On Tuesday 24 April 2012, JCC President Afra Raymond addressed the POS Rotary Club at their luncheon on ‘The Imperative of Public Procurement – The Government to Government Arrangements‘ – the Power Point presentation is shown here.
Continue reading “VIDEO: POS Rotary Luncheon Speech – 24 April 2012”
JCC President Afra Raymond speaks on Procurement revelations in the Parliamentary debate on No-Confidence in the Prime Minister on First Up with Paul Richards and Jessie-May Ventour.
The way the Ministry of Planning & the Economy (MPE) is persisting in their course of action on the Invader’s Bay development is perturbing in terms of the long term consequences of short-term decision-making.
At Section 2.0 of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Invader’s Bay we read
…For Trinidad and Tobago this is a “major waterfront transformation” along the line of other signature waterfront developments such as Darling Habour (sic) in Sydney, Baltimore Inner Habour (sic), the Habour-front (sic) in Toronto, London Docklands and Teleport City in Tokyo. Although the genesis of the projects may vary, the result has generally been bold and dramatic. With the change in the manner in which ports operate and cargo is transported, waterfront property is now more valuable for its residential, retail and recreational function than simply for port activity with heavy industry, docks and fenced off warehouses, as is the case currently in Port of Spain…
We are being asked to consider the Invader’s Bay initiative ‘along the line’ of other leading international examples, which in itself is a good place to proceed from. The reality is that those developments cited by the MPE all took decades to conceive and what is more, the authors of the RFP know that. Yet we are also being asked to believe that a workable concept/s could be devised for Invader’s Bay in an RFP which is silent on the current strategic plans for the capital and only gives proposers 6 weeks to prepare.
Of course the lack of consultation will severely limit the participation of many important developers, not to mention the public.
The point is that in all those cities cited by the RFP, there is a serious commitment to consultation, which means that those large-scale transformations took considerable time to conceptualise.
In the city of New York, for example, there has been a long-standing commitment to community-based development. Check this 6 October webcast from The New School – the introduction is instructive –
For decades, deliberations over land use in New York City have included developers, community boards, elected officials, the Department of City Planning and other city agencies. Do the people who live and work in city neighborhoods have a sufficient voice? Do residents improve the process, or impede progress? Who is best positioned to determine a neighborhood’s needs, and what are the best structures for public participation? New York has long been a leader in community-based development but as the city recovers from the Great Recession, what does the future hold?
And that is just one reference, readers can ‘Google’ to find the many other supportive examples. In the very RFP, as well as in the recent budget, there is a clear commitment to consultation in national development. Except in this case.
But there is more.
As I wrote in the opening of ‘Reflections on Republic Day’, on the Raymond & Pierre website on 27 September 2007 –
The best example I can think of for the kind of broad commitment to consultation is, of course, the site of the World Trade Centre in Lower Manhattan: Ground Zero. This is a very interesting example since the site is privately owned and the City of New York is controlled by the Democrats while the Republicans control the national government of the USA. Against this background of different players we have the fact that the destruction of the WTC was a most severe blow to US prestige and power. The entire defense apparatus was rendered useless by that attack. Arguably, there could be no site in the world with a more urgent claim to large-scale redevelopment.
Yet, the fact is that a sort of compact has been arrived at between the parties to the effect that no redevelopment will take place unless and until everyone has had their say. For example, there was a recently concluded international competition for the design of the 911 Memorial. There were over 5,000 entries from more than 60 countries and a winner was just selected.
As expected, the consultations have been controversial and emotional but the fact is that an environment existed in which such an understanding could work. Whatever one’s view of the American imperium, there is a potency to the existence of that huge crater at the heart of their main city while the necessary conversations go on. Time for us to think again.
At that time I was protesting the haste and waste of the then PNM regime, a consequence of their pattern of proceeding with huge developments without any consultation.
At Section 3.1 of the RFP –
TENURE ARRANGEMENT
The proposed Developer will be chosen via this RFP process and shall then enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago (Ministry of Planning and the Economy) for an agreed lease rate. It is expected that this activity would be finalized within one (1) month of the submission of the said RFP.
Which means that we can expect the choice of the proposed Developer will be made and the lease agreements completed in one month from the closing date. Yes, Friday 4 November.
