PM wants joint select committee to probe Pt Fortin highway project

THE Prime Minister says the Parliament's Land and Physical Infrastructure Joint Select Committee (JSC) is being called on to urgently examine the details of the 2010-2023 Solomon Highway extension project.

Dr Rowley said the JSC is also being asked to urgently report its findings to the Parliament because the public needs answers about what happened with that project under the UNC-led People's Partnership (PP) coalition government from May 24, 2010-September 7, 2015.

Rowley made these comments in a statement to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Earlier, opposition MPs raised no objection when Leader of Government Business Camille Robinson-Regis secured the House's approval for a paper entitled: The Saga of the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway Extension to Point Fortin Project from 2010-2023 – an Account of the Development and Execution of the Largest Infrastructure Development Project implemented in Trinidad and Tobago to be sent to the JSC.

But they complained when Robinson-Regis asked for the standing orders to be waived to allow Rowley to speak for an unlimited time on the same issue.

She dismissed the opposition MPs' claims that they did not know which standing order was involved.

"Learn your standing orders," she told them.

The House approved a motion by a 17-15 vote to allow Rowley to speak.

Rowley said it was important for the public to get answers about what happened under this project while the PP was in office.

"The public, through its representatives in this House, must seek and obtain answers from all persons involved in or associated with this scandal.

"This is even more necessary since, in recent times, attempts have been made to give opportunity to person/s to put misinformation on the parliamentary record."

Rowley listed what he said were some burning questions.

"By what process, advice and documentation was it determined that the billion-dollar contract must be amended to grant an $852 million waiver to (Construtora) OAS (the Brazilian company that was the project's contractor under the PP)?

"Who authorised the amendment of the contract?

"What was the specific purpose and benefit to be had and by whom?

"Who actually carried out the instructions?

"What was the role of the Ministry of Works and Transport, the board of Nidco (National Infrastructure Development Company), the consultant and the management in effecting the amendment and its consequential waiver?"

While the project was a concept of the former Patrick Manning administration, Rowley said the facts showed the project did not begin under the PNM.

"The Pt Fortin highway exercise was initiated through the process of invitation of tenders in early 2010."

But he said, "Although tenders were received in April 2010, the contract was not awarded by the PNM prior to the May 24 general election, since the bids received were significantly higher than the engineer’s estimate of $3.6 billion."

A proper review and revision were called for but did not happen before the election.

On March 4, 2011, the PP awarded a design-build contract to OAS for $5.2 billion

Rowley said: "This is $1.6 billion more than the original engineer’s estimate."

Before the contract was awarded to OAS, he continued, "An interested group of known high-level Brazilian executives of OAS flew by Dassault private jet from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Durban in South Africa, in pursuit of the said contract."

A meeting took place at Angelo Towers in Johannesburg, South Africa during the 2010 World Cup there, he said.

Rowley said to date, no member of the UNC has ever denied this "transatlantic secret meeting" took place or what was its outcome in relation to the project being awarded to OAS.

The contract for the project was governed by the FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) Yellow Book.

Rowley said, "One of the major benefits of utilising FIDIC terms and conditions is that these terms and conditions are standard and internationally recognised."

But he claimed the PP did not adhere to FIDIC rules.

When the contract was initiated, the PP made advance payments of $856 million to OAS, when the company should have received $428 million.

Rowley said there was no deduction of $236.4 million from the advance payment to OAS, which involved "payments made to OAS for activities under the letter of intent."

He added, "So even before construction began, before the ground was scratched, the former government provided OAS with over $1 billion of taxpayers’ funds."

The project, he said, was in limbo when the PNM assumed office after the September 7, 2015 general election.

"Work had come to a virtual halt and unpaid local contractors were bawling and turning to the new government for help."

The PP, he continued, paid OAS and others cash transfers from the Finance Ministry up to 2014.

Besides putting a strain on TT's cash reserves, Rowley said, "This method of funding the largest contract ever awarded in this country also ensured that there was to be no oversight in payment and procedure."

He said he was baffled about why the UNC continued to tell the population the project was on time and within budget when, in September 2015, "over $5 billion had already been spent, with only 49 per cent of the construction being completed by OAS."

Rowley said the UNC did not protect the public's interest when it removed a clause in the project contract that would have immediately terminated OAS's role as contractor once it declared bankruptcy on March 31, 2015.

"What was discovered, upon review, was that on September 4, 2015 (that is, the last working day before the general election of September 7, 2015) the UNC government – rather than use this opportunity to terminate the contract in a clean, cost-effective, responsible and non-contentious manner – secretly entered into a written agreement with OAS whereby the government waived the ability to terminate the contract on the grounds of OAS’ bankruptcy."

Looking at opposition MPs across the aisle, Rowley said, "Not one of them has ever attempted to provide a plausible explanation as to why they were so generous and protective of a disgraced Brazilian contractor."

He added that parts of the highway not built by OAS were given to other contractors, at additional costs to taxpayers.

Government MPs thumped their desks as Rowley said the PNM was able to properly terminate OAS from the project on July 6, 2016. After long legal battles in the local and foreign courts, he declared, "We fought for the return of the public money. We won in the courts and we built the highway."

Rowley asked why the UNC seemed to want its oversight of the project to be shrouded in secrecy, "especially coming from people who now, from the opposition benches, want total openness and instant public accounting and public reporting on any and all events, sometimes even before they occur?"

Responding to Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal's claim that the PNM awarded the project to OAS, Rowley said, "Thou doth protest too much. Tell it to the committee."

The JSC will add another layer of scrutiny to the project. In 2019, a commission of enquiry (CoE) was appointed to look into land acquisition for the project after reported over-valuations and more than half a billion dollars had been spent.

During a Standing Finance Committee meeting of the House on October 14, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Stuart Young said $11 million has been spent so far on this CoE.

JSC members

The Land and Physical Infrastructure JSC is chaired by Independent Senator Deoroop Teemal.

Its other members are: PNM MPs Kennedy Richards, Symon de Nobriga and Lisa Morris-JulianGovernment senators Muhammad Yunus Ibrahim and Renuka Sagramsingh-SooklalUNC MP Barry PadarathUNC Senator Anil Roberts.