Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan says Seamen and Waterfront Workers’ Trade Union president Michael Annisette needs to get his facts correct before implicating him in the current sea bridge imbroglio.
Following outcries from the business community, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley appointed Prestige Holdings Ltd chairman Christian Mouttet to probe the procurement process and charter party agreements for the Cabo Star and the Ocean Flower 2.
A charter party is a hire or lease contract between the owner of a vessel and the charterer. The vessels were procured last month to replace the MV Super Fast Galicia, which left T&T in April after a contractual fall out with Port Authority of T&T (PATT). On August 9, Government cancelled the Ocean Flower II contract after it failed to arrive in T&T at the end of last month as stipulated by the contract.
Speaking outside the Prime Minister’s office in St Clair on Friday, Annisette said Rowley should investigate Sinanan for failing to sign the charter party to retain the services of the Super Fast Galicia.
Annisette said Sinanan signed a charter party for two vessels that did not arrive in T&T for a year, but failed to sign an agreement for the Galicia, which was already in the country.
“We in the trade union movement are demanding an inquiry to determine why the minister did not sign a charter party agreement. That is what we want an inquiry into, not about the board. Remember, a board was fired,” Annisette said.
But speaking to reporters in Palo Seco yesterday, Sinanan said he was not even a minister when the issue of the charter party for the Galicia came up. Sinanan, who was appointed to the Works and Transport portfolio on October 31, 2016, said the contract for the Galicia finished since April 2016.
“He spoke about the Super Fast Galicia and that I did not sign-off on the contract and that is why it left. What Mr Annisette has to understand is that the charter party that he is talking about, if he would remember, that was in April 2016. I became a minister in November 2016,” Sinanan said.
“I do not understand where he is going with it, that I did not sign-off on the agreement, because the contract for the Super Fast Galicia finished in April. I was not even a Cabinet minister. I need to check back to see if I was not even a senator. I don’t know what he is talking about and he needs to get his facts correct.”
He added: “I have always stood for integrity, accountability and value for money. I welcome an investigation because I too, like the entire population, wants to know if anything went on in the procurement process.”