GOVERNMENT Minister Stuart Young, who has no training or experience in maritime matters, headed an official committee that evaluated bids for two vessels worth some $1 billion.
As a result of the public tenders, the Government bought two high-powered boats to serve the inter-island sea bridge – an Austal from Australia and an Incat from Tasmania.
As at April 2021, the Government paid US $72,090,130.34 for the Australian vessel, and US $73,842,746.90 for the Tasmanian boat.
The total sum is just under TT $1billion.
The assignment of evaluating the submitted bids was placed into the hands of a committee chaired by Young, according to a Cabinet note.
Other committee members included then-Government Ministers Edmund Dillon, Dennis Moses, and Robert Le Hunte.
Also on the committee was Marvin Gonzales, who was then Director of Legal Services in the Ministry of Works and Transport and is current Minister of Public Utilities.
The other committee members were Stephen Gardiner, Project Manager in the Office of the Prime Minister, Captain Sukjit Singh, Deputy Director and Technical Head, Maritime Technology Corporation Centre, University of Trinidad and Tobago, and businessman Demi-John Cruickshank.
The startling disclosure was made in the House of Representatives by opposition parliamentarian Dr. Roodal Moonilal, quoting a letter of April 14, 2021 from National Infrastructure Development Company Ltd., (NIDCO) in response to a Freedom of Information request.
NIDCO declined to state the basis on which the committee was appointed.
The State enterprise also said that it “is not in possession” of any report from the Young-headed Committee.
Moonilal criticised the Government for appointing a team that included politicians, who are non-experts in the relevant field, to evaluate such costly purchases.
A Trinidad and Tobago delegation later visited the Austal and Incat shipyards “to provide real-time update to NIDCO on the status of progress” on various technical aspects of the ship.
Moonilal raised the evaluation of the bids in the context of Young’s recent revelation of an alleged fake letter in the public tender for divestment of Petrotrin.
Young claimed that a wire transfer of US $1.5 billion by bidder Patriotic Energies and Technology Co. Ltd. was bogus.
Moonilal queried how Young obtained the financial information when he was not a member of the Government’s Evaluation Committee for the sale or lease of Petrotrin.
That 12-member Committee was headed by former Permanent Secretary Vishnu Dhanpaul and included experts in energy and other disciplines.
Moonilal said politicians should not be part of the relevant evaluation process.
Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), of which Patriotic is a subsidiary, accused the Government of political interference in the bidding process.
The union stressed that the bidding procedure for the Pointe-a-Pierre facility should be independent and transparent.
The Government had retained Scotiabank Capital (USA) Inc. at a cost of $12 million to evaluate the tenders by 10 bidding companies.
Young is considered the most powerful minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and a likely frontliner to become political leader of the ruling People’s National Movement.
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