The opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) West Kingstown candidate, Daniel Cummings, says there is more to be revealed about the EC$144,000, one-year contract awarded to the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) North Windward candidate, Grace Walters.
In an interview with iWitness News on Monday, Cummings dismissed Walters’ suggestion that he was objecting to the contract because he is racist or sexist.
He further said there are clear differences between her contract and the one that he was awarded to continue to manage the state-owned Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) 24 years ago.
Cummings made the contract public on Saturday at the NDP’s rally in North Union, calling it a disgrace.
iWitness News later obtained a copy of the contract, which shows that it falls under the Strengthening Health System Resilience Project (SHSRP) and runs from Jan. 15, 2025, to Jan. 14, 2026.
The objective of the consultancy is to support the project manager in the implementation of the SHSRP, particularly with health sector reform.
However, Walters played the race and sex card at the ULP’s rally in Biabou on Sunday and said that awarding such contracts was a norm for the ULP government.
“It is not unusual for anyone who works with the government to be given a contract. It’s not uncommon. It’s not unheard of. It’s a regular thing. There’s a minister of finance,” Walters said and looked in the direction of Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves.
Walters said that to take up the contract, she took no-pay leave from her hospital administrator post.
Walters said she “applied for a leave without a salary in order to take up an offer that was given to me because I was qualified. I am qualified for that offer,” she said.
It is not clear whether the post was advertised or if it was offered only to Walters.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves also defended the contract given to Walters, and called on Cummings to speak about the contract that he signed with the NDP government on March 28, 2001 – the same day that the ULP was elected to office.
He further said Cummings should say if he has been asking the CWSA to increase his pension.
Cummings explained that he opted to retire at age 50 as CEO of the CWSA, as the law allowed and became pensionable.
He was then awarded a contract to continue as the chief executive, even as he was receiving a pension, also as the law permitted.
The contract continued under the ULP administration, with Cummings serving as head of the CWSA until 2004 — three years into the ULP government.
He said the ULP government asked him to return to the post after he had resigned mid-contract.
“There is no parallel whatsoever,” Cummings said of the two contracts. “To begin with, I was continuing. I just changed my mode of operation, from being a pensionable officer to being a contract officer.
“Nothing else changed. I remained CEO. I continued to do all the work for which I was qualified and performed to the best of my ability over several years. That’s a very clear case,” Cummings told iWitness News.
“In the case of Grace Walters, Grace Walters has been functioning as the administrator of the hospital and got herself a contract to advise people on the construction of a hospital and the attendant components of administering a hospital,” he said.
“And the question I’m asking people, ‘Where are the skills, experience, competence and qualifications demonstrated to suggest that she has anything good to add to the administration of a hospital, having served in such an inglorious manner at Milton Cato for several years?’
“And I tell you something about that contract, which I will deal with at my very next opportunity publicly, there is anything but honesty in it. It is totally dishonest. She is receiving far more than she — but listen, I don’t even really want to go into that, because they don’t understand me.”
Cummings who is seeking re-election to a fourth term as MP for the West Kingstown, noted that he embarrassed the government in 2010, when he announced in Parliament that the supply of medicine to the country had been suspended because of non-payment.
Health Minister Douglas Slater had denied that this was the case, but later apologised when Cummings was proven to be correct.
“… and they heaped scorn on me until I had the evidence to show them,” Cummings said as he recalled the 2020 incident.
“I like how they’re provoking me,” regarding Walters’ contract. “I just throw a little sprat and they’re carrying on and they’re attacking me. Wait until they see the whale,” Cummings, who is also chairman of the NDP, told iWitness News.
Regarding Walters’ suggestion that Cummings was talking about the contract because she is a woman and a “Carib” (indigenous Vincentian), Cummings told iWitness News:
“It’s not worthy of a comment. No. There’s one thing I do know, and I say this regularly and deliberately. That’s not my style, as I don’t attack people on personality. I attack them on failures. I attack them on issues of law, on propriety, not silly rubbish, like that. That’s not my style.”
Cummings said his deceased grandmother was one of the most influential people in his life.
“[She] taught me a long time ago, if you don’t have anything good to say about a woman, keep your mouth shut. And I live by that,” Cummings said.
He also dismissed Walters’ suggestion that he was opposed to her contract because she is from North of the Rabacca Dry Rivers.
Cummings said his record of service to people North of the Dry River is well known to them, especially in Fancy, where, as a Rotarian in the 1990s, he was instrumental in providing a bus to serve the community.
Also, the Rotary Club, in collaboration with the CWSA, implemented a project that brought pipe-borne water to Fancy.
Regarding his pension, Cummings told iWitness News that his pension has not been increased in 24 years, although the law said that it should be adjusted every time public sector pensioners receive an increase.