Ak­ile Si­mon

?An on­line pe­ti­tion on the con­tro­ver­sial $2 mil­lion flag at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um calls for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the ten­der­ing process, say­ing it had "deep reser­va­tions" about the cost of the flag. Up to late yes­ter­day, the pe­ti­tion, which is spon­sored by some­one iden­ti­fied as Pa­tri­cia Smart, had ob­tained 220 sig­na­tures, via the care2 pe­ti­tion­site.com.

The site hopes to reach a tar­get of 1,000 sig­na­tures. "Let's show Min­is­ter Gary Hunt, the ex­ec­u­tive chair­man of the Sport Com­pa­ny (of T&T) Ken­neth Charles and ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Dar­ren Mil­lien that we (the pe­ti­tion­ers) must be ac­count­ed to and are not to be treat­ed as fools," said the pe­ti­tion overview.

In a let­ter post­ed on the site and ad­dressed to Min­is­ter Hunt, the pe­ti­tion­ers have asked that an in­ves­ti­ga­tion be con­duct­ed in­to the ten­der process for the pur­chase of the flag and that the find­ings be made pub­lic. It says: "Ad­di­tion­al­ly, we note with in­ter­est your (Hunt's) state­ment that it is your de­sire to see more flags of this na­ture around the coun­try. "It is our hope you do not fol­low through with this plan since we see this as a slap in the face of the cit­i­zens of this coun­try."

The site al­so called for the dis­clo­sure of the cost and ten­der­ing for neon lights, which rim the ex­te­ri­or of the sta­di­um. A link to the pe­ti­tion site is be­ing sent to na­tion­als via face­book and oth­er on­line chat sites. Over­shad­owed by mount­ing crit­i­cisms over the pur­chase of the flag, Hunt stood his ground on the is­sue when he ad­dressed a me­dia con­fer­ence on No­vem­ber 4, say­ing it was a wor­thy in­vest­ment.