The past administration has left more rubbish for the present Government to clean up once again, this time it's a multimillion-dollar problem called the MV Su. This vessel was bought for $25 million to be used as a water taxi, but not being sea able it had to be repaired at a cost of $27 million. If this ship even tries to sail it will sink, in similar fashion to how the PNM is sinking now.
The previous government paid $36 million to buy three other used vessels, HC Katia, HC Olivia and HC Milancia, none of which are in use today. The vessels are up for sale but no one wants to purchase what appear to be non-seaworthy vessels. The closest offer so far is from scrap dealers who are willing to pay just around half a million dollars for the Su.
The PNM government paid $4.1 million to transport this vessel from Turkey to St Thomas and another $3 million to tow it from St Thomas to Curacao for repairs. And as usual former Minister of Transport Colm Imbert refused to accept responsibility for its purchase, as has been the mode of the PNM. This leaves the present administration with wastage of taxpayers' money once again and for what? This was just another PNM "white elephant."
Geoff Hillaire
Via e-mail