T&T Opposition Wants Billion Dollar Contract Awarded To Firm Withdrawn

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad CMC – The main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) is calling on President Anthony Carmona to intervene and possibly stop a multi-billion dollar contract being awarded to a company for a waste water treatment plant on the outskirts of the capital.

“If the President is to be true to his commitment to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, he must ask the Government for an explanation about this development. I am calling on the Government to stop the award of this contract,” said PNM and Opposition Leader Dr. Keith Rowley.

He told a news conference that the award of the billion-dollar contract to Super Industrial Services (SIS) for the Beetham Wastewater Treatment Plant by State-owned National Gas Company (NGC) was made even though SIS’s bid was TT$400 million (One TT dollar =US0.16 cents) more than the other bidder on the project.

“This is preparation and execution by way of the rape of the Treasury,” Rowley said.

The project involves the building of a plant to treat polluted water to make it usable at the Point Lisas industrial site, south of here.

Rowley told reporters that the bidding process was conducted “to drive away” 14 out 16 contractors, including world renowned companies that were interested in submitting tenders.

Rowley said during the Carnival celebrations here NGC advised the other bidder by letter dated February 27, that it had failed in its submission for the project.

“And this was the intention all along. We now have to conclude that the preferred bidder is SIS … which has grown like a cat in the last four years,” he said, insisting that SIS’s bid was $400 million more than the other bidder.

Rowley said he wanted to know what the significant variations in the two bids that led to the difference in the bid price were; telling reporters it was a classic case of bid- rigging

He said the recent trip to China by Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar was also designed to obtain an “emergency loan” of TT$5 billion in time to execute projects by March 2015 to coincide with the 2015 election campaign.

“This is the feeding trough where the Government expects to fund its election campaign with a profligacy never before seen in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.