On the heels of the irregular procurement process involving the Cabo Star and Ocean Flower 2 vessels comes word that another contract at the Port Authority of T&T (PATT) is now engaging the attention of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Rowley made the disclosure at the JSC during his closing statements before committee members last night.
He said while PATT needed to pay serious attention to the maintenance of its cranes, another issue has surfaced involving the procurement of 25 tractor trucks which was not ratified by Cabinet.
“Procurements which were questionable resulted in the port paying for 25 tractor trucks at $1 million a piece and that was done without Cabinet approval. The port is in the process now of buying 25 tractor trucks at a time when the port’s business is contracting into oblivion.”
Of the 25 trucks, Rowley said the port had already received five of the vehicles. He said the biggest question was whether PATT should be buying these trucks or maintaining its cranes.
“But somebody got a nice business in tractor truck business, but money to maintaining the cranes is committed to the tractor trucks.”
Rowley said the ferry service was only part of the PATT’s overall problem.
“The bottom line is the Port of Port-of-Spain is in great danger because it is obliterated by business that used to come to Port-of-Spain,” he said, noting that business which the PATT once secured was now going to Jamaica and Santo Domingo.
He said PATT was in fact now being deemed irrelevant by cargo operators for a number of reasons.
“Not the least of which, what we are dealing with here in terms of the unacceptability of conflicts and corruption on the port.”
Rowley said the port in Port-of-Spain was losing its status and geographical location and the PATT needed to earn back that space.
“A handful of people could be prospering on the current arrangement, but the port is spinning off into oblivion and we have to intervene there.”
He said the PATT has to get serious with its business.
“Where it is clear that a drunken man on a galloping horse could see that there are serious problems at the port…problems that are of management, or maybe weak board because it is a state board of Cabinet that could be misled by the port and the board and the management, none of those put us in a good position. And I hope we come out of this better off and better able to address one of the challenges of this country…where hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent and we getting less and less.”