Danny Williams NTV interview November 14-06
Fred:
Premier most of the people out there know some of the details about this deal – are you confident that there’s no conflict of interest between yourself and the players in this deal – Persona – MTS – Rogers?
Williams:
No - No Fred - absolutely not. I mean yaknow there’s there’s there’s no conflict at all – I used to hold Rogers shares – I monetized those some time ago – I mean – I actually sold my cable interest and then the Rogers stock that I had I actually monetized that – and yaknow sold that – so that’s gone – so I have no connection there.
The only connection I would have is that these people worked for me – and worked very well for me – I mean I pride myself when I was in private business – trying to hide yaknow trying to find the best people to hire that I could – and people like Kenny Marshall and Dean MacDonald – but when people come out and try now to disparage the reputations and imply that there is something wrong with this – I mean this is a very very good investment for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
I mean we’re the only province in the country that doesn’t have a competitive broadband service – so that means we don’t get the same educational benefits – the health benefits – the tourism benefits – the competition benefits – the cost benefits – and the savings that comes with competition – so I mean this is a very lucrative investment – and from the government’s perspective we’ll get our money back within a very short period of time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The issue here is not whether Danny is in a direct conflict - in other words stands to gain directly from the contract. The issue here is whether or not he should be dealing with companies who have senior executives - that have been either partners with the Premier - or working at Senior levels in one or more of companies he has owned - and are currently on government boards - at the pleasure of the Premier. More importantly when financial assistance - investment - or commitment is given from taxpayer dollars - without the benefit or scrutiny of an open public tender or RFP process.
Second the issue of this being a good deal for the government has not gone through an examination by the House of Assembly where - perhaps - loopholes may be found or legal language may be improved on. We also do not know if this is the best deal the province could have achieved with any other consoutium or individual players in the telecom sector.
The government should also be prepared to show us what other Canadian jurisdictions enjoy and whether or not the companies involved received similar investments of public money.
We also must question if the Premier feels there are other individuals in the Province that have the same capability as Dean MacDonald - Ken Marshall - Paul Hatcher - or Gilbert Bennett -or will we be limited to these people when it comes to major transactions and Board appointments - because he has dealt closely with them in the past?
The Premier says this is a lucrative investment. How is the investment lucrative to the taxpayers? Could it be as lucrative or more lucrative with any other consortium of companies or individual corporation?
When the Premier says that people are disparaging reputations and implying there's something wrong - is the Premier simply unable to deal with valid and reasonable questions?
My take is that he can't - that being the case - the deal may be worse than we think.
When the Premier states that we will get our money back in a short period of time - he should state the time and provide evidence demonstrate his calculations.
1 comment:
Good perspective Sue. I happened to have watched the interview last night - I don't usually - and was reminded of why I've stopped being interested. The whole verbal exchange reeked of fear (on the part of the interviewer in failing to pick up on prime opportunities to push the issues) and self-righteous indignation (the Premier again exposing his immature approach to public scrutiny). It has always made my stomach churn to watch local NTV and CBC newspeople interviewing Williams - no offense to the interviewer; it just makes it all the more obvious to a recently re-patronated Nflder how deeply entrenched is Williams' intimidation and power-wielding among his own people. A bully in the school yard is as close a comparison as I can think to draw at the moment.
The whole issue of Gov't's wish to fund more private fibre optics development is to do with conflict of interest - of course! I've said it time and time again about Williams' tenure as Premier: his responsibility is not only to abstain from evil but, just as importantly, to APPEAR to abstain from evil. And to me, that is what conflict of interests issues are all about. He owes it to the people of the province he's been mandated to represent to obviously avoid even appearing to be doing things in his own interest. When the issue comes down to legalities rather than individual will and sense of right and wrong, you can rest assured there's conflict.
You make some great points.
Thanks,
Terry
Post a Comment