Anybody who knows Juan Luis, knows he is still concerned with the Virgin Islands, her people and problems. As a retired Governor of the Virgin Islands serving 11 years, you might expect him to be living in the past but that never happens unless he is applying past experiences to current issues. He listens to all opinions prior to expressing his opinion but once he starts on what he has identified as the best path, you just can’t stop him.
It is interesting to watch him evaluate the Diageo Deal. He has not yet taken a strong position either publicly or privately but the process he is using to evaluate the deal exemplifies his leaderships style. Governor Luis always claimed that every project should be evaluated in the context of three criteria while reaming aware that the government should try to be doing more with less. The criteria are
1. Is it legal and ethical?
2. Is it necessary or does it benefit the people?
3. Can the Territory afford the project assuming all the expenses and risks?
Now anybody short of the truly brain dead, has to recognize that he Diageo Deal is legal and has huge potential benefits and that is not a concern of Governor Luis, any of his former advisers or current friends. His concern is the price we the people of the Virgin Islands, our children, grand-children and in thirty years our great grand-children will have to pay including all hidden costs and can we afford the worst case scenario.
When Juan Luis was Governor, one aid was Elmo D. Roebuck, one of the most brilliant people to serve as Finance Chair in the Senate and Kenneth Mapp who was his bodyguard/driver who later became a brilliant financial mind and actually went to Harvard for an executive MPA without graduating from college. He spent a lot of time listening to his two old financial advisers and the fact is he is beginning to worry about the long term potential liability of the deal which in the worst case could bankrupt the territory.
Kenneth Mapp discussed all his reservations at 2 PM on Saturday but news reports on the deal and an analysis of it are non-existent. The most amazing items discussed are what negotiators call “throwaway” items. These items are so stupid and absurd that the party that asks for them really expects them to be discarded because nobody in their right mind who was honest really expects them to be included in the final package. They are there as a negotiating point that you expect will be discarded and not an integral part of what you really want. I have friends who include the most absurd crap in a contract and are utterly amazed when they occasionally get what the ask for.
On his own Kennith Mapp discovered three trully stupid throwaway items that should have been eliminated before the draft became public. They are so unethical that they might have been included to obscure the discussion of the amount of the bond, the impact on our revenues and whether the Diageo Deal is worth the risk. There is no other reason a Virgin Islander (Native or Not) would have allowed these three contract points without a major bribe or engaging in overwhelming stupidity. Mr. Mapp could not accept that anyone had actually taken a bribe for this sweetheart contact so that means the inclusion of truly dumb throwaway items has to be caused by overwhelming stupidity or to obscure real discussion of the risk.
One good point about a contract this bad is that no one from Puerto Rico will be knocking at the door to offer the same or a similar contract to Diageo.
The throwaway items be discussed separately.
Tags: Add new tag, Diageo, St. Croix, Virgin Islands