Sad to say, there is even more. The RFP also specifies –
“…If financing has to be sourced from an external source, the Developer MUST submit a letter of guarantee from the financier as well as a profile of the financier. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in disqualification…”
When we raised the point that this is an impossible condition for new bidders to satisfy, given the sheer scale of the proposed development, both Ministers – Tewarie and Cadiz – attempted to indicate that this mandatory condition was flexible. Unbelievable, but true.
As leaders, whether in government or non-governmental organisations, we have an obligation to learn from the past. This is an effort to document the events in this episode, so that there will be a record, when the Invader’s Bay matter comes to be critically examined in the future.
The clear inconsistency of the position taken in the budget on urban planning was highlighted in last week’s column. With respect to this project, we noted the attempt to cast this development in the same light as other examples which all involved long-term consultation, the silence on the existing plans, the impossibly-short timetable to elicit fresh proposals, the even-shorter timetable for selection and agreement of lease terms, the wobbling on the financial requirements and incredibly, that the scoring criteria were to be finalized after the proposals were submitted.
It is literally impossible to determine which of these is worse than the others and it is beyond the imagination of any fiction writer I know to take a plot this far. But this is what is happening in our country today.
In my mind, all of these, taken together, show that the publication of the RFP is a form of sham dialogue and openness. If this is the genuine attempt by the MPE, to properly seek the public interest, then I am giving them an ‘F’ for effort.
What we are seeing here is a recipe for disaster, we already have all the ingredients of corruption, so what is next?
It really does make me wonder who runs this country and when, if ever, can we achieve consistent and equitable government. Who is the real power?
The Ministry of Planning & the Economy (MPE) announced last week that 10 proposals had been received in response to its RFP for Invader’s Bay.
Given that MPE has not carried out a Needs Assessment for this prime property, for whatever reason, I will continue to outline the relevant elements for the Invader’s Bay property. This is not intended to be complete, just a list of what I consider to be the critical items a proper Needs Assessment would include –
There is always the question of who controls the terms of these public debates. The intention from this side is to have that flawed RFP withdrawn. To proceed as things stand is to continue on a path which lacks the necessary transparency and public participation. The quantities of money involved and the absence of those critical elements means that we would be proceeding with all the ingredients for corruption.
This RFP amounts to an invitation to tender, so the bogus idea that this is just a discussion or consideration of proposals must be discredited. It is nothing of the sort. This RFP is a tender process to put these valuable public lands into private hands, which is quite different from a consultation. We have to stop any attempt to mix-up the two processes.
The State and its agencies have an over-riding obligation to be exemplary in their conduct.
The 2012 budget sets out three urban development projects, at pages 31 and 32 –
- Invader’s Bay – “…significant interest has been expressed in the transformation of the waterfront along Invader’s Bay. This development has great potential for promoting commercial activities in the services sector and will benefit the country significantly. Such projects are meant to be private sector initiatives utilizing green building technologies and will assist in making Trinidad and Tobago an attractive destination for new investments…”
- Sustainable City Project – East Port of Spain – “…This initiative, is part of a wider “Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative” supported by the Inter-American Development Bank of which Port of Spain has been chosen as one of the five pilot cities from170 eligible cities in the hemisphere…This project is being developed in partnership with the East Port of Spain Council of Community Organizations, the Caribbean Network for Urban and Land Management at UWI, the East Port of Spain Development Company, and other key stakeholders. This exercise has also engaged the Making Life Important Initiative of the Ministry of National Security…”
- Chaguaramas – “…the Chaguaramus Development Authority is spearheading development in the North-Western region and a master plan detailing land use proposals for that region will soon be subject to public discussion…”
Of course those three proposals are favouring Trinidad’s north-west peninsula, which returns to the theme of balanced development, but a further description of their relative merits is beyond the scope of this article. I am inviting readers to consider the varying approaches to an important long-term large-scale issue such as urban development.
In the cases of east POS and Chaguaramas, the commitment to widespread consultation is manifest, yet there is no such commitment evident in the case of Invader’s Bay, which seems to me to be ‘the jewel in the crown’. The three current strategic plans for POS, all paid for by Public Money, are being ignored by the very Ministry responsible for Planning.
Good Public Administration requires actions which foster the confidence and trust of the public, that is indisputable. Those policies and actions must be transparent, reasonable and, above all, consistent, if the public is to place real trust in the hands of the administration.
For all those reasons, it is unwise for any administration to operate in an inconsistent fashion.
In the case of Invader’s Bay, with the stakes so very high, it would be reckless to continue in this manner.
