Stories DAREECE POLO
Senior Reporter
dareece.polo@guardian.co.tt
After asking for time to respond to an announcement by Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali that his country formed a company with Barbados and T&T on January 4 to establish a regional ferry system, Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan shirked responsibility, pointing to the Office of the Attorney General.
Sinanan was speaking during a media tour of the construction of additional lanes northbound and southbound along the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway between Chaguanas and Chase Village, on Sunday.
On Friday, Ali said the company had already been formed the day prior. When contacted on Saturday, Sinanan told Guardian Media he was gathering information on the subject and would respond at the tour.
However, broached on the matter again, he had little to update. Sinanan would only say that a ferry system to service the Caribbean is “nothing new” and is intended to ensure the region feeds itself.
“After the Caricom summit, a team was put in place to look at the whole system. They engaged the CDB (Caribbean Development Bank) bank out of Guyana and a report was submitted to the leaders. It is something that is being discussed at the leadership and with the experts to see how it will work because the idea of that is to ensure that we have food security around the Caricom islands,” he said.
The minister said between July 3 to 5 at the 45th Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the regional bloc, the topic of a ferry system was raised.
He said Grenada was also included in that discussion apart from Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
The minister said further details were discussed at the Agri Investment Forum and Expo which ran from October 20 to 22 in Guyana.
“When you have something like this happening at this level, the attorney generals from all the territories, they would be the one dealing with it, to make sure the framework is in place. As I said, this is nothing new, it was discussed at length by the leaders. So, once the framework is in place, then you go out to the actual operations of it. A study was done, my information is that the study was favourable, that something like that is needed and like everything else you have to start somewhere and then you build out into the perfect scenario,” he said.
However, after promising to gather information, Sinanan opted against divulging even the name of the company when asked, as he reiterated that it was not under his purview.
“As minister of works in Trinidad, I don’t want to divulge too much information on it. Very soon, the leaders of Caricom will make an announcement on the ferry service, how it will operate and how it will be financed,” he said.
Prodded on if a company was formed, he said the attorney general would be better informed.
“Again, at this stage, it is being led by the Attorneys General of the different regions. So, you know, sometimes we want to jump out and say this or say that. As minister of works and transport in Trinidad, I have to be very careful as to the information that I put out because this is something not being handled by Trinidad and Tobago, this is handled by the leaders of Caricom,” he said.
Sinanan also dismissed questions on what appeared to be a premature announcement since by his account, the formation of the company was still in an embryonic stage.
“There is nothing negative, there is nothing premature and I can tell you a lot of work would have gone into it and at that level the information will flow down to the public.”
The minister noted that every Caricom island has a strength, adding that a regional ferry would allow for greater trade of the best each nation has to offer.
Calls and WhatsApp messages sent to Attorney General Reginald Armour went unanswered yesterday.
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