It must be noted that siphoning $MILLIONS by pnm "community Leaders,ministers,Permanent secty's etc should be taken into account!! What a waste of our future Generations Treasury Funds!

Talk about management.

You don't know how much it will cost or when it will be done. All you know is you building it years now with probably more years to go and that you have spent more money than most people make in a day but you have more where those millions come from, not to worry. So what if you will never know if you got value for the money spent.

Talk about accountability. Talk about getting value. Talk about safe guarding the public coffers. So what if areas of the country doh have good roads or people do not have water and too much of it when it rains and floods, money for this complex coming from a different fund. And don't dare challenge you because you will get vex.

This project is the perfect metaphor for everything that is wrong with governance in T&T, at all levels. But by the middle of next week nobody eh go care so why do anything different.

$700 Million to date - Tarouba Complex
Mr. Manning what in heaven's name are you constructing up there in Tarouba? Is it the Parthenon? Are you working on bringing the Olympics to T&T in 13 years time? I notice you got Arab Sheikhs already scheduled to visit with you soon. Do you think you can complete it by that time? What incompetence.

Minister 172 soccer tickets, Mr. Hunte, we are paying you to manage a portfolio. But it appears that you are more interested in looking like a 'pretty boy' and sashaying about posing for the cameras. How come you never have any legitimate answers to give concerning your portfolio? You are spending the purse-strings of the nation, not your own bank account. We need you to be accountable to us. When we ask legitimate questions, we expect you to provide answers at a minute's notice or a commitment to do so within a reasonable time frane.

To listen to Mr. Manning and his team criticise our local contractors for going over-budget, and beyond time-line, one would come to the conclusion that any project they undertake will be carried out according to rigid guidelines. But Oh, No - they are exempt from these rules. One set of rules for our local contractors, and another for Mr. Manning and his boys.

The dissatisfaction with the work our locals were doing was the excuse Mr. Manning and his team gave for giving our jobs over to foreign contractors. So with the same line of thinking, can we ignore our gov't in office and bring in another from a foreign land to take up governance of our country?

only 700?

http://www.ttia-architects.org/downloads/Tarouba%20Stadium.pdf

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/07/29/cricket-academy-still-plan...

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-08-28/letters.html

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=161523005

http://www.newsday.co.tt/editorial/0,97775.html

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161527525

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-06-27/news4.html

http://www.newsday.co.tt/editorial/0,98207.html

We still talking!

Ryan4Party@live.com

You have no idea what kind of costs to expect for maintenance? Are you dotish or do you think the rest of the population is? What kind of planning went into this mega-project? The usual planning by vaps? Start building & hope for the best? The premise that the money in the Treasury will continue to grow exponentially so you can continue to rape it & pillage it? Please do the country a life-saving favour & retire in the public interest before you are fired, hopefully before it is too late to salvage something! And as you are at it, encourage the rest of your gang to do the same, starting with the gang leader, community leader or whatever he is these days.

'Epsom salts', where are you today? To paraphrase Manley, money passing through Trinidad and Tobago like a dose of salts.
ajfyzabadbutlertown

...this forever unfinished mausoleum is a fitting tribute to PNM corruption and incompetence....these misfits can't run a 6 by 6 parlor....

Such incompetence - the Minister should resign from his portfolio. If this were the UNC, the PNM opposition would be demanding a forensic audit of where the funds are going. Work should be stopped (not that it can go any slower..) until a proper audit and projection of costs can be determined and released.

I am all for progress, but who will this sporting complex benefit (hotel and all)? Youths and families in surrounding areas of South Trinidad do not have running water; not enough food in the pot; no proper health care. And crime in the area is rampant because of this (even in Manning's old neighbourhood). A portion of the $700M would go a long way to fixing some of these troubling issues.

When all is said and done, it is us taxpayers paying for this white elephant. Time to protest about the lack of accountability and incompetence.

Ah wonder if Hamza go be the next man to go before the privileges committee for asking all dem questions.

Socrates

I often wonder how the politics and politicians of Trinidad and Tobago can allow themselves to partake of such grand schemes while their society is plagued with such daily unrest and corruption: daily murders, daily home invasions, gang warfare, drug addiction, unsafe streets, dirty streets, uncleaned streets, no sidewalks, a natural environment that continues to be ignored, garbage all over the roads, it prides itself on a "pitch lake" yet there roads that are comparable to the poorest of "third world" nations I have visited. I once asked a high level government official who resides in both Canada and Trinidad who was driving me around in her government leased car which had priority to travel at excess speed on certain roads, how the people of your country put up with such waste, her response: "these people don't care you know, them happy the way you see them, Trinidad is not North America"!I thought to myself, no its not. More importantly, I said to myself, "and you are advising the government of Trinidad and Tobago, it is your civic duty to at least articulate the wrong that you see". Then again the consultant in question was also "kicked" out of local politics in Canada. Her comment explained it all. God bless Trinidad and its political regime.

