
There at the BPPPBA you see a culture rooted in deep corruption showing multiple examples of criminal behaviour, and yet, the very people empowered to amputate and extract the players of crime turns a blind eye and does nothing? WHAT IS THIS IN THE OFFICE OF THE DPP!?
Ya know something? We believe some people around here support corruption and only we on this page will get to the bottom of this through the power of our pen.
STAY TUNED!
