Moonilal claims Government collapsed SSA

OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has claimed the government "collapsed" the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) because its officers refused to do its bidding.

Moonilal made this statement at a UNC public meeting in Chaguanas on September 16.

Recalling the sequence of events from March 2, when an audit was launched into the operations of the SSA, Moonilal claimed the government moved to undermine the agency because its officers refused to put an interception order on the phone of a former People's Partnership (PP) government minister.

Moonilal also claimed the government is using a unit in the police Special Branch to spy on its political opponents.

He said to date, no one connected to the SSA had been charged with any crime to bring down the government.

Moonilal added that the only thing that has happened as a result of events at the SSA is that the "intelligence community has collapsed." He said this is hampering the ability of the police to fight crime.

In a statement in the House of Representatives in July, the Prime Minister said an extensive internal review and audit of the SSA has been ongoing since March 4.

Between March 4 and April 21, he continued, planning and preliminary review activities were completed by  Brig-Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer, former  ambassador to Washington, DC,who was appointed acting SSA director on March 2 by President Christine Kangaloo.

Rowley highlighted some of the audit's findings.

These included the surreptitious hiring of people who were said to belong to a cult which "was arming itself while preaching a doctrine for trained military and paramilitary personnel with a religious calling to be the most suitable persons to replace the country’s political leadership," increased acquisition of firearms and ammunition by the SSA.

Rowley said the audit also showed former SSA director acting Major Roger Best initiated the procurement of high-grade military bolt-action rifles, complete with the most modern silences and other accessories and the agency was involved in training "specially selected questionably hired personnel in the skill and use of such weapons."

Best was fired on May 19.

He added this happened before an amendment to the Firearms Act last November which allowed the SSA to have and keep firearms.

Moonilal also said the UNC will continue to look into a matter in which the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) allegedly awarded a company a contract for $4.8 million to build a box drain.

He said the party was prepared to take the documents in its possession to the Fraud Squad if necessary.

Earlier in the meeting, Opposition Senator Wade Mark supported a call made by Oropouche West MP Davendranath Tancoo on September 15 for the disclosure of the names of the businesses awarded government contracts under single and sole-source methods to the tune of $5 billion.

The first Annual Report to Parliament (2023-2024) of the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR), laid in the House of Representatives on September 9, said $5 billion in contracts were not awarded by public bodies by fully competitive tender/procurement methods.

The report said despite the new procurement regime advocating open bidding, the OPR observed "an excessive use of limited and non-competitive procurement methods," worsening over time. Single and sole-source methods were frequently used, indicating a level of resistance to the use of open bidding methods by public bodies."

Mark said the report "paints a very sad story."

He repeated the UNC's claims this was evidence that the PNM had watered down public procurement legislation passed in Parliament in April.

Mark claimed this $5 billion in contracts was going to friends, family and financiers of the PNM.

He repeated the UNC's claims that the PNM had mismanaged the economy over the last nine years.

Mark also called for a criminal investigation into the planned demolition of 100 houses at the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Trestrail Development site in D'Abadie.

He questioned how the project's cost rose from $72 to $110 million.