President of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU) Michael Annisette is questioning Government’s decision to exclude key stakeholders in the selection of a new vessel to service the sea bridge.
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said that Government purchased a ferry which will be named Galleons Passage at the cost of US$17.4 million to service the inter-island sea bridge.
The Government will take delivery of the ferry in China around February 9 and will set sail for the Caribbean shortly thereafter.
Imbert said the ferry was built from scratch in China starting in 2015.
It has never been used and T&T will be the first user, Imbert said.
Imbert said if we were to order a ferry to be built it would not arrive until 2020.
Annisette said the fact that the ferry was not built specifically for us could cause some problems.
“Anybody who knows maritime knows that if somebody is building a vessel from scratch they build it for their own peculiarities and their own operational needs, and therefore the question that I would ask is whether or not those needs meet Trinidad and Tobago’s needs,” Annisette said.
He also questioned why stakeholders who use the sea bridge were not involved in the procurement process for the vessel.
“While the Government would have said they used experts from the UTT (University of Trinidad and Tobago) to do the sea trials I have not been told who are the experts. who are these experts, what are their qualifications what kind of sea trial would they have done in the past that qualifies them to be experts,” he said.
Annisette said the union was also left out of any kind of discussions.
Meanwhile, former transport minister Devant Maharaj has written to the chairman of the Integrity Commission calling for the examination of the procurement process used by (Nidco) the National Infrastructure Development Company for the purchase of the ferry.