My last column addressed the imperative of controlling State expenditure as an element in the national budgeting process. I made the point that a new Public Procurement system needs to come into effect to give us the tools to control these huge expenditures.
The Ministry of Planning & the Economy (MPE) published a Request for Proposals (RFP) at the end of August for the development of Invader’s Bay, a 70-acre parcel of State-owned reclaimed land – shown in this plan below: 
The Invader’s Bay lands are absolutely prime property – flat, waterfront land with easy access to highways and all the urban infrastructure of water, electricity and sewers. These are valuable public lands, with an estimated value of at least $1.0Bn.
That RFP invited proposals with a closing-date of 4 October, which is an entirely inadequate 6 weeks. The Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) has taken a strong position against that RFP process, including writing the MPE and meeting with the Minister, Sen. Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie and Minister of Trade and Industry Stephen Cadiz, MP.
The JCC wants work for its members, but that must be after a proper process, it is not our intention to stop any particular project
The JCC wants a proper participatory process.
The first “official” response to our publicity was an article in the Newsday of Monday 3 October – ‘Cadiz: JCC jumped the gun‘, the leading point being that the government was trying to open-up the procurement process so as to invite suitable proposals.
Cadiz is reported to have said
…What the Government has done is asked interested parties for proposals for concepts,” he said. “I don’t see that there is any issue at all. There were proposals made and the Government felt that this is public land and we should open it up and we gave people six weeks, we feel that is enough time…
Public Procurement can be described as the process which results in the spending or earning of ‘Public Money’. Public Money is money which is due to or payable by the State, or any debts for which the State is ultimately liable. Therefore Public Money must include the contracts entered into by the State as well as the disposal, by sale or otherwise, of State assets. The Invader’s Bay RFP is the start of a large-scale Public Procurement process, since its stated intention is to lease land to developers who make ‘suitable proposals’.
The publication of the RFP and those statements all give the impression that a proper procurement process is underway at Invader’s Bay.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me explain.
The first step in the Procurement cycle is the ‘Needs Identification’. The two main questions in the case of Invader’s Bay would be –
For example, the answer to the ‘What’ question could be that the property would be used for recreation or parkland. The answer to the ‘Why’ question could be either for private profit or to create new recreational facilities as a ‘public good’, those being free facilities which increase the amenity of a district or city. The Brian Lara Promenade and the San Fernando Hill facility are two examples of that.
Without a Needs Assessment it is impossible to objectively assess what is a ‘suitable project’. To carry out a Needs Assessment, it would have been necessary for the MPE to have consulted widely with the public and stakeholders. The Invader’s Bay lands are in our capital and are about one-third the size of the Queen’s Park Savannah. My point being that any proper Needs Assessment must involve substantial public and stakeholder consultation.
There has been no consultation whatsoever. None.
What is even more unacceptable is that the RFP, which was published by the Ministry of Planning & the Economy, is silent as to the 3 existing strategic plans for the Port-of-Spain area. The 3 plans are:
All of those plans paid for with Public Money. A straight case of – ‘nearer to Church, further from God’.
So, how are the proposals to be assessed? How will the decisions be made?
At para 3.5 of the RFP, at ‘Project Assessment’, we read –
“Proposals will be scored using the “Invader’s Bay Development Matrix and Criteria Description”.
We asked for that document when we met with the Ministers, but were told that it would be completed after the closing-date.
In the absence of these rules, how can developers know the ingredients of a winning proposal? Given that the evaluation rules are due to be completed after the closing-date, how can we be sure that this is a transparent process?
This could be an opportunity to demonstrate best-practice for public procurement, as promised by the People’s Partnership.
What is happening here is a recipe for accusations, blunders and confusion, just like in the previous decades of ‘old politics’. All the ingredients for corruption are present and that is why the JCC has made this call for the immediate withdrawal of this deeply-flawed RFP and its revision, after wide consultation.
We need to move away from the pattern of the biggest projects being set-up in secret , so that by the time the public gets to hear about it, all the vital details are fixed.
Expediency taking precedence over proper process has long been a costly constant in the governance of our society.
We must do better and it is not too late to do the right thing.
Expenditure of Public money – Accountability – Transparency = CORRUPTION
It is instructive to consider the criticisms of the JCC which were reportedly made by Cadiz.The headline accused the JCC of ‘jumping the gun’, implying undue haste and thoughtless speed. Cadiz is quoted as saying, “…I think the JCC jumped the gun,” he said. “If you cannot do it by six week then how long? Six months?”.
