Tobago PNM questions $186m THA road contract

PNM Tobago Council Political Leader Ancil Dennis is questioning how a contractor that failed to complete a $25 million road project got a second contract from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), this time for over $186 million.

He also raised questions about other road contracts, directing them to Tobago House of Assembly (THA) officials including Chief Secretary Farley Augustine, Infrastructure Secretary Trevor James, Settlements Secretary Ian Pollard and Finance Secretary Petal Ann Roberts.

In a media conference on November 11, Dennis showed a video clip of Augustine speaking about the road contracts in the Tobago Update morning show in 2022. Augustine said the contractor would have to be able to fully design, build and finance the project, and would be paid in full 18 months after it received a certificate of completion.

Dennis said there were serious concerns about the procurement, award and implementation of the projects.

To back up his statement, he showed a clip of administrator in the Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Karl Murray, speaking to the Public Administration and Appropriation Committee on November 13.

In the clip, Murray explained the Milford Court/Pigeon Point connector road was incomplete. He said by the time he took office in August 2023 the contractor, a Trinidad-based roofing company, had abandoned the $54 million project “for quite a while.”

The THA wrote the contractor and since then, some efforts had been made to restart the work.

“We are in the process right now of considering our options, to be guided legally as how we can look to, in some way, addressing that issue for one, first, non-performance and also not meeting the necessary statutory requirements that they were asked for at the beginning. So that contract is under review.”

He added that he did not know how it was approved, but the road was supposed to be built through mangroves, so it may have to be cut short.

Murray went on to say the Shirvan-Store Bay local road connector was about 90 per cent complete but there was a matter before the court which prevented the completion.

About the $25 million Lammy Road project which started in 2022, Murray said by the time he came into office, the works had stalled. He learned the contractor did not have the finances to complete the road. The terms and conditions of the contract were re-negotiated in which half the money would be paid to the contractor once 60 per cent of the work was completed, and the rest would be paid in 25 per cent instalments upon completion.

He said the work should be done before March 2025.

But Dennis claimed the contractors of the $70 million Friendship Connector Road project got “significant payments” and the Lammy Road contractor received a large payment from the THA last year, when the project was about 30 per cent complete, changing the terms of the contracts.

He also showed pictures of Lammy Road taken on November 14. They showed non-existent or incomplete drainage, cracking walls and gravel roads.

He then produced a Notification of Decision to Award letter from the Division of Settlements, Public Utilities and Rural Development dated June 11, awarding the same company a $186.86 million contract for 20 two-bedroom units, 20 three-bedroom units, five apartment buildings and ten duplex buildings.

“The same contractor who failed miserably to deliver a $25 million road project has been gifted by this THA administration, led by Farley Augustine, another project for over $180 million.

“And while that sinks in, I want to tell you that a previous PNM administration delivered homes in Adventure for almost a similar value, but we utilised four different Tobago contractors to deliver that project.”

He questioned THA officials, asking if they were part of a meeting with a contractor in March 2023, assuring the contract would be awarded to them.

Dennis also asked how the members of the Executive Council started the Milford Court/Pigeon Point project, passing a road though the mangroves when the Environmental Management Authority would not approve such, unless they planned to do so in breach of the law.

In another clip, James said the roofing company had been operating, in different incarnations, for over 20 years and did road works in Guyana. But Dennis said, according to his research, the company was registered in 2020 and had no road experience anywhere in the world before being awarded the contract in Tobago.

He also claimed, after getting the contract, the roofing company approached other contractors to help it finance the project as well as to buy it out.

“Did these contractors submit any documentary proof by way of letters from banks or any other financial institution, to convince the THA that they were in fact in a position to properly finance and complete those projects?

“I want to remind the people of Tobago that they use that excuse as one of the reasons for sidelining Tobago contractors – the same Tobago contractors that did the same design, build, finance arrangement that this administration, to date, has not paid.”

He said Tobagonians were “under threat” because people with governing responsibilities for the island had agendas that were not in alignment with development and the progress of Tobagonians.

He called on the Minority Leader to call a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the THA to investigate the awards of the various road contracts.