SHAS­TRI BOODAN

For­mer Ch­agua­nas West MP Jack Warn­er yes­ter­day dis­missed the sto­ry of a de­ci­sion he made as Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to pay $6.5 mil­lion to wreck a fire ten­der as "fool­ish."Speak­ing be­fore the start of a walk­a­bout in the con­stituen­cy, Warn­er said he alone could not have tak­en any de­ci­sion to pay the $6.8 mil­lion for the re­moval of the firetruck. He said: "Any de­ci­sion in Cab­i­net is what you call col­lec­tive re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and there­fore Jack Warn­er alone could not take any de­ci­sion.

"If there was no Ch­agua­nas by-elec­tion you would not see that re­port. If I was still in Par­lia­ment or Cab­i­net you won't see that re­port."He said he found it strange that a copy of the tech­ni­cal re­port on the in­ci­dent had not been sent to the me­dia.The T&T Guardian in fact ob­tained the re­port yes­ter­day as it con­tin­ued its in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the in­ci­dent

Warn­er said he be­lieved that was part of a "dirty tricks cam­paign" that he ex­pect­ed to wors­en as the date of the by-elec­tion drew clos­er.