The Minister of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence, Dominic Smith, is warning the Opposition that an independent audit has been ordered into what he described as a questionable project under the former administration that was set to cost taxpayers over USD 60 million.
Speaking late on Friday evening as the Senate debated the Finance Bill 2025, Smith said he uncovered a list of expenditure items that caused him great concern.
“One particular project, Mr President, was parcelled nice and neat as an upgrade under the Ministry of Public Administration. I am told, Mr President, that this project has been running for over 24 years,” he told the Upper House.
Smith continued, “I am told that over the last administration, there was an upgrade. And that upgrade, Mr President, would you believe, would cost the taxpayers over 60 million US dollars, Mr President? Mr President, I want you to juxtapose that against the environment where forex is apparently scarce.”
The revelation of the financial figure drew noises of shock from his government colleagues.
Smith said he was flabbergasted that the former administration would engage in a project of this size and quantum.
“And when we dug further, Mr President, would you believe that this 60-plus-million US dollars was meant to be spent over a four-year period to end in 2026?” he added.
The Minister said in addition to the hefty foreign exchange bill, the state faced a further invoice.
“The Ministry of Public Administration had begun and initiated with a vendor, would you believe that in addition to that, the people of Trinidad and Tobago were also meant to pay 50 million TT dollars to operationalise?”
Smith said any government that engages in such business does not truly care about the welfare of its citizens.
He warned that this would be thoroughly investigated.
“All I can say is that an audit is coming, and that audit, independent of me and this government, will reveal all. All will be revealed, Mr President, not by us, but by an independent audit. And then, maybe colleagues on the other side will be satisfied, because they weren’t satisfied enough pillaging the Treasury,” Smith declared.
A member of the Senate on the opposite bench asked for further clarity on the project in question, but Minister Smith told them to direct those queries to former Public Administration Minister Allyson West.
Guardian Media attempted to contact West but was unsuccessful. Likewise, attempts to reach Minister Smith for further details were unsuccessful.
Towards the end of his contribution, Smith was challenged by Independent Senator Dr Desirée Murray for “imputing improper motives”. Prior to this, Smith was challenged twice by the same senator for relevance during his contribution.
In this instance, Senate President Wade Mark did not agree with Murray’s objection.
“You see, imputing improper motives must be related to a member, a sitting member of the Senate. If you are not a sitting member of the Senate, you can speak to that issue, but you take responsibility for what you have said. So, when you talk about imputing improper motive, it must be either concerning a member of this chamber or a member of the other chamber. Other than that, you have absolute freedom of speech in this House,” Mark ruled.
Smith, however, said, “Mr President, I must say, in the time that I’ve spent in this good Senate, I’ve never once had an independent bencher interrupt so many times.”
Mark swiftly stepped in to Murray’s defence.
“Listen, let us not go there. Any member, whether you are an opposition member or an independent member, has a right to invoke standing orders. So, let us not get involved in that kind of behaviour. Please, everyone is entitled, including your good self, to raise a point of order. You do not identify a point of order by whether you are an opposition member, an independent member, or a government member. So, don’t go there.”