Panday can't remember any US$100M deal with China

Government House leader Colm Imbert told the House of Representatives earlier this week that the UNC government signed a US$100 million (TT$630 million) deal with the China EXIM Bank to build the Academy of Performing Arts in Port of Spain.

Imbert was responding to Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley who condemned the Government’s mega construction projects, including the arts building.

In defending the project Imbert told the House that it was the Panday administration, not the PNM, that signed the agreement in 1999.

But Panday cannot remember any such deal while he was prime minister from 1995 to 2001. And he has called on Imbert to publish the details of the to prove that such an agreement had been negotiated and signed by the UNC government.

"I’d like to see the agreement and what we said, what we agreed to. We may have agreed in principle to establish a cultural centre, but certainly not the monstrosity now being imposed on this society," Panday told Newsday.

"Mr Imbert should publish the documents...(and) be open and fair with the society, publish it and let us see what we signed,” the former prime minister said.