Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Cab­i­net twice re­fused to sign off on the whop­ping $10 mil­lion quo­ta­tion orig­i­nal­ly sub­mit­ted for re­mov­ing the firetruck in­volved in an ac­ci­dent last No­vem­ber.That orig­i­nal re­luc­tance ap­pears to have been jus­ti­fied, as oth­er wreck­ing com­pa­nies yes­ter­day es­ti­mat­ed the cost for such a job at $50,000 at most.T&T Guardian learned the rec­om­men­da­tion was sub­mit­ted to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty on No­vem­ber 22 by for­mer chief fire of­fi­cer Carl Williams on the ba­sis of a tech­ni­cal as­sess­ment.

The wa­ter ten­der from the Ari­ma Fire Sta­tion was re­spond­ing to a re­port in Blan­chisseuse when it ran off the road, plung­ing over a 300-foot cliff, a T&T Guardian ex­clu­sive re­port­ed yes­ter­day.On the ba­sis of Williams's rec­om­men­da­tion, the line min­is­ter at the time, Jack Warn­er, took a note to Cab­i­net for ap­proval.How­ev­er, some min­is­ters ob­ject­ed to the cost and ap­proval was with­held at two Cab­i­net meet­ings.

Min­istry of­fi­cials yes­ter­day told T&T Guardian that Cab­i­net even­tu­al­ly ap­proved a re­vised price of $6.8 mil­lion for re­triev­ing the truck.The ap­proval, how­ev­er, was grant­ed in De­cem­ber–some weeks af­ter the job had al­ready been done.Doc­u­ments ob­tained by the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day showed the Rosen­bauer wa­ter ten­der was bought in 2006 for $2,236,275.35.Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Williams said: "I am on pre-re­tire­ment leave. Please call me back at 4 pm."

How­ev­er, lat­er phone calls went di­rect­ly to his voice mail.A se­nior gov­ern­ment min­is­ter said yes­ter­day: "The for­mer min­is­ter sub­mit­ted a note for cov­er ap­proval."In the first two in­stances, ap­proval was not grant­ed be­cause con­cerns were raised about the price. But be­cause the work was com­plet­ed, ap­proval was even­tu­al­ly grant­ed. Con­cerns were raised."

Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry Jen­nifer Bou­caud-Blake, who is in the Unit­ed King­dom at present, has dis­tanced her­self from any in­volve­ment, say­ing she is not au­tho­rised to ap­prove spend­ing over $1 mil­lion.Act­ing Chief Fire Of­fi­cer Na­yar Ram­per­sad, con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, said a re­port was ex­pect­ed to be sub­mit­ted to cur­rent line min­is­ter Em­manuel George next week, to de­ter­mine if it was cost-ef­fec­tive to re­pair the wa­ter ten­der.

The truck is cur­rent­ly parked at the Ch­agua­nas Fire Sta­tion as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue.

Oth­er es­ti­mates: $25-$50,000

Own­ers of oth­er wreck­ing com­pa­nies were yes­ter­day shocked at the bill for re­triev­ing the firetruck.The head of the com­pa­ny that re­trieved the truck, Ram­dath Ram­subir, of Sam­my's Mul­ti­lift Ser­vices Ltd, is in­sist­ing that the cost is "jus­ti­fied."Sam­my's Mul­ti­lift Ser­vices is a sub­sidiary of Ju­nior Sam­my Con­trac­tors.

The T&T Guardian was re­ferred to two com­pa­nies that spe­cialise in re­mov­ing heavy equip­ment: Chiney Wreck­ing Ser­vices, owned by Lar­ry Mo­han, and Fyzam Garage 24hr Wreck­ing Ser­vice. Both are south-based and have been in busi­ness for over 20 years.Yes­ter­day, the own­ers said they were at a loss as to what would have con­tributed to such a hefty price.

Mo­han scoffed at the $6 mil­lion price tag, say­ing: "It could have cost nowhere near that."We have been in the wreck­ing busi­ness over 25 years, and did sev­er­al jobs like that in Mara­cas," he said."That job will cost no more than $50,000, and that is the max­i­mum."We have equip­ment to move heavy ve­hi­cles like that and I am sure we could have pulled it out."In no part of the world could it ever hap­pen...The ve­hi­cle is not even val­ued at that price.

"For a crane to pick it up means that it was not in such a bad area. If it was in a dan­ger­ous place, a crane could not even reach there. Two wreck­ers could have pulled out the wa­ter ten­der."Fyzam Ali said based on his cal­cu­la­tions, he would have charged a mere $25,000 for the job.Ali, the own­er of Fyzam Garage, said af­ter he read the re­port in yes­ter­day's T&T Guardian, he tried to cal­cu­late an es­ti­mat­ed cost and was un­able to ar­rive at the fig­ure of $6.5 mil­lion.

"The most I will say is $25,000," Ali said.Told that the wa­ter ten­der had plunged down 300 feet over a precipice and three cranes were used to re­trieve it, Ali replied: "It was to make the work look big."They could have bought a new wa­ter ten­der and leave that one there," he said."I am shocked. That is too much mon­ey. I have been in the busi­ness for 30 years and no job has ever cost $6 mil­lion–not even close."I think some­body is mad."

Break­down of the $10 mil­lion bill:

In the rec­om­men­da­tion he sub­mit­ted to Warn­er, Williams gave a break­down of the pro­posed $10 mil­lion bill.It list­ed:

Mo­bil­i­sa­tion and de­mo­bil­i­sa­tion fee

Ex­ca­va­tors

Heavy-haul ex­tend­ed trail­er-track truck

Light­ing tow­ers

Rig­ging equip­ment

Crane mats

Safe­ty of­fi­cers

Project man­agers

Rig­gers

Hy­gien­ic fa­cil­i­ties