Sinanan: Councillor, MP playing politics with San Francique road repairs

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan has accused Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo and Avocat/ San Francique North councillor Doodnath Mayrhoo of derailing his ministry's plans of repairing roads in the area, noting that their assistance was necessary in moving forward with repairs.

The roads were damaged by a landslip at Santa Cecelia Trace in San Francique.

At a media briefing at the site of the landslip on Tuesday, Tancoo called for swift action to repair the road and warned that protest action was possible unless work was done.

On Wednesday, a media release from the Ministry of Works and Transport noted that while a contractor was selected through the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO) Ltd, a dilapidated building near the work site needed to be addressed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

Speaking with reporters after the commissioning of the upgraded Morvant interchange on the Lady Young Road, Morvant, on Thursday, Sinanan said he was aware of the issues and said his ministry was careful not to have the contractor end up liable to any damage to the property which may happen during roadworks.

He said while the contractor for the project has been selected, no contract was signed.

"The reason for that is until we can't deal with this challenge of the house, if we sign the contract the ministry is immediately liable to costs because we will have to delay the project until that is sorted out. Because if the Ministry goes in there and starts to pile and starts to do work and the house comes down, the contractor will be liable.

"We cannot put the contractor at stake we have to give the contractor a clean way forward so the contractor will be liable if anything happens to the house, so we have to make sure that the land is available to the contractor.

"We know what happened on the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway where a contract was issued and the land wasn't available and we had hundreds of millions of dollars in claims, we don't want that to happen on a simple project like this."

Sinanan also criticised Tancoo and Mayrhoo for their remarks on Tuesday and said they were aware that no work could be done without their co-operation.

He noted that the matter was not between politicians, referring to letters sent from the permanent secretary of his ministry to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Local Government.

"What is unfortunate is that the councillor (Mayrhoo) who is staging the protests and making all the noise, he is a part of the corporation that has to assist us in getting this project started.

"The start date of this project depends on the corporation where the councillor is involved in who is making the most noise, so we cannot go forward until the councillor and the Siparia corporation works along with us to get the job done, unfortunately it's all about politics at the end of the day down there.

"The permanent secretary at the Ministry of Works and Transport would have written to the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Rural Development and they would have written to the CEO of the corporation so this is a matter that the technocrats are trying to work out."

Director of the Bridges and Landslip Division of the Ministry of Works and Transport Mahadeo Jagdeo who also attended the interchange commissioning, agreed. He said, while designs on the project began a year ago, officials were still awaiting the assistance of the Ministry of Local Government in treating with the structure and its inhabitants. He said it was that ministry's remit under the Municipal Corporations Act.

Contacted for comment, Tancoo said an investigation done by the Siparia Regional Corporation in June concluded that the building was not a ruinous structure as Sinanan said and argued that the only one preventing work from being done was Sinanan.

He also noted that the documents proving this were sent to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

"The minister's statement that that is a ruinous structure is false. The reason being, in May this year, the Ministry of Local Government wrote to the Siparia Regional Corporation asked if it was a ruinous structure. The Siparia Regional Corporation responded to the Ministry saying they would investigate.

"It was investigated and it was not deemed a ruinous structure.

"The ministry would have been fully aware of the fact, even if the Ministry of Local Government forgot to tell the staff at the Ministry of Works and Transport, they would be aware of that correspondence from the press conference we had and the only obstacle for progress is the minister."