Tag: trinidad and tobago

Is Trinidad Hilton the ‘no tell Hotel’?

The Editor,

According to official records, Senator Paula Gopee-Scoon was appointed Minister of Trade & Industry on September 11, 2015, after the current PNM administration took office.

‘Major upgrades to Hilton to start this year‘ was the headline of the extensive article in the Express Business of 14 June 2023 in which Minister Gopee-Scoon was reported to have stated – “… Gopee-Scoon indicated that the hotel was built in 1962 and has not been renovated in over 20 years…”.   The Minister’s assertion that Trinidad Hilton had not been renovated in over 20 years is astonishing and entirely untrue. As I reported in this space, previously drawn from the Parliament’s 2016 JSC Report into the operations of eTeck: 

…In 2016, the Parliament’s JSC examined the operations of e TecK with particular reference to its accounts and finances. Its Report was published in September 2016 and makes intriguing reading, given the stakes here. According to the President of e Teck, Robert Salandy, in his testimony to the Joint Select Committee on 6 April 2016, the project costs have escalated from an original estimate of $484M to a current figure of $634M. A total of $508M had been spent and it was reported that “…Salandy could not give a time-frame in which the renovations at the Hilton hotel would be completed…”

Property Matters – Trinidad Hilton Improvements

Of course the public cannot tell if this plainly untrue statement emerged as a result of poor-record-keeping, a collapse of Institutional Memory, a genuine error/oversight within the Minister’s office or some other misfortune, but the Ministry of Trade & Industry needs to rectify the record, in the public interest. 

Thank you.

Afra Raymond,
former JCC President
Afraraymond.net

VIDEO: Interview on Indaba Online on Procurement legislation in Trinidad and Tobago

Afra Raymond chats with Shabaka Kambon, Dr. Claudius Fergus and Amb. Rev. Kwame Kamau on the Emancipation Support Committee’s online radio programme “INDABA: Where Knowledge Grows” on Talk City 91.1FM on Wednesday, 31 May 2023. They speak on the implementation of the new Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act in Trinidad and Tobago.

  • Programme Date: 31 May 2023
  • Programme Length: 00.41:30
Video courtesy Talk City 91.1 FM

What is the gap in our new Public Procurement law?

The previous article dealt with the sudden unexplained shift from the supposedly-defective Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act (the Act) to the welcome announcement of its proclamation, so long-overdue. I called for an official explanation for this sudden shift, but there has been no response thus far.

The silence of our Learned friends on this issue is as echoing and eerie as it is eloquent. These colleagues have opinions on so much else. Yes, Power is defined by those things you are not allowed to speak about, so self-censorship is as real as the nose on your face. Well I tell you eh!

This article will challenge the basis for the 2020 exemptions to the Act (via Act #27 of 2020), which included Government to Government Agreements (G2G are usually the hugest projects); matters of national security; legal services; debt financing services for the national budget; accounting and auditing services; medical emergency or other scheduled medical services. The Government decided that these transactions in Public Money did not require the oversight of the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) which the Parliament approved. I think that inimical to the public interest.

Continue reading “What is the gap in our new Public Procurement law?” →

Manufactured Consent in new Public Procurement law?

“Ambiguity and silence is the enemy of #ethics and #integrity.”

Richard Bistrong @Richardbistrong Twitter feed. Dec 5, 2019

“‘Manufactured consent’ is supported by…effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion.”

Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media 1988, (New York: Pantheon Books)

The Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act (the Act) was fully proclaimed on Wednesday 26 April 2023, which makes that one of our Republic’s truly historic days by any measure.

I welcomed the decision to proclaim the Act, since even with the damaging suite of 2020 exemptions, this is a tremendous step in the right direction of Accountability, Transparency and Good Governance so that we can achieve improved Value for Money in our Public Affairs. The Private Sector Civil Society Group wrote and lobbied for this important law, so this is the result of long-term, collective effort. We owe serious appreciation to those who persisted when this was a faraway vision.

Continue reading “Manufactured Consent in new Public Procurement law?” →

VIDEO: The Constitutional Imbroglio delaying the Public Procurement law in Trinidad and Tobago

This is an interview with Trinidadian journalist and television host, Fazeer Mohammed, on Saturday, 25 March 2023 detailing this serious challenge to implementation of the Public Procurement & Disposal of Public Property Act.

  • Programme Date: 25 March 2023
  • Programme Length: 00:52:48
Video courtesy Afra Raymond

Chapters’ timeline

  • 15:11 to 17:05 Afra Raymond calls on the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) to convene an examination of the Constitution Imbroglio

  • 19:45 to 20:50 LATT should call out the Judiciary’s 29-page note—unsupported—to the Attorney General

  • 22:44 to 25:25 Cost of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Roger Gaspard, SC’s new office space and the scandalous decision of the AGLA to accept those terms.

  • 26:51 to 27:48 DPP Gaspard must explain the apparent inaction in the CL Financial matter based on the Colman Report

  • 33.42 to 34:56 Disturbing existing Arrangements

  • 46:26 to 47.24 (or to 47:49) CJ batting well outside his crease! Judicial Educational Institute