St. George’s, Grenada, Feb. 1, 10 – Trade unionist, Senator Chester Humphrey, has castigated the former New National Party government for its involvement in a long list of failed projects and the wastage of taxpayers’ money.
 
 Senator Humphrey outlined some of the projects while making his contributing in the Upper House of Parliament to the 2010 budget debate.
 
 The economic difficulties of Grenada must be seen not only in the context of the global crisis, but also viewed from the perspective of money squandered by the NNP regime, he said.
 
 Sen. Humphrey said the NNP government of former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell lost millions of dollars in schemes such as the poultry project in St. Mark, the Lagoon Road project of the Marketing and National Importing Board, and the Garden Group project.
 
 “Then there’s the famous call centre – almost $24 million spent and absolutely nothing to show for it,’’ Senator Humphrey charged.
 
 He said his own “conservative’’ estimate is that some $250 million was squandered on failed projects.
 
 “You see the magnitude of this waste. Think about what this money could do for housing for poor people,’’ Senator Humphrey said. “Think about what this money could do for culture.
 
 With about $6 million being spent on free school books for 26,000 students, “my math tells me that we could finance that program with all the money NNP wasted for the next 49.17 years,’’ added Sen. Humphrey.
 
 The wasted money, he said, could also have been used to provide food “for all of the children currently in the school feeding program for 92.51 years,’’ and for 195,000 elderly persons who receive assistance under the Necessitous Grant program.