Open Letter to the European Union

Hon. Herman Van Rampuy (EPP) President of the European Council The European Union Rue Wiertz Willy Brandt 06m 105 B - 1047 Brussels Belgium

Dear Hon. Herman Van Rampuy

We write to you as concerned citizens and patriots of our blessed country, the Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies.

Dominica has been a beneficiary of aid from the European Union for many years now and we appreciate the good gesture extended to our island since after 34 years of independence we are still a very poor and struggling country with many challenges. The challenges we face outside of natural disasters are the man made political disasters which has crippled this country more than any hurricane has done in the past 35 years not to mention in the recent twelve years of this administration.

Under this current administration our country has witnessed poor governance, serious allegations of corruption, thievery of the State's money, the major one referred to as the BIN BOBOL, discovered by an investigative journalist Lennox Linton where EC$500,000.00 was paid back to the treasury. To this day no one has been arrested for this theft and the blame is placed at the office of the Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit ably supported and surrounded by men who are protecting and offering him legal advice in their scheme of things. They have not been acting in the best interest of Dominica. It is evident that where we see poor and undeveloped countries the quality, transparency and accountability of its government and come into question. It is no different in Dominica.

Mr Skerrit has been before the courts re his eligibility to hold high office following the last general elections in 2009. The issue was thrown out of court on a technicality because he was prevented, upon pleading to the court by his counsel not to produce the evidence, his French passport, as that he would incriminate himself with the letter he wrote to the French Embassy in St. Lucia requesting withdrawal of citizenship pending upcoming elections. This is major concern to all Dominicans since the man who leads Dominica may hold two citizenships, one Dominican and the other French, the latter referred to as a foreign country which is illegal under Dominica`s constitution.

Our concerns of Mr. Skerrit's governance of Dominica and his credibility to govern are too numerous to mention in this letter. For instance, there are issues of the indiscriminate way he manages Dominica`s scarce financial resources operating what is dubbed "The RED CLINIC", where he invites hundreds of poor and destitute nationals to come up to his office on a Wednesday morning and hands outs any amount of money to begging party faithful, while the real poor people are suffering in the poor villages.

The immediate concern facing us now is a grant in the region of 55m Euros approved for agricultural projects and to the best of my knowledge already in Dominica. The Permanent Secretary of Agriculture, a highly respected and professional civil servant is now away on long vacation leave and to our understanding has been replaced by governments economic advisor, not that we do not trust him but for the professional checks and balances and credibility of this project we however favour the sitting PS who is now on leave.

The other issue we have is that we also understand that the current minister's brother has been selected in favour of and over and above five other candidates; at least three of them surpassed him in qualifications, experience and management of such a programme.

With Chavez and Ghaddafi deceased, the traditional sources of "favoured" money to this regime are gone and they may be seeking to take advantage of this European money. This must not be allowed and we hold you and the EU accountable that that money is well used for the intended purpose and we will further hold the EU responsible if they do not investigate and ensure that clear monitoring guidelines, transparency and procedures are adhered to towards this venture.

I look forward to your intervention.

Patriots and Concerned Citizens for Dominica