Morris wants answers on $186m housing development

KELVON MORRIS, Tobago House of Assembly (THA) minority leader, is asking what benefits Tobagonians can expect from a $186 million housing development,  questioning the contractor's ability to do the job.

At a live-streamed briefing on December 5, Morris said he has contacted the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR) on the matter.

He said he was taking up a matter raised by his colleague, PNM Tobago Council Political Leader Ancel Dennis, who on November 15 asked how a contractor unable to carry out a first job worth $25 million was then awarded another contract worth $186 million.

The first job was for a project at Lammy Road, Tobago. The second was worth $186 million and consisted of building 20 two-bedroom units, 20 three-bedroom units, five apartment buildings and ten duplexes.

Echoing Dennis's concerns about one contractor being given both contracts in sequence, Morris said the THA minority group has filed a report to the OPR.

He said vital information had been given to the OPR that would be critical to helping it unearth what had happened and why the contractor was seemingly unable to complete the projects on time.

Morris said his beef was with the THA evaluation committee for the contract awards, and not with the contractor, who, like any citizen, could bid on contracts.

Asking about the $186 million project, Morris asked if the THA was giving away lands to private developers to build on and sell houses at a profit.

He wanted to know how this arrangement benefits Tobagonians.

"Do the people of Tobago pay a subsidised price?"

Morris also asked if the THA would get a share of the profits.

Lamenting a foreign exchange (forex) crunch, he said Tobagonian tourism could be a forex earner.

He alleged the UNC was complaining about the cost of the new terminal at the Arthur NR Robinson Airport in Tobago at the bidding of their purported friends in Tobago, the Tobago People's Party of THA chief secretary Farley Augustine.

Morris also alleged the THA leadership had presided over a drop in cruise-ship arrivals, despite increases in many nearby Caribbean islands.

He said in the last year, cruise-ship arrivals in Barbados rose from 392 in 2023/2024 to 398 in 2024/2025. For St Lucia, the figure rose from 264 to 459, he said.

The cruise-ship arrivals in Grenada were 184 last year and 199 this year, Morris added, and in St Vincent and the Grenadines the figure rose from 377 to 400.

However, in Tobago the figures declined from about 60-plus arrivals last year to 40 this year.