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FORMER UNC government ministers Dr Roodal Moonilal and Jack Warner rejected the Prime Minister’s call for the Parliament’s Land and Physical Infrastructure Joint Select Committee (JSC) to urgently examine the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension project and report its findings to Parliament.
Dr Rowley made this call in a statement to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
But their former Cabinet colleague Stephen Cadiz said Rowley was within his rights to send the matter to a JSC.
Moonilal, Warner and Cadiz were three members of a ministerial oversight committee for the project under the former UNC-led People’s Partnership (PP) government.
The committee was chaired by then-prime minister (now Opposition Leader) Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Other members were Winston Dookeran, Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie, Emmanuel George, Kevin Ramnarine and Stacy Roopnarine.
Dr Rowley said the public needs answers about what happened with that project under the PP from May 24 2010-September 7, 2015.
“The public, through its representatives in this House, must seek and obtain answers from all persons involved in or associated with this scandal.
“This is even more necessary since, in recent times, attempts have been made to give opportunity to person/s to put misinformation on the parliamentary record.”
Rowley listed what he said were some burning questions.
“By what process, advice and documentation was it determined that the billion-dollar contract must be amended to grant an $852 million waiver to (Construtora) OAS (the Brazilian company that was the project’s contractor under the PP)?
“Who authorised the amendment of the contract?
“What was the specific purpose and benefit to be had and by whom?
“Who actually carried out the instructions?
“What was the role of the Ministry of Works and Transport, the board of Nidco (National Infrastructure Development Company), the consultant and the management in effecting the amendment and its consequential waiver?”
While the project was a concept of the former Patrick Manning administration, Rowley said the facts showed the project did not begin under the PNM.
“The Pt Fortin highway exercise was initiated through the process of invitation of tenders in early 2010.”
But he said, “Although tenders were received in April 2010, the contract was not awarded by the PNM prior to the May 24 general election, since the bids received were significantly higher than the engineer’s estimate of $3.6 billion.”
A proper review and revision were called for but did not happen before the election.
On March 4, 2011, the PP awarded a design-build contract to OAS for $5.2 billion. Warner was works and transport minister at that time.
In a statement, Moonilal described Rowley’s statement as “a most bizarre-yet witchhunt, an eerie wild goose chase into a 15-year-old project.”
He thought Rowley would have used his speaking time to “announce effective anti-crime operational measures and policies.”
Instead, Moonilal continued, Rowley “presented a long-winded unsigned and undated document, bizarrely termed a ‘saga’ into a highway project that has been subject to independent reviews for a decade and a half.”
He claimed temporary UNC senator Dr Carson Charles “provided a thorough analysis of all aspects of the venture” when he spoke in the Senate budget debate last week. Charles, who was Nidco chairman under the PP, claimed the foundation for the project was laid by the PNM before the May 24, 2010 general election, which the PP won.
[caption id="attachment_1043512" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan shake hands after Dr Rowley cut the ribbon during the commissioning of the Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension to Point Fortin on October 14. - Jeff K. Mayers[/caption]
Moonilal said Rowley’s statement was “another dying gasp of a collapsed administration, which is tossing up freak shows while people perish at the hands of marauding criminals.”
He urged Rowley to “deal with the critical and urgent issues of the day instead of engaging in Halloween masquerading.
In a separate statement, Warner also dismissed Rowley’s comments.
On Wednesday, Rowley said before the contract was awarded to OAS, “An interested group of known high-level Brazilian executives of OAS flew by Dassault private jet from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Durban in South Africa, in pursuit of the said contract.”
A meeting took place at Angelo Towers in Johannesburg, South Africa during the 2010 World Cup there, he said.
Rowley said to date, no member of the UNC has ever denied this “transatlantic secret meeting” took place or its outcome in relation to the project being awarded to OAS.
Warner, who was FIFA vice president in 2010, confirmed that he was in South Africa at the time Rowley mentioned. While OAS representatives visited him at his hotel, Warner said he had no prior knowledge that they were coming.
“They requested from me a status report on the highway since communication was not forthcoming. “
Warner recalled telling the OAS representatives he could not discuss such matters without Cabinet approval and to contact Nidco for an update.
He claimed to have refused an offer by OAS to fly him back to TT.
“I refused because the optics of that journey would have made me conflicted.”
[caption id="attachment_1043514" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Former works and transport minister Jack Warner -[/caption]
Warner said he “travelled back first class from Johannesburg in South Africa on British Airways and allowed the OAS officials to communicate with Nidco officials on this matter.”
He supported Moonilal’s claim in the House on Wednesday that OAS was the preferred bidder for the project, and this was relayed in a May 25, 2010 letter from Nidco to OAS.
“Dr Rowley, as usual, is trying to be smart with foolishness.”
In a Whatsapp reply, Cadiz said, “Any administration has the right to have a JSC look into any issues regarding public expenditure.”
Just as Rowley referred the highway project to a JSC, he continued, “the same way all the schools that were under construction during the PP administration and up to now cannot be finished should now be referred.”
Cadiz insisted there must be no cherry-picking of projects when dealing with public expenditure.
“All must be dealt with equally.”
On his role in the PP’s ministerial committee for the highway project, Cadiz said, “I can confirm that I never sat on any (PP) oversight committee re the Pt Fortin highway.”
Checks of the Parliament website showed the Land and Physical Infrastructure JSC has not scheduled any meetings since the new parliamentary term opened in September.
Newsday was reliably informed that the JSC could address the highway project sometime after Divali.
While the report on the highway has been sent to the committee’s members, a draft inquiry proposal needs to be advanced to determine how the JSC proceeds with this matter.
UNC MPs did not object to the highway report being referred to the JSC when Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis moved a motion for this to happen on Wednesday.
 
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