Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday called for immediate action on the $1.2b Beetham Waste Water project. His statements came on the heels of a Sunday Guardian story which said the project was being reviewed by the new board of the National Gas Company, which manages the project.
In a text message exchange, Rowley said: “We needed action, not an enquiry.”
“We knew enough. I prosecuted a motion on the facts in the Parliament. The (then) PM defended the process and the questionable arrangements involving $1.2 billion of taxpayers money,” Rowley said. He was referring to his 2014 statements made in Parliament, as Opposition Leader, which queried the award process of the contract to Super Industrial Services Ltd (SISL).
He revealed then that SISL was chosen over internationally recognised companies despite a $400 million hike in their bid price.
“I called on the then prime minister to intervene and stop...the contract,” Rowley said yesterday. He said even a Commission of Enquiry (CoE) was unnecessary at this point.
“A CoE is to unearth evidence, identify persons responsible and hold them accountable. We did not need a CoE,” Rowley said.
Rowley said he presented enough evidence and even “identified the clear conflict of decision-making involving the people at WASA and the same people at NGC” when he made the issue public. He said when he brought forward that evidence, Persad-Bissessar “put (former sports minister) Anil Roberts to respond and refused to act to save taxpayers money.”
Rowley said he was determined to stop this $1.2 billion project and even wrote to President Anthony Carmona, in March 2014, asking him to intervene.
“I sought an audience with the President and wrote to him, asking him to intervene under Section 81 of the Constitution and call on the (then) PM to explain the actions of her government in facilitating this raid on the monies in NGC accounts,” he said.
Rowley said Carmona “failed to even reply to my letter of concern which contained the documents of information and an analysis of the (allegedly) flawed procurement process,” Rowley said.
The National Gas Company (NGC), under its former board approved and paid SISL, 86 per cent of its fees for the mega-project. The company’s current chairman Gerry Brooks said yesterday the details of that contract was under “active review” and that process was expected to be completed “very shortly”. He said as the Prime Minister has already spoken out on the issue then he would not say anything further.
The T&T Guardian now understands that the Office of the Attorney General’s office is already overseeing a series of investigations into the award of a multitude of multi-million dollar mega-projects awarded under the previous People’s Partnership regime, including the waste water project and the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin.
The Government has already signaled its intention to pursue legal matters against preferred contractors who were hired by the Education Facilities Company Ltd, Brazilian construction firm, OAS Construction, building the highway, and now SISL. Efforts would also be made to recover the money paid if the contracts are found to be rigged, said a top source at the Ministry of the Attorney General.
The T&T Guardian was told that contractors can face charges associated with bid rigging, fraud and embezzlement, similar to the case involving former United National Congress (UNC) financiers Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson in two-decade old case relating to the $1.6b Piarco International Airport Project.
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According to NGC, the Beetham Waste Water project is an initiative designed to recycle waste-water to industrial standard and use it to supply clients in the Point Lisas Industrial Estate. The project, once completed, is expected to provide some 10 million gallons of water per day to the full-time supply of water to over 15,000 people and should positively impact another 200,000.
The NGC said it is involved in this project because of a "powerful synergy" among the itself, the project and the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA).