Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young yesterday revealed that the former People’s Partnership government secretly spent $24 million in infrastructural adjustments to facilitate the safe berthing and operationalisation of the Super Fast Galicia.
In addition to the $24 million, Young said taxpayers also paid $56.3 million for use of the boat for one year, bringing the total figure to $80 million.
The $24 million was unearthed by Christian Mouttet, who was appointed sole investigator in August by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley into the controversial Cabo Star and Ocean Flower 2 contracts, which led to collapse of the sea bridge.
Mouttet submitted a detailed report of his findings to Rowley last month.
Young said in pulling together documents at the Port Authority of T&T, Mouttet, who he thanked publicly for his services, discovered evidence involving the Galicia.
In a 2014 Cabinet Minute—the time the Galicia came to T&T, Young said the PP government decided to use “the list of selected tenderers based on firms known to operate in the ship-leasing industry and firms, which had previously submitted unsolicited offers.”
He said these unsolicited offers were used in a procurement process, while the person who was hired to advise and procure was invited to tender, which should not have happened.
“The Cabinet then took a decision for the space of one year to make the citizens of T&T liable for a boat called the Galicia for $56.3 million. That is not the real offensive part, you know.”
Young said what the PP hid from the Government and the nation was that the Ministry of Transport in consultation with the Ministry of Finance identified funds to meet the expenditure associated with the charter hire of the Galicia “the sum of $23.9 million for infrastructural adjustments to facilitate safe berthing and operationalisation of the vessel.”
Having seen the documents produced by Mouttet, Young said it showed that the vessel could not have docked in Port-of-Spain or Scarborough safely.
“The vessel is unsuitable for those reasons. The depth of the vessel is too deep. There is not sufficient space in the channels in the Port-of-Spain. But they went and put us the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago into a contract to get that vessel.”
For two months, Young said the vessel could not be used and had to be docked.
“This is what led to all the problems in the inter-island ferry service,” Young said.
“But they put aside $24 million to get a barge….not even to dredge. They did not even do the dredging to fix the jetty in Scarborough.”