 |
| File: PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim at the launch of construction for the South Campus of the UWI |
Government Senator David Abdulah is concerned about the award of a $500 million contract to a foreign company for the south campus of the University of the West Indies.
Speaking at a seminar in San Fernando Tuesday, the leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) said handing the contract to the China Jiangsu International firm is a “worrying sign”.
He said if the trend continue the country won't develop and maximise local capacity.
Abdulah urged the Government to establish a national policy on local capacity. “We are now seeing worrying signs where the use of government-to-government relations allows contracts to be awarded to large transnational firms coming from China," he said.
“Our major projects must be done by local firms so we build our own capacity. Once we build capacity and our local firms get larger, they will be able to export services. Then they can bid for projects outside of T&T and build foreign exchange.”
Abdulah added, "We need to collectively speak about that, because it is not like we don’t have local capacity to execute these projects,” he said.
The labour leader also made it clear that the MSJ remains an integral part of the People’s Partnership and that the party has no plans to date to leave the Partnership.
The University has responded to concerns. In a media release Tuesday it said it is extremely pleased with the progress made so far on the process implemented over the 12 months for the design, procurement and construction of the new campus.
“There was rigorous pre-qualifications exercise for consortia, publicly advertised in the local and foreign media and a fair and transparent bidding process in keeping with the university’s mandatory and independent procurement guidelines and international best practice,” it said.
Speaking at a seminar in San Fernando Tuesday, the leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) said handing the contract to the China Jiangsu International firm is a “worrying sign”.
He said if the trend continue the country won't develop and maximise local capacity.
“Our major projects must be done by local firms so we build our own capacity. Once we build capacity and our local firms get larger, they will be able to export services. Then they can bid for projects outside of T&T and build foreign exchange.”
Abdulah added, "We need to collectively speak about that, because it is not like we don’t have local capacity to execute these projects,” he said.
The labour leader also made it clear that the MSJ remains an integral part of the People’s Partnership and that the party has no plans to date to leave the Partnership.
The University has responded to concerns. In a media release Tuesday it said it is extremely pleased with the progress made so far on the process implemented over the 12 months for the design, procurement and construction of the new campus.
“There was rigorous pre-qualifications exercise for consortia, publicly advertised in the local and foreign media and a fair and transparent bidding process in keeping with the university’s mandatory and independent procurement guidelines and international best practice,” it said.
No comments:
Post a Comment