UNC will support no legislation unless...

THE Opposition will not support any legislation brought to Parliament until Government returns the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act to its original form. 

At a press conference at the office of the Leader of the Opposition, Charles Street in Port of Spain, opposition senator Wade Mark addressed the issue. Mark sat on a panel with opposition MPs, Rodney Charles and Vandana Mohit and the three discussed three current issues in TT: the procurement legislation, Venezuelan migration issue and proposed increases in pasta and macaroni.  Mark called for Government to withdraw what he termed “the disturbing amendments” to the Act and return it to its original “pristine glory.” 

“Until they do so, the UNC will not be supporting any legislation they bring to Parliament until they return the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act Number one of 2015 to its original status,” he said. He said the Act of 2015 received the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). 

Mark said the Dr Keith Rowley-led administration amended the legislation three times. The December 4 Act 17 of 2020 which amended the parent act, “placed the nail in the coffin of procurement as it relates to transparency, accountability, integrity and value for money,”  he said. 

Mark said it gutted the efficacy of the act of 2015 and in the process legalised thievery and banditry and naked and wholesale corruption. 

He added that the three amendments dismantled and destroyed the letter and the spirit of the original act and established two parallel procurement regimes in TT. 

This represented not only a breach of trust he but a betrayal of the Government’s commitments and promises to the people through its 2015 manifesto and several promises in subsequent budgetary statements. 

He said when the “gutted legislation” was examined and looked at, the elimination of any oversight by any independent body as it concerns the sale and disposal of public assets and property will tell where TT is. 

He said Government in its amendments removed from public view, oversight by an independent body of any transactions involving the sale and disposal of TT’s assets. 

Using the purchase of two fast ferries as an example, Mark said the PM and Minister of National Security Stuart Young visited Australia and decided through a committee – “set up by themselves, headed by themselves and took a decision by themselves” – without any independent oversight, to purchase the ferries at over TT$1 billion.