TRINIDAD- is forced to re-pay nearly one billion dollars to Brazilian companies

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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad- The Trinidad and Tobago Government Friday said it would seek to amend the terms of reference of a Commission of Inquiry (COIT) set up in 2019 to inquire into all aspects of the management of the land acquisition process for the construction of the multi-billion dollar (One T.T. dollar=US$0.16 cents) Solomon Ho Choy Highway extension in the south of the country.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley told Parliament that Cabinet had asked the Attorney General to examine and amend the terms of reference of the Sebastian Ventour inquiry to add to that examination the specific concerns raised regarding the former Brazilian company, Construtora OAS S.A. (OAS) that had been awarded the contract to build the highway extension from San Fernando to Point Fortin.

Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley (File Photo)

Rowley told legislators that the TT$5.2 billion projects are the state’s single largest contract ever entered into. On that basis, “the accurate, undisputed facts” should be placed before the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

Prime Minister Rowley recalled that his administration had alerted the population that OAS had, in late 2015, and into early 2016, “basically stopped all works on the troubled highway project” that had been awarded by the National Infrastructure Development Company Limited (NIDCO) under the Kamla Persad Bissessar government.

“At that time, abandoned workers were protesting daily, sub-contractors were claiming hundreds of millions of dollars being owed to them by an absent OAS, equipment was being seized, most of the expatriate OAS staff had left Trinidad and Tobago, and OAS was making no progress on the highway construction. At this time and in these circumstances, the Government had to intervene to pay desperate, disadvantaged, and abandoned workers,” Rowley said.

But Rowley said that an amendment to the OAS contract was made on the eve of the 2015 general election, which “amongst other things, removed a critical termination clause from the standard FIDIC Yellow Book contract under which the project was being executed.

“This removal of clause 15.2(e) has exposed the people of Trinidad and Tobago to a huge potential liability to OAS. What it effectively did was effectively shift ownership and control of insurance bond money, belonging to the Government, away from NIDCO and into the hands of the contractor.”

Prime Minister Rowley said that a recent decision delivered by a tribunal of arbitrators in a London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) between OAS and NIDCO surrounding the termination of OAS by NIDCO on July 6th. 2016 has led to Trinidad, and Tobago having to re-pay the Brazilian company 852 million dollars, “which the contractor could only have laid claim to only because some person/s in the last administration took the perverted decision to amend a contract to once again favor a contractor at the expense of the public interest.”

Rowley said that the arbitral tribunal ruled that NIDCO was wrong to terminate OAS and that it could not rely on clause 15.2(e). However, this is being challenged by NIDCO via an application to the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago, saying “effectively, NIDCO is “appealing” the arbitration award.”

In his lengthy statement, Prime Minister Rowley said that “given the facts and complexities as stated here today and for the last seven years,” it is the view of his administration that there are many questions the general public would need to be answered.

He said these questions include by what process, advice, and documentation determined that the billion-dollar contract must be amended to grant a TT$852million waiver to OAS, who authorized the amendment of the agreement, and what was the specific purpose and benefit to be had.

Also, there is a need for answers to questions about who did the instructions and the role of the Ministry of Works and Transport, the board of NIDCO, the consultant, and the management in effecting the amendment and its consequential waiver?

Rowley said that the question remains unanswered,  why clause 15.2(e) was removed by Contract Addendum No.2 on the Friday before the general election of 2015 and “to ask why did his Government terminate OAS knowing that clause 15.2(e) had been removed is to completely ignore the dire circumstances that existed concerning a contractor that was not performing its obligations and that was in judicial reorganization and who is now to benefit from a secret deal engineered and executed by public officials…

“It needs to be re-emphasized that the money being taken back by the arbitration was not lost by the termination of the contract; it was given up by the loss of the clause that was removed,” Rowley said, adding that his administration had temporarily succeeded in getting back the money before through the courts before the tribunal ruling.

“We succeeded for a while, but now it appears that it might be lost permanently. I maintain that my Government has sought to protect the public’s interest in this matter. Just as we fought and won the right to spend on the highway, all the money we recovered from the bond ownership, we will take additional steps to ensure that the San Fernando to Point Fortin highway is completed. The facts, disturbing as they are, are made known to all the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley added.

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