Saturday, March 29, 2014

Rowley threatens court action to stop Beetham project

Keith Rowley demanded in Parliament Friday that the government stop the billion-dollar contract for the construction of the Beetham Waste Water Treatment Plant, or face a legal challenge in court.

The project involves the construction of a waste water recycling plant at Beetham with pipelines running to Point Lisas for use at industrial plants. "When I leave this Parliament I will collaborate with the legal fraternity outside to go to the court to have this project stopped, because it does not qualify under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago," Rowley stated. 


The opposition leader said the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) and the National Gas Company (NGC) were in a conflict of interest in the project. Rowley also said the Integrity Commission should investigate the award of the contract. 

Rowley claimed that the contract was awarded even before an Environmental Impact Assessment was done. He suggested this is all a part of the People's Partnership preparation of the 2015 general election. 

Sports Minister Anil Roberts, speaking in Parliament on the same matter, pointed out that while the Rowley PNM was objecting to the plant the Manning government in which Rowley served as a senior minister had approved a similar project as far back as 2007.

While Rowley insisted that there was something wrong with the whole contract and that it was awrded to one contractor, the facts show othersie:

10 facts Rowley didn’t note –
  1. SIS submitted the tender package on behalf of a consortium
  2. The bid was approximately US$167 million (about TT$1 billion)
  3. 14 companies bought tender packages and requests for extensions were accommodated
  4. Criteria used for evaluation of bids were technical ability/experience and cost
  5. Two companies submitted tender packages
  6. One company quoted approximately US$95 million (TT$600 million) with numerous variables proposed that would have eventually escalated the costs
  7. Tenders submitted were evaluated by a cross-functional team of six experts from both the National Gas Company and National Energy 
  8. The team made its recommendation to NGC’s Management Tenders Evaluation Committee (MTEC). The MTEC reviewed the recommendations of the cross-functional team and made their own recommendation to the NGC Board Tenders Committee
  9. The Board Tenders Committee subsequently reviewed the submission and forwarded to the NGC board of directors, its recommendations for award
  10. The award was made following this thorough evaluation process

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Jai & Sero

Jai & Sero

Our family at home in Toronto 2008

Our family at home in Toronto 2008
Amit, Heather, Fuzz, Aj, Jiv, Shiva, Rampa, Sero, Jai