Jack says PNM $21M for a study that was never done

Works Minister Jack Warner told the House of Representatives Friday the People's National Movement (PNM) government paid $21 million for a study that was never done. 

He said the study was supposed to be done by the international firm Parsons Brinckerhoff.

"Aaahha? Aaahha? None was done," he told MP's during his contribution to the debate on a procurement bill.

"In the first place, how was the contract awarded? On what basis?" he asked. "Did any other company get a chance to bid for this study? We paid $21 million for a non-study," he said, accusing the former administration of mismanagement. "You all ran this country worse than a parlour," he declared.

He said the People's Partnership would not tolerate such irresponsible fiscal behaviour. 

"Anyone on this side caught stealing from the public purse will face the full brunt of the law. Whether yuh white or black, Canadian or Trinidadian, you would pay. We shall not look the other way. And that is why this motion is here. That is what our Prime Minister stands for. And that is what we stand for."

He said that for eight years former prime minister Patrick Manning believed that he could fool the people by side stepping the issue of procurement.

Warner said a procurement policy has been in the public domain since September 26, 2005 and charged that there was a reason why the Manning administration refused to make it government policy.

"Why didn't we have any bill for five years?" he asked, stating that the opposition of which was a part had been demanding it as well as contractors in the construction sector. "Mikey Joseph, and those guys were begging for it, Emile Elias begging for it, Transparency International begging for it," he said.

Describing the former government as "shameless" Warner said in the budget 2005-6 Manning promised procurement measures and did it again in 2006-7 but nothing ever happened.

"In June 2007, in a public address, the then prime minister, Patrick Manning, said that the procurement regime cannot be implemented in its present form. But if it can't be done in its present form, give us any form. 

"But 2007, 2008, 2009, and part of 2010, nothing! And you coming here to tell us about procurement? In 140 days, this Government is doing what you haven't done in ten years," Warner declared.

He also charged that the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) made and broke its own rules and that when the former UDeCOTT boss Calder Hart broke all the rules "not once, not twice, but 45 times" Manning defended Hart.

The minister, in his typical dramatic style, pulled a newspaper photo of Manning, Hart and President George Maxwell Richards toasting with champagne."Look it here; if yuh open yuh eye, yuh would see it," he told Manning.

The minister also directed some of his comments to opposition leader Keith Rowley who has admitted that PNM corruption is the party's shame for which it must take some responsibility.

Warner said it was good to hear Rowley admit to "rampant corruption in the PNM government". Howver he said Rowley cannot do cherry picking and accept blame for only part of the corruption.

He said the PNM must take all the blame for the corruption of the past ten years and suggested that Rolwey is trying to convince the people that the corrupt elements in the PNM are gone.

"He has to prove himself to be the new 'dodo darling' of the PNM but not too much, so as to increase the credibility of the former leader," he said. Warner reminded the House that Rowley had promised a "court martial" after the election and wanted to know when the former PM would face that Inquisition.