At another point in the same article, Cadiz is quoted as saying, “We need to get these things going,” he said. “The JCC only made representation of their disappointment four weeks into the RFP…” The implication being that the JCC were tardy and should have acted more swiftly.
If this Invader’s Bay situation were not so serious, it would be comical. The question in my mind is ‘Which of those explanations does Minister Cadiz believe?’
What seems clear is the hostility with which the Minister views the intervention of the JCC.
Discussion is revolving around the country’s earnings from our energy resources and the likely size of the next year’s budget, expected to be delivered in early October.
Given the fact that our energy resources are reported to be declining in both quantity and value, it is very important that we make best use of that stream of resources to both sustain the existing arrangements and create a new series of industries to replace those declining earnings.
In my view, our focus in this critical transitional period has to be on making best use of those limited tax dollars. Although that is an objective on which we can assume broad consensus, there seems to me to be far too little discussion on the ways in which that can be achieved.
When we consider that most of the capital expenditure in the country takes place via the State and its agencies, it is clear that proper control of that expenditure is key to making the transition for our society. The other parts of State expenditure are recurrent, such as salaries and rents.
The growth of corruption in State expenditure is a clear danger to good order and national development. White-Collar crime, as it is sometimes called, is a growth industry because there is almost zero chance of being detected or punished and huge rewards.
The danger to good order is the fact that merit has a declining role in the way State spending decisions are made. It is clear that other factors have become dominant – things like friends, family and political affiliation are now well-understood to be the ingredients of success in getting work from the State. That is the case for all political administrations so far in our country, but it must change if we are to make the transition to a sustainable economy in which different values and income sources take the lead.
The budget of the present financial year is the largest in our country’s history and it is true that the major part of that expenditure could be classed as exceptional items, having to deal with settling large debts of State Enterprises and the huge CL Financial bailout payments. The point here is that those huge expenses arose in situations with a distinct lack of transparency and accountability, from the lack of accounts at UDECOTT and HDC to the naked corruption of the CL Financial bailout, there is a pattern.
If there is no transparency and no accountability, there will be corruption and that is inescapable.
Public Procurement
Public Procurement refers to any expenditure or receipt of public money, which is money due to, or ultimately payable by, the State. That definition covers all the Ministries and State agencies as well as modern arrangements such as BOLT, PPP, concessions and so on. In the PP’s first budget, there were disclosed plans to spend almost $14.0Bn in the capital program of the Ministries and State Agencies. We need a proper Public Procurement system to manage these vast sums of money.
It is for this reason that the People’s Partnership commitment to implementing a new and effective Public Procurement system is to be welcomed. The JCC and its partners – the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers’ Association and the Transparency Institute – have submitted a draft Bill for consideration of the Joint Select Committee established by Parliament.
Finance Minister Winston Dookeran made good on the PP’s pre-election promise to lay in Parliament the new Public Procurement proposals within one month of the election.
The level of political support for this initiative has been encouraging, but there is the issue of priorities to confront in this matter.
I am referring to the fact that the second part of the PP commitment to a new and effective Public Procurement system was that it was to have taken effect on the anniversary of the election.
That target has been missed and the work of the Joint Select Committee has been preserved so that it can proceed when the Parliament re-opens at the Waterfront.
The challenge we have to confront is the race to implement public projects in a manner which reminds me of the phrase I had coined for the last administration – ‘Project Fever’, like a new strain of political dengue.
The need to stimulate economic activity is something everyone appreciates and the perceived competition between Ministers is becoming part of the new reality. Provided that there are effective local content provisions, the more projects the country is doing, means more work for our professionals, contractors, workforce and suppliers. No one would argue against an increase in economic activity.
The problem is that, in the absence of proper controls, those short-term imperatives can lead directly to the dire long-term consequences which I referred to earlier. The State now has to spend immense sums to clear up debts which arose during an earlier spending frenzy, with operatives, who would have all said at the time that this or that project was essential.
These frenzied moments of activity are the correct place for the application of real leadership in terms of the national priorities, particularly in relation to the issue of expenditure. I am calling on Finance Minister Dookeran to make this issue of controlling expenditure a number-one priority in this budget.
Given that the ongoing flow of projects is strong and constant, a proposed program would look like this –
Without proper control over expenditure, we will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis. We need to stabilize the economy and restore the importance of merit in our public decision-making.
