RADHICA DE SILVA
Senior Multimedia Reporter
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
Port Authority chairman Lyle Alexander yesterday denied claims of a secret deal to privatise the Port of Port-of-Spain port and put 1,500 workers on the breadline.
The claims were made by Dr Roodal Moonilal who alleged there was a clandestine plot to give away State-owned assets in his address at a UNC campaign meeting in San Fernando on Wednesday night.
Moonilal produced a nine-page document from the Port Authority of T&T titled Evaluation Report on the Invitation to Tender for the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Project for the Port of Port-of-Spain. It stated that a company established in the Philippines had been selected as the preferred bidder out of six companies as it had “fulfilled all the requirements of the Legal and Commercial Tender as stated in the Request for Proposals (RFP) and PPP Agreement.”
He questioned the process and demanded to know whether the Procurement Regulator had been part of the process.
“Who are they, what are they? Who are they connected to that you will take millions of dollars in State assets and pass it to them on the eve of a general election,” Moonilal asked.
He also expressed concern for workers.
“What is the status of the workers? They have had no consultation with the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Union. They have outstanding negotiations taking place. They have an outstanding 12 per cent wage increase since 2015 which the PNM government never recognized. What happens to that?”
Alexander said the SWWTU had not been sidelined from the process. However, president general of the SWWTU Michael Anisette said the union “has not been officially informed and was not a part of any arrangements or discussions.”
He said: “I don’t share the view as the President of SWWTU and General Secretary of NATUC that the union, as a major stakeholder, must wait until the evaluation is finished and the selected partner arrives before we can be engaged,” Anisette said.
“I hold strong to the view that if we are serious about transparency if you respect the various stakeholders, and if workers and trade unions are major stakeholders in the port, then we have to be involved from the conception and the birth of the process.”
Asked to clarify whether the document Moonilal quoted from was authentic and whether port workers would face job loss, Alexander responded: “There is no truth to leaving anybody on the breadline. Yes, I am aware of the document.”
Asked whether there was a secret deal as claimed by Moonilal, Alexander said: “I don’t comment on statements that politicians make. I would tell you that the port has made a selection of a provider to be involved in the PPP project which we have been planning since 2020. That is as much as I could tell you right now.”
Asked how it will impact workers, he responded: “Let’s put it this way, no worker is going to lose their jobs because of that.”
Asked whether the Procurement Regulator was involved in the process of selecting a preferred bidder, Alexander responded: “Of course, the Procurement Regulator was involved. The process that we did was in accordance with the OPR.”
Asked whether the preferred bidder was a firm based in the Philippines, Alexander said: “The name of the company is as mentioned. I don’t know if they are from the Philippines because the people we dealt with at their headquarters are in Panama.”
Asked why the union was not included in the process, Alexander said: “I am not sure that this is in fact correct.”
Told that Annisette had said so, he responded: “The statement that you say Annisette made, I am not sure that is correct.”
Asked whether he had discussions with the union, he said: “Let us leave this and accept that it is a genuine letter and there is a lot more that can be said about it but not right now under present circumstances. Much more will eventually be said.”
He added: “I can tell you that whatever took place was well in compliance with the established procedure.”
Asked who the Port Authority had consultations with, Alexander said: “Let’s leave it at that.”