The sports minister says that an "energy and technology park" are part of the Tarouba Stadium. I am wondering if he might squeeze in a small organic vegetable plot as well. Good Man.

Let's see if we could help Socrates with some answers to those questions which have been puzzling him. I'm no sage like the other Socrates of ancient Greece, but to my simple mind the politicians just don't care as long as they, their families & their other accomplices can get their hands in the till & raid the national coffers. Corruption aka bobol that boggles the mind. They can buy the best food, go abroad at State expense to shop till they drop, eat the best gourmet foods & drink the finest wines and enjoy private elite security details in the comfort and protection of their insulated and well-guarded palaces. When they drive around in their tax-free airconditioned Mercs, Bemas & SUVs with their dark tints they don't see or hear anybody nor smell the stench coming from the gutters and clogged drains and overflowing latrines (like Epsom's!), not even the stench from the state rooms and banquet halls of the SST&T. Ask Robbie & Bas, they were smelling each other's back in 1987 when they decided to mash up one love in the rainbow land. Btw, is Gypsy going to do a re-make of his 1986 "Captain, the ship is s(t)inking"? Maybe this time he can sing "Emperor, the shi* done s(t)ink, life-raft an all.."

Let's see if we could help Socrates with some answers to those questions which have been puzzling him. I'm no sage like the other Socrates of ancient Greece, but to my simple mind the politicians just don't care as long as they, their families & their other accomplices can get their hands in the till & raid the national coffers. Corruption aka bobol that boggles the mind. They can buy the best food, go abroad at State expense to shop till they drop, eat the best gourmet foods & drink the finest wines and enjoy private elite security details in the comfort and protection of their insulated and well-guarded palaces. When they drive around in their tax-free airconditioned Mercs, Bemas & SUVs with their dark tints they don't see or hear anybody nor smell the stench coming from the gutters and clogged drains and overflowing latrines (like Epsom's!), not even the stench from the state rooms and banquet halls of the SST&T. Ask Robbie & Bas, they were smelling each other's back in 1987 when they decided to mash up one love in the rainbow land. Btw, is Gypsy going to do a re-make of his 1986 "Captain, the ship is sinking"? Maybe this time he can sing "Emperor, abandon ship; the shi* done s(t)ink, life-rafts an all.."

It is foolish in the eyes of most citizens when a MP responsible for a portfolio dont know or refuses to say how much a project under his portfolio would cost the country. This is NOT a private club, it is an entity built by government for the use of members of the public to enjoy with public money. It is also dis respectful to claim ignorance of the outcome of the project. If those things are true, then it follows naturally that he should have that responsibility taken away from him for lack of integrity.

RHETORICS!!!!!!!!!!
We in T&T can be described as selfish and indulgent, we raise alarms and procrastinate on ill thought polices and practices of the government such as the most recent declaration by Minister Hunte about the unknown status of completion and overall cost to completion of the Brian Lara Stadium.I admit the government has erred in some of its actions, but my biggest concern is that neither Opposition,other political parties , political activist or watchdog organisations can stem the tide, each day as I look at the various media blog I see and hear complaints,and suggested solutions. I need to see persons in public offices being held accountable for their actions or inactions. It is like the police service where people say there are good officers but remember the old saying "the upholder is worst than the thief. So in the end i am left to agree "TALK IS CHEAP"in T&T

All Yuh PNM Diehards "PNM Till Ah Ded," Where on earth are you???
You made so much bacchanal when the UNC was in power - about the cost overruns at the airport (which is now the pride and joy of the country) and the desalination plant (which is now saving T & T).
Here we have PNM excesses on projects that bring no value to the country, widespread corruption, nepotism and graft that is constantly being swept "under the carpet" and you seem to have muzzels on your mouths???
What a stinking shame, what a scandal and what a sorry bunch of ostriches and nincompoops.
If another party comes into power, it should waste no time in seeing that the thieves are brought to justice.

Mr Joe, you really can't blame the PNM diehards for what is going on. It is true that Robbie gave Manos licence to mash up the place, but the Opposition must take a lot of blame for their irresponsibility. Instead of being the alternative gavernment in waiting, they only indulging in "internecine warfare" as Robbie used to describe his battles with Bas. When Bas can't find a lion to fight with, he pounces on his colleagues; he just can't exist without comess and bacchanal. As long as Panday is leader of the opposition, Manning will forever be PM. The Corpse, oops COP looks like they running out of steam while Bas and Ramjackwin destroying the UNC-A or whatever they call themselves these days. If Manning takes out the piece of paper from his back pocket, unless he forgot it and sent his pants to the laundry, he sure to beat them in all the cardinal points of T&T with the opposition parties in such disarray. And then you will get the new constitution and the new Executive Emperor of the Eastern Caribbean, for starters.

if the man had some class he would come right out and say he didnt know the project was still ongoing, that he didnt know who was in charge of it, and when was last time he checked on it to find out 700 mil was spent on it.