Opposition claims victory in scuttling of jet deal

Arthur Lok Jack, Chairman of Caribbean Airlines Ltd., (CA), is insisting that the Bombardier jet purchase deal collapsed on the weight of the controversial anti-corruption clause. He has dismissed the claim by Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday and other critics that public pressure led to the cancellation of the US$63 million agreement.

Speaking on morning television Wednesday, Lok Jack did not discuss the fact – reported exclusively on hotlikepepperradio.com – that Bombardier was already constrained by integrity laws in Canada, where the jet manufacturer operates.

He told interviewer Andy Johnson that Bombardier’s executives were not opposed to the thorny clause, but that the corporation’s attorneys opposed it. The chairman explained that the clause carried penalties for breach of the pact.

According to Lok Jack, Bombardier has not been previously made to sign such an agreement. “This is a precedent” for the company, he stated.

The chairman did not respond to reports in certain sections of the Trinidad and Tobago media that a local agent was set to benefit from an agency fee, but stated that the corporation has agents around the world.

Lok Jack, who is a billionaire private sector operative, suggested that all public contracts carry similar penalty integrity clauses.

The chairman and CEO Philip Saunders said that an executive jet service remains "commercially viable" and that CA would shop around for another carrier. Bombardier will refund a US $500,000 down payment.

Both executives spoke following the shock disclosure that the much-touted jet deal had been scuttled after Bombardier declined to ink an agreement that included a strict anti-corruption clause.

The planned purchase had generated much controversy in TT, especially from critics who felt the requisite money could have been better spent delivering goods and services in the midst of soaring food prices.

Lok Jack had prompted a storm within a teacup by stating that money was not the issue in the government’s inability to improve the standard of living of citizens, but that systems and procedures needed to be upgraded and modernised.

That remark led to demands from opposition senator Wade Mark for the chairman to be dismissed.

Meanwhile, Panday is moving to score political points on the issue, insisting that the purchase failed to lift off because the government was not able to convince the public that "the deal was clean, the purchase necessary and that it was justified, given the prevailing social conditions."

Congress of the People official Gerald Yetming said that "the tragedy in all of this is not that the transaction didn’t go through because good sense prevailed, but because of a legal technicality."

Noting that the airline plans to pursue the purchase of another jet, Yetming stated: "The question of wasteful spending and a don’t-care attitude toward the public still very much exists."

Transport Minister Colm Imbert observed that the US is facing an economic recession, and "therefore, a number of executive jets may become available in the near future as US corporations may change their minds about acquiring a jet."

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