Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, a for­mer con­trac­tor, turned his ven­om on lo­cal con­trac­tors against whom he once com­pet­ed, ac­cord­ing to Op­po­si­tion Leader Bas­deo Pan­day.

In his re­sponse to the na­tion­al bud­get yes­ter­day, which was pre­sent­ed by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira on Mon­day, Pan­day ex­plained that the tiff be­tween Im­bert and lo­cal con­trac­tors re­sult­ed in the erup­tion of a war of words be­tween Gov­ern­ment and lo­cal con­trac­tors. "The Gov­ern­ment be­gan find­ing ways to avoid pro­cure­ment is­sues, be­gan pur­su­ing de­sign, fi­nance, con­struct and de­sign build­ing projects and be­gan grant­i­ng mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar con­tracts to in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies with in­creas­ing re­liance on Asian com­pa­nies," Pan­day said. "Fren­zied by mon­ey, the Patrick Man­ning regime be­gan ig­nor­ing the small­er projects which were des­per­ate­ly need­ed and promised and be­gan ex­per­i­ment­ing in mega con­struc­tion," he added

Pan­day said that ba­sic hu­man needs were aban­doned by the Gov­ern­ment on the al­tar of mega projects.

"They have not turned back yet. The reck­less­ness con­tin­ues in the cur­rent bud­get. And cor­rup­tion flour­ished," Pan­day said,"As Gov­ern­ment rev­enues in­creased by 35 per cent in fis­cal 2005 and then again by 37 per cent in fis­cal 2006, the enor­mi­ty of the boom be­gan to sink in and the need for ethics, trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty no longer mat­tered to the Prime Min­is­ter and his co­horts. And so the reck­less ex­pen­di­ture be­gan in a fren­zy."