Barbados Today

Member of Parliament for St Michael South East Santia Bradshaw has dared Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and his governing Democratic Labour Party (DLP) to enact integrity legislation that will force people in public life to declare their assets.

Arguing that the DLP had promised such legislation during the campaign for the 2008 general election, Bradshaw said it was time for the DLP to keep its promise.

Addressing an Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) branch meeting in the DLP stronghold of St John on Sunday night, the country’s youngest parliamentarian reminded supporters that the DLP had accused the then governing BLP of corruption and had campaigned on a platform of eradicating sleaze.

Now deep into its second term, she said, the DLP had yet to pass the promised Integrity in Public Life legislation and Stuart was instead ridiculing accusations of corruption against his own ministers.

“We can hear repeated reports of ministers driving vehicles that are registered at Licensing Authority, contractors who are doing work for the ministry that they represent and the Prime Minister, what does he tell the people? ‘Take it to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] if you feel that there is a charge’. But he is the Prime Minister; we don’t need to go to the DPP. You have integrity legislation bring the integrity legislation,” Bradshaw egged Stuart on.

“Let the members of the Democratic Labour Party be held to account for what they came to office with, what they acquired in public life and what they will leave Parliament [with] at the end.”

Bradshaw said the leaders of her party had declared their assets and she reiterated that members of the ruling party should do likewise.

“Because we stand for something,” she said of the BLP. “We understand if we are going to engage the people of this country that we too have to be able to come to the people of this country with clean hands.”