Roberts warned about Taruba stadium since 2003

Sport Minister Anil Roberts told Parliament Wednesday he warned the PNM about potential trouble at the billion-dollar Tarouba Sporting Complex but he was ignored.

Roberts was at the time an adviser to PNM Sports Minister Roger Boynes.

The minister told the House of Representatives he didn't renew his contract with the PNM government because he was deeply concerned about what was happening at the stadium.

He said in 2003 he was deeply bothered when he saw detailed plans for the Tarouba Sporting Complex. "I looked at the former minister, Roger Boynes, and told him, 'Sir, when you going to jail, I not following you!''' Roberts said.

Roberts said cost of the project has reached $1.1 billion, which includes a loan of $497 million that the Manning administration took to try to complete the controversial project.

Roberts said the new People's Partnership Government will now have to find money every year for the next six years to honour that loan.

Roberts also went about Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, who told Parliament on Tuesday that the PNM would not defend wrong.

"Where is Calder Hart, Uthara Rao, Ken Julien?" Roberts asked.

Rowley himself had always complained about Hart, the former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), and alleged corruption at UDeCOTT. He had openly stated that the corruption at UDeCOTT was the worst the country had ever seen.

Roberts reminded MPs that while Rowley was slamming Hart and UDeCOTT the former prime minister, Patrick Manning, "defended Calder Hart on 45 occasions, saying he was the bastion of intelligence and implementation".

Roberts said Rowley and the PNM have no right to talk about morality and trust when the Hart scandal happened under their tenure.

"So the PNM will not defend wrongdoing, but the entire Cabinet sat quietly as people like Calder Hart overspent on Tarouba, Ministry of Legal Affairs building, every single project, NAPA...all of them, and they come here and say they do not defend wrongdoing?" Roberts asked.

He also reminded Rowley of the concerns he himself had raised about Hart, yet when the time came for getting elected "the very said member (Rowley) went up on a platform and said forget all of that, time for election; let we go down the road together."

Roberts added, "And now, he stands here, three months later, begging the population to believe that the PNM will not defend wrongdoing".

Roberts also went after former finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira who presided over the PNM government's bailout of CLICO, claiming that she made moves to secure her money before she negotiated on behalf of policy-holders.

And he reminded the House of his predecessor, Gary Hunt, who spent $2 million dollars on a national flag at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.