On Wednesday 21st September I received this letter dated 15th September from EFCL’s attorney together with the Confidentiality Policy Agreement I had requested on 5 September 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act.
As readers can see, this is exactly the document posted as part of the first story in this series, published in the Sunday Guardian on 9th July 2011. Which means that my essential assertions remain unanswered in that staff who are forbidden to disclose the existence of an agreement would be unable to get external advice on it, without being in breach. Which has the real effect of giving this document an oppressive flavour.
Of course it also puts into question the assertion in Lalla’s first letter to me, that this new EFCL policy was “…consistent with what obtains in many companies…” Literally unbelievable. Obviously.
I can only hope that this policy was not approved by our Ministry of Education.
But we will revert to EFCL after the budget season…readers can draw their own conclusions.
On Friday 2 September, the EFCL’s attorneys delivered to my office this letter dated 8 August 2011.
That letter was written by Larry N. Lalla who warned me in his opening paragraph that EFCL was concerned at the tenor of my articles on their Confidentiality Policy. (Parts 2 and 3 here.)
The letter ended by warning me that EFCL would meet any defamatory statements with legal action…seeing that he never said “…further defamatory statements…” or identified any such, this appears to be yet another waste of taxpayers’ money in an attempt to avoid answering my five original questions.
The intention here seems to be intimidation.
It is sad and ineffective, let me tell you why.
Sad, because, according to clause d. of EFCL’s Staff Confidentiality Policy Statement which was sent to me, employees are forbidden to reveal the terms of the policy or even its very existence. Lalla’s letter states at 2. that EFCL’s Confidentiality Policy is “…consistent with what obtains in many companies…”. Both of those cannot be true, since it is simply not the norm that a normal commercial company forbids its employees from even disclosing the existence of a policy. Those provisions are not at all consistent with what obtains.
The sad part is that the only way to settle this is for EFCL to release its Confidentiality Policy, as I have been requesting. They have been reluctant to do so, for whatever reason.
EFCL prefers to spend money to obfuscate and intimidate rather than just answer these simple questions, originally contained in my email of 1 July –
There seems to be an attempt to change the reality that all these State Enterprises are spending public money and therefore ought to be responsive to our reasonable requests.
Earlier today I made a request under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and we will see what happens next.
Yes, Readers, I received this letter from Larry Lalla, attorneys for the Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL).
The letter was hand-delivered to my office this morning, although it is dated 8th August – over three weeks ago.
I sent this email in immediate reply:-
From: Afra Raymond <afraraymond@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Sep 2, 2011 at 4:57 PM
Subject: EFCL’s Confidentiality Policy
To: kiran.shah@efcl.co.tt
Cc: ronald.phillip@efcl.co.tt, larry.lalla@gmail.comGood Day to you, Mr. Shah,
A copy of EFCL’s attorneys’ letter dated 8th August was hand-delivered to my office earlier today and I will soon be replying to those points in public.
In particular, I noted the third point in that letter –
“3. EFCL remains at all times committed to the principles of transparency in all aspects of its operations.”
Accordingly, I am again requesting a copy of the EFCL’s Confidentiality Policy.
Of course I am publishing this, in keeping with our shared commitment to transparency.
Thank you.
Afra Raymond
As part of this pre-budget series, I am going to ‘take stock’ of some recent, significant happenings in relevant areas.
Given the unstable situation in relation to the State and its operations, many examples of which have been set out in previous ‘Property Matters’ columns, it is very important that a critical stance be maintained. That said, it is also important that any progress be properly recorded and acknowledged.
The notable items were –
I was very pleased to read of the success HDC was having in collecting the serious rent arrears owed by its tenants, reportedly in excess of $240M. Of course this is not the first time there has been an effort to rectify this situation, so hopefully this will be a sustained program as it is vital that housing be treated with proper responsibility. That responsibility would extend from the quality of the designs and construction, the treatment of contractors and suppliers all the way to housing policies which respond to the needs of the needy.
Last week, there was a report in this newspaper that the Housing and Environment Minister, Dr. Roodal Moonilal, disclosed a new housing policy. According to that report, the new policy will favour distribution of serviced lots, with foundation slabs, over the provision of new homes. I have been calling for a review of our housing policy for some time now, so it was very disappointing to read that Cabinet had recently approved this important new policy without some formal process of dialogue or seeking wider views, much less a thorough examination of the shortcomings of the 2002 policy. Yes, a new housing policy was sorely needed, but there are solid benefits to wider dialogue.
