Posted on September 8, 2025
Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle expressed serious concerns about the Cabinet’s approval to send Minister of Social and Urban Transformation Rawdon Turner and other officials to Holland to procure equipment for harbour projects that have already consumed over $100 million in taxpayer funds.
“Now I am concerned, and I’m going to speak to the legal luminaries to see if it’s even worthwhile for us to file an injunction to stop these things, pending the information that is necessary to make these decisions,” Pringle stated during an interview on Observer radio.
The opposition leader said he is also exploring a writ of mandamus — a court order compelling a government official, entity, or lower court to perform a legal duty or correct an abuse of discretion — against the Prime Minister to compel the release of financial documentation from statutory bodies and government agencies.
“We have seen this dredging happening for at least 10 years now, and we have not seen any form of records, any agreement. All we heard was the government had shares in the Blue Ocean,” he said.
The opposition leader highlighted what he sees as a conflict of interest in the government’s relationship with Blue Ocean.
“All we know it’s an entity that, according to the prime minister, NAMCO would have invested in. Yet it’s the same Blue Ocean – it’s the same company that the government is paying to dredge the St John’s harbour while having ownership of it,” Pringle explained.
According to the Cabinet notes, besides Turner, the delegation to the Netherlands will also include Antigua and Barbuda Port Authority Manager Darwin Telemaque, an engineer from the Ministry of Works, and Blue Ocean Manager Conliffe Browne. They plan to purchase a Caterpillar excavator with specialized attachments for dredging projects at St John’s and Crabb’s harbors.
Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle
“Who are the principals of Blue Ocean, and why is the minister, a Cabinet minister, Honorable Rawdon Turner, travelling to Holland to purchase equipment for on and on behalf of Blue Ocean?” he asked.
The opposition leader emphasized that his party is not opposed to government investment but demands proper documentation and justification before taxpayer money is spent.
“We cannot continue to allow this government to just get up with a bright idea that is going to cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and we sit back and allow it. It is necessary for us, the opposition, to stand against it,” Pringle declared.
“I’m not saying the government cannot invest, but what I’m saying with these investments, there must be adequate information out there for us to see the need or the urgency of these investments before taking up taxpayers’ money and spending it willy-nilly.”
Pringle described the ongoing dredging operations as “nothing more than the government bleeding the people of Antigua and Barbuda through that dredging process of its finances.”
The St John’s Harbour project requires approximately 20,000 cubic meters of rock removal and 120,000 cubic meters of maintenance dredging, while Crabb’s Harbour needs an additional 150,000 cubic meters of dredging work.
Cabinet has also endorsed expanding Blue Ocean’s operations beyond immediate harbor projects to include beach replenishment, sand mining for construction, and regional Caribbean dredging services.
