Posted on 05/30/2016 12:05:22 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, May 30, CMC – Former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj has called on the Keith Rowley administration to set up a three-member task force to investigate the construction of a multi-billion dollar highway that has since come to a halt when the former People’s Partnership government was defeated in the September 7 general elections last year.
Maharah, who is also advocating for a Commission of Inquiry into the matter, told a news conference on Sunday that the government had an obligation to determine how the TT$7.5 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) funds were spent on the highway that was being built by the Brazilian company, Construtora OAS SA (OAS).
Maharaj, who is teaming up with the Highway Re-Route Movement (HRM) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN), said that there was need for a forensic audit into the most expensive project ever attempted here.
“I am calling upon the government today to take steps…to appoint a three-member task force to look at what has already been done…and the recommendation to take whatever criminal or civil action against members of the (former) government or public officials, who ever were involved in continuing this recklessness,” he said.
In April, the Trinidad and Tobago government said it would ask the Integrity Commission to investigate the former People’s Partnership government after it provided the multi-billion dollar contract to the Brazilian company.
“Government’s intention to request that the Integrity Commission investigate this travesty as there appears to be a breach of section 24 of the Integrity in Public Life Act, as persons performing their functions and administering public resources for which they were responsible, did not do so in a cost-effective or efficient manner.
“In fact, on the face of it, Contract Addendum No. 2 has the distinguishing features of a conspiracy which may require the attention of the law enforcement agencies,” the Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General, Stuart Young, told Parliament then.
He said that the Brazilian company, Construtora OAS SA (OAS), had in 2011 been awarded a TT$5.2 billion (One TT dollar =US$0.16 cents) contract, which was more than the engineer’s estimate by TT$1.6 billion), to construct the extension of the Solomon Highway to Point Fortin, south of here.
He said the contract was governed by the FIDIC Yellow Book utilising terms and conditions that are standard and internationally recognised and that a party should only, with very good reason, amend the standard terms and conditions of FIDIC.
“Despite this, the former government changed the standard and accepted advance payment term from 10 to 20 per cent. This upward amendment resulted in OAS receiving approximately, TT$856 million, as opposed to, TT$428million as an advance.”
He said that another major issue at inception was that all payments made to OAS for activities under the Letter of Intent, which totalled TT$236.4 million, should have been deducted from the Advance Payment. “However, these sum were not deducted. So even before construction began, the former government provided OAS with over TT$1Billion of taxpayers’ funds.
“This project should have been completed in March 2015. It was a four-year contract, to provide a four-lane divided highway with full grade separated Interchanges. It included eight such Interchanges as well as eight river bridges. It is still far from completion.”
But former transport and works minister Dr. Suruj Rambachan has disputed the figures, telling Parliament that at least 63 per cent of the project had been completed when the Kamla Persad Bissessar-led coalition government exited office.
He had earlier this year called on the government to make a public statement as to whether or not the project had been abandoned.
But Maharaj told reporters that the government is moving too slow on dealing with the issue.
“When you are in opposition, you play a tune and when you get into government you play a different tune,” he said, adding that this has been happening in the politics of Trinidad and Tobago “too often.
“This cannot continue in Trinidad and Tobago. The people of Trinidad and Tobago are not going to tolerate this. The people of Trinidad and Tobago will have to intervene if it is seen that government is not acting in their interest.
“And that is why the law should be changed so that the people of Trinidad and Tobago would have power everyday to recall a government,” he told reporters
In Asia, it’s institutionalized..............
You nailed it, RB!
.....and has been for thousands of years..............
From The Art of War by Sun Tzu:
Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving
for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy’s condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honours and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.
It simply explains why we are the way we are.
Human nature has never changed..........
“Corruption in transportation: about the same everywhere.”
Yep! Well, at least we know what Rick Perry and Mitch Daniels have been doing with their time lately. Too bad for the people down there - it’s a small country and those costs are THROUGH THE ROOF.
Indeed just like in D.C. if you don’t get a cut of the action call for an investigation.
It never will, I bet!
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