This leads directly into my point about the poor flow of basic information, which can be detrimental to the best intentions. The 2002 housing policy disappeared from the internet about 6 months ago, but despite several written requests I have had no success in having those links restored, for whatever reason. The new housing policy is also not available online. In contrast, last month the Ministry of Finance issued a revised State Enterprises Performance Monitoring Manual and that is available online, together with the 2008 Manual it replaced.
The impending new Building Code is to be welcomed, having been developed in collaboration with key stakeholders. There needs to be a solid commitment by all parties to establishing proper enforcement of those critical standards. The Building Code will cover important areas such as earthquake and fire hazards as well as other quality issues.
The initiative is being piloted by Dr. Roodal Moonilal, Minister of Housing and the Environment. UDECOTT and the HDC both form part of his responsibilities, so that is a good fit. We will have to be vigilant to ensure that all State construction conforms to the new standards.
I have consistently stated that the absence of consequence is inimical to any development and that consequence has to be restored to a proper place if we are to progress. Up to last Thursday, 11 August, I stated at a public meeting that I was unaware of any government in this country taking decisive action against its own appointees in the State Enterprises. The pattern has been one of charging people from the last political administration in what almost always looks like revenge.
The Sunday Guardian headline of 14 August ‘Cabinet fires Chairman of School-feeding Programme’ was as welcome as it was surprising. It was reported that the Cabinet had taken decisive action to fire a Chairman who had been appointed about 6 months before and that is a positive step, the first time any government in this country has done that, as far as I am aware.
According to that exclusive story, the fired Chairwoman of the National Schools Dietary Services Ltd (NSDSL)—Dawn Annamunthodo – had obtained extensive and expensive security guards for herself, due to some alleged death threats. There were also details of what seemed to be deceptive attempts by that individual to become a signatory to the bank accounts of that State-owned company. If those reports are true, there are two serious implications –
Firstly, it is extremely unlikely that this is the first time that this individual was involved in acts of that kind. Grown people do not just change their behaviour in a few months’ time, we all know that. My point being that this episode calls into question the screening which is carried out in relation to these appointments. Whatever screening processes now exist, will definitely have to be made stronger, together with ongoing reviews of Board performance.
Secondly, this individual is reported to have attempted to convince Republic Bank’s Ellerslie Plaza branch to make her a signatory and that matter must be promptly investigated by the Fraud Squad, with charges to follow if those allegations are true. It is an echo of the point I made here last week about a dutiful police officer allowing a motorist with a defective vehicle to just drive-off after a ticket is issued. Not good enough, if we are serious about road-safety. We have to restore a Culture of Consequence if White-Collar Crime is to be challenged.
But, even though no money appears to have been stolen in that School-Feeding episode, the saddest part was the bold-faced question that individual asked the Guardian reporter, when invited to give a comment
How did you get hold of those documents? Those are state documents. These questions are state business.
It reminded me very much of the response of Jewan Ramcharitar, former PriceWaterhouseCoopers partner, who suddenly resigned as eTeck Chairman almost a month ago. That entire affair remains mysterious, with Stephen Cadiz, the line Minister, stating that it was due to a ‘difference of opinion’ and the departed Chairman reportedly stating –
I am actually working on a project in the public service arena on a full-time basis and my time at eTeck is eroding the time and attention I pay to that.
“Just what that project is, he won’t say.”
I wonder if Ramcharitar would have found that dismissive answer to be acceptable when he was a partner at PWC? Probably not, yet we are continually beset by these evasive attitudes in public affairs. We need to hold our leaders to a high standard.
The latest twist is the sudden resignation of George Nicholas as Chairman of Caribbean Airlines and the opaque statement by the Minister of Transport, Devant Maharaj – “…Yes. I can confirm this. I am in receipt of his letter but I cannot say anything more…”
Good steps are to be recognized and applauded, but we must always strive for better. We need to continue onward and upward. It would be good to have a statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications as to the governments’ commitment to a progressive policy in these important matters. The Housing policy needs to be published for comment and we also need to have a clear statement as to whether there can be any such thing as a confidential state policy.
Confidential State Policy may seem like an oxymoron, but readers will be aware of the reluctance of the Education Facilities Company Limited to publish its new Confidentiality Policy. I don’t want to say refusal, but when this budget season is over we will be continuing to examine those EFCL operations.
AfraRaymond.net 