Letter: How much did that flag really cost?

The minister of sport and youth affairs has so far been unable to tell the nation how much that flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium cost. The are reports that it cost as much as $2 million and when reporters confronted Gary Hart with that figure last week he said he didn't know the cost.

However what the minister did say was if it was indeed two million, then it would be a justifiable cost because of the national pride which the 30-foot flag generates.

Critics have called it nonesense and on Sunday the Congress of the People (COP) accused the government of corruption, saying that there is no way the flag could cost anything close to the $2 million figure.

So why can't the minister settle the matter and tell the nation the real cost? This is not brain surgery; it's a simple matter of checking with the relevant authorities and asking for the information.

Somebody did the work, somebody authorized the cost and somebody paid the money. It's that straightforward.

But perhaps the real reason why Hunt cannot tell the nation is because he honestly knows it cost too much and compared to the industry standards to such works it must be inflated many times over.

It reminds me of the recent purchase of a building in Toronto for the Trinidad and Tobago consulate for the full list price of Cdn$4.25 million. Government made the deal to buy at the full price when everybody knows that in the depressed real estate market the buyer could have negotiated a substantial discount.

But worse, the government allocated an extra TT$20 million for it, knowing that the cost had been settled. and nobody has bothered to explain where the extra money is going.

And the final note on that is this. The "new" building needs a roof job and so far the consulate is still operating from rented offices.

Capil Bissoon, Brampton, Ontario