Owen Arthur blasts ruling party over CLICO

(Barbados Nation) The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) may have used integrity and accountability as part of its pathway to success in the 2008 general election, but according to former Prime Minister Owen Arthur, it doesn’t practice what it preaches.

Arthur made the claim Sunday night when the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) held a political meeting at Haggatt Hall, St Michael, under the theme CLICO – A Call For Justice.

“The DLP does not really believe in accountability,” Arthur, the night’s final and marquee speaker, told the large crowd on hand. “Leroy Parris should have been held up to accountability. This could only happen to a Government that says everything about transparency, but does nothing about it,” Arthur, the Member of Parliament for St Peter, said.

The former Barbados leader also said that the late David Thompson, as Prime Minister, was “up to his eyes” in all of the transactions involving CLICO and its executive chairman, Parris. “I want to know how much money they (CLICO) have put into the DLP. I want to know how many members of the party have been given loans,” Arthur added.