Moonilal: PNM doesn't want procurement legislation, asks why they didn't bring it to Parliament

File: Government House Leader Dr. Roodal Moonilal on his feet in Parliament

The Leader of Government Business in the Lower House offered legislators his opinion on why the opposition pulled out of the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on procurement.

Roodal Moonilal said, "They bail out of the procurement boat Mr. Speaker, because they know if they stay there what will happen. They will not be able to come back and engage in corruption and mismanagement and deals."

Moonilal said the Opposition should be the last to argue on matters of procurement noting that when they were in office from 2001 to 2010 they made no attempt to bring procurement legislation to Parliament.

He suggested that the PNm is afraid of such legislation. He reminded the House of Representatives that it was the Manning PNM administration that concluded what he called a "questionable" agreement between the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and an Israeli-based firm to develop and rehabilitate Trinidad & Tobago's water infrastructure.

"TT$640 million signed with a firm - an engineering procurement and construction agreement - I ask the Honourable Member for Diego Martin West was there any procurement, was there any tendering? I tell you no. There is none."

In news about WASA... the authority has just awarded a Spanish company a TT$5.2 million consultancy contract for four months to make recommendations for the future operations of WASA.

The firm, AGBAR, announced the deal on its website earlier this week, noting that its consultancy contract is to produce a detailed road-map and action plan to transform WASA over the next five years.

AGBAR is based in Barcelona and offers expertise in, water treatment, water quality control, hydraulic infrastructure, training, network efficiency, wastewater management and energy efficiency.