What Rowley did not say…

$M ALLOCATED FOR ROAD REPAIRS 

PRIME Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is not giving the full story on the urgent matter of road repairs. 

Rowley told a political meeting last week that during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, “we spent the money keeping you alive and there was not sufficient money to spend on road repairs.” 

He said that the government “made the call” to allocate funds on matters pertaining to the medical crisis. 

But he neglected to tell his audience that roads and bridges have deteriorated despite large budgetary allocations to various government agencies and large international loans. 

In the current national budget, funding was assigned to the Ministry of Works and Transport, the Rural Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago of the Ministry of Local Government, and to municipal corporations.   

The Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) was granted $736.2 million for infrastructure works. 

The Programme for Upgrading Road Efficiency (PURE) was allocated $74.9 million for road rehabilitation. 

Works Minister Rohan Sinanan said during the budget debate that of the $3.5 billion granted to his ministry, much would be spent on road repairs and rehabilitation. 

Sinanan stated that $40 million had been set aside for repairs to secondary, minor and agricultural roads. 

He said last December that $300 million had been assigned for road works, and acknowledged the poor state of the country’s infrastructure. 

He admitted that roads are “definitely not to the standard where we are comfortable with it.” 

In addition, the government has received international loans to undertake road repairs. 

Over the past three years, the Development Bank of Latin America, also called CAF, has granted three loans for a total of US $1.51 billion (about TT $9 billion) for infrastructure works. 

The bank’s representative to T&T, Gianpiero Lioncini, said at the signing of one loan agreement that “improving the quality of infrastructure and transport services is essential to foster Trinidad and Tobago’s socio-economic development.”  

Other international agencies, including the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, have provided loans for similar purposes. 

As Sunshine Today earlier reported, the government is setting up a special purposes state enterprise to do road works, with a start-up capital of $100 million. 

Funding would be allocated in the forthcoming budget. 

The company would fall under the Ministry of Local Government, currently headed by Faris Al Rawi. 

A major road improvement exercise is expected to be launched toward the end of the year, ahead of the triennial local government election. 

There would be a focus on certain marginal municipal districts. 

The ruling PNM is determined to recapture the Sangre Grade Regional Corporation, which it narrowly lose to UNC in 2019. 

Roads and bridges have deteriorated to their worst condition in living memory, and residents of several affected communities have been staging noisy public demonstrations. 

In light of the sizable budgetary allocations and international loans, the rundown state of the infrastructure has left many people puzzled and demanding answers. 

But Rowley told PNM partisans that after spending on pandemic-related matters, “we didn’t have enough for road maintenance.”