Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Po­lit­i­cal Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has raised ques­tions about re­cent­ly re­in­stat­ed Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Fos­ter Cum­mings’ con­nec­tion to re­cent­ly award­ed state con­tracts.

The Siparia MP, while ad­dress­ing the UNC’s Na­tion­al Con­gress at the Cou­va South Mul­ti­pur­pose Com­plex, Cou­va, ques­tioned the award of state con­tracts to three com­pa­nies: Cum­mings and As­so­ciates Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed; PI­CAL Ser­vices Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed; and Kly­don En­ter­pris­es Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.

Two of the com­pa­nies, Cum­mings and As­so­ciates and PI­CAL, list the sen­a­tor and his wife as di­rec­tors.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said PI­CAL was “hand­picked” through “se­lec­tive ten­der­ing” last No­vem­ber to han­dle the de­mo­li­tion of the build­ing which for­mer­ly housed Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion and the com­pa­ny was al­so re­cent­ly award­ed a con­tract for garbage col­lec­tion ser­vices for Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion projects.

“I want to ask the Prime Min­is­ter, if this same com­pa­ny, this same Fos­ter Cum­mings, PI­CAL Ser­vices Lim­it­ed that was award­ed con­tracts for garbage col­lec­tion ser­vice in HDC De­vel­op­ments,” said Bisses­sar.

“So what pro­cure­ment process was used here? Se­lec­tive ten­der­ing again? What is the val­ue of these con­tracts? Why Is PI­CAL the con­trac­tor to re­ceive these mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar con­tracts?” she asked.

Cum­mings, who is the gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment, was reap­point­ed as a gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor on Wednes­day fol­low­ing Garvin Si­mon­ette’s res­ig­na­tion.

Si­mon­ette re­signed when a 2014 DUI charge in the Unit­ed States was re­vealed af­ter he was an­nounced as the Prime Min­is­ter’s choice to take up the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion Min­istry fol­low­ing Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald’s re­moval.

Cum­mings had been re­moved from the Sen­ate on Ju­ly 21, to make way for Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Don­na Cox’s ap­point­ment to the Sen­ate bench.

The UNC po­lit­i­cal leader al­so asked if Kly­don En­ter­pris­es, which was award­ed a con­tract to con­struct a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre for $1,209,329.53, had any con­nec­tion to Cum­mings.

“This Com­pa­ny was on­ly in­cor­po­rat­ed on 25th No­vem­ber 2015, right af­ter the gen­er­al elec­tions. It has no shares, no as­sets but has been award­ed a $1.2M con­tract,” said Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

“What is co­in­ci­den­tal is that the same lawyer who files the an­nu­al re­turns for PI­CAL Ser­vices Lim­it­ed filed for Kly­don En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader not­ed that last No­vem­ber, the of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter had tak­en re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Ude­cott, and as such asked the Prime Min­is­ter if he was aware of these con­nec­tions.

“I want to ask whether there is any link be­tween Kly­don En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed, Cum­mings & As­so­ciates Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed and PI­CAL Ser­vices Lim­it­ed? Whether there is any link be­tween Sen­a­tor Cum­mings and ei­ther of these com­pa­nies?

“What was the pro­ce­dure used by Ude­cott to award the con­tract to Kly­don En­ter­pris­es Lim­it­ed?” asked Per­sad-Bisses­sar who stat­ed in 2004 Dr Row­ley, as then Hous­ing Min­is­ter, ad­mit­ted in Par­lia­ment that PI­CAL had re­ceived a state con­tract for an NHA hous­ing project in Ed­in­burgh 500.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley for a re­sponse to the UNC leader’s state­ments but did not get a re­sponse up to the time of pub­li­ca­tion.

At­tempts to con­tact Cum­mings were al­so un­suc­cess­ful.