Fifteen years after skipping the state without completing his end of the bargain in the Ottley Hall Marina and Shipyard Project, arrangements are finally being made for Dr. Aldo Rolla to be interviewed in England by the Commission of Enquiry into the failed project.{{more}}
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves made this disclosure on Sunday, February 21, 2010, at the Unity Labour Partyâs 16th Convention.
While he did not say more on the whereabouts of Rolla, President of Valdettaro, the Italian Company which had the contract for constructing the Ottley Hall Project and to manage it for 10 years, Gonsalves lauded his ULP administration and himself for successfully negotiating a reduction in the debt which St.Vincent and the Grenadines has to repay.
Gonsalves told his Party faithful the debt was reduced from $180 million to $16 million. The negotiations also resulted in the state getting the property at Ottley Hall.
He, however, noted that persons in the New Democratic Party (NDP) will have to give account for the funds that disappeared.
âI want them to tell me what did they spend their money on when they borrow it, which Ralph Gonsalves and the Unity Labour Party have to be paying back,â said Gonsalves.
âYou remember the $180 million on Ottley Hall? You remember that? For a project which was worth thirteen and a half millions,â said Gonsalves.
He added: âThese fellas are absolutely remarkable…Kenny (Anthony, former Prime Minister of St.Lucia), you think you geh bandits?â
Gonsalves told the large gathering of supporters that the members of the Opposition have criticised his government for taking the National Debt to EC$1.1 billion, but fails to tell the public EC$653 million of that total was incurred by New Democratic Party (NDP).
He said whatever the ULP led administration borrows, Vincentians can see what it is spent on, but the same cannot be said for the NDP.
With regard to Rolla, he left St.Vincent and the Grenadines in the middle of 1995 without completing construction work on the Ottley Hall project, reportedly after receiving almost EC$10 million from the National Commercial Bank to inject into the project.
The authorities later discovered that the company that Rolla headed was bankrupt.
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