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Friday, May 23, 2025

Rein in Jack

by

20101011

Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley says there is no need to in­ves­ti­gate the award of two air­port con­tracts, worth $83 mil­lion, which were ap­proved last month by Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er.

Row­ley said so at the first bi-month­ly news con­fer­ence at his of­fice on Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.He said ap­pro­pri­ate ac­tion should be tak­en. When asked what ac­tion should be tak­en, Row­ley said: "The Prime Min­is­ter has the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for her Cab­i­net and it was up to her to de­ter­mine how many times she would make ex­cus­es for them."

Warn­er has ad­mit­ted to sign­ing off on the con­tracts with­out a board in place at the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty of T&T.Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has or­dered an in­ves­ti­ga­tion and re­view of the con­tracts.

Warn­er said on Sun­day he had no prob­lems with the con­tracts be­ing re­tendered.He said he signed the con­tracts, de­spite no board be­ing in place at the AATT be­cause of the emer­gency na­ture of the projects.

The projects in­volved the up­grad­ing of light­ing at the Pi­ar­co and Crown Point air­ports.But Row­ley said yes­ter­day he re­ject­ed Warn­er's claim out­right. He in­sist­ed the work which was re­quired was not "ex­treme emer­gency."Row­ley said the law pro­vid­ed for min­is­te­r­i­al ac­tion on­ly in cas­es of ex­treme emer­gency.

He said the sit­u­a­tion at the air­ports can­not be con­sid­ered to be an ex­treme emer­gency.

He added: "Air­port light­ing sys­tem don't just shut down. The work that is need­ed was nor­mal main­te­nance and up­grade."That can­not be deemed to be an emer­gency un­der any stretch of the imag­i­na­tion. What is there is work­ing and will con­tin­ue to work for quite some­time. That is not an emer­gency."

Row­ley al­so re­spond­ing to claims by for­mer Civ­il Avi­a­tion di­rec­tor gen­er­al at the AATT, Ramesh Lutch­me­di­al, who told Jy­oti Com­mu­ni­ca­tions in Cana­da that Warn­er was right to act in the man­ner in which he did be­cause the work was con­sid­ered to be an emer­gency.

"They are sim­ply try­ing to fa­cil­i­tate the fool­ish­ness. I could guar­an­tee you that there is no sit­u­a­tion where the air­ports lights are about to shut down to­mor­row morn­ing," Row­ley said.Row­ley, who was ac­com­pa­nied by Chief Whip Mar­lene Mc Don­ald and Arou­ca/Mal­oney MP Ali­cia Hospedales, said what was re­quired was "ap­pro­pri­ate ac­tion" by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar against Warn­er.

"We con­sid­er that to be an aber­ra­tion which now falls to the Prime Min­is­ter not to have an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to but to take the ap­pro­pri­ate po­si­tion on,"he added.Row­ley said if Warn­er's po­si­tion that he had done noth­ing wrong was to be ac­cept­ed, then how did one ex­plain the PM's call for it to be re­viewed.

Row­ley said Warn­er may be as pow­er­ful as he was in his house, in Fi­fa and on the streets of T&T but as min­is­ter he was not above the laws of the land."We find his be­hav­iour ob­nox­ious and we find the Prime Min­is­ter tardy in rein­ing in a min­is­ter who seems to think he is above the law," Row­ley added.

Row­ley de­scribed Warn­er's ac­tion as "a bla­tant case of min­is­te­r­i­al over­reach."Row­ley said he was "not im­pressed" by the choice of board mem­bers an­nounced by Per­sad-Bisses­sar last week. The term of the for­mer AATT board end­ed in June 2010. No new AATT board has as yet been an­nounced. See Page A5


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