Hansard has facts on highway extension

THE EDITOR: The Prime Minister opened a section of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin and has aptly named it after two footballers who represented TT with heart and soul. However, the PM is still laying blame on everyone else except those around him who, like him, have intermittent amnesia.

If people interested in the truth go to the Hansard reports for January 28, 2011 and read pages 225 to 234 they will understand what went on with the contract. To paraphrase Hansard (the official record-keeper for Parliament) will take a while, but I will stick to the main points as I see them.

1. Negotiations for the package started a month before the 2010 general election (on or about mid-April).

2. Two and a half weeks before the election, Nidco received bids from three firms (OAS from Brazil, China Railway, a Chinese firm, and GLF, an Italian firm). The OAS bid was $5.285 billion, China Railway's was $6.366 billion and GLF's was $5.378 billion.

3. OAS later received a letter from Nidco dated May 25, 2010 (the day after the election) indicating that OAS was the preferred respondent for the project.

The statements in the three points above were made by a previous minister in the outgoing government in Parliament, according to Hansard. If Hansard is correct, then all negotiations were done by the government in power up to May 24, 2010.

The PP government decided to continue with the project as it seemed to have gone through the process as indicated by the then president of Nidco and confirmed by his successor.

If the above is true as recorded in Hansard, then why does the blame game still exist? A lot of Trinidadians (I deliberately left out Tobagonians) only remember what people say continuously and loudly enough.

The PNM government was responsible for the negotiations of the package and should own up to it. I urge those who are in doubt to read the Hansard notes as indicated.

LARRY SOOKLALSINGH

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