Gail Alexan­der

The Works Min­istry un­der the past PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion com­mis­sioned a $21 mil­lion trans­port study which was nev­er done, Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er claimed yes­ter­day.

"So we pay $21 mil­lion for a non-study!" Warn­er added in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives dur­ing de­bate on pro­cure­ment leg­is­la­tion.

Not­ing al­le­ga­tions against the for­mer PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion in­clud­ing on Ude­cott, Warn­er said the time had come to "cure" pro­cure­ment.

The front-line gov­ern­ment min­is­ter al­so sent a strong warn­ing to his Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship side:"Any­one caught steal­ing from the pub­lic purse on this side will feel the full brunt of the law! And those on the PNM side whether white or black, you'll pay for it–we shall not look the oth­er way!" Warn­er de­clared.

Pro­mot­ing the need for pro­cure­ment leg­is­la­tion, Warn­er launched an at­tack on three for­mer top-lev­el PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion mem­bers whom he ac­cused of "con­sum­mate in­con­sis­ten­cy–for­mer works min­is­ter Colm Im­bert, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kei­th Row­ley and for­mer prime min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning.

Not­ing sit­u­a­tions in his min­istry–be­fore his tenure–as ex­am­ples for the need for pro­cure­ment pol­i­cy, Warn­er said the min­istry had com­mis­sioned a trans­port study from the firm of Par­sons and Brinken­hoff–yet this was not done.

Warn­er ques­tioned how the con­tract was award­ed, on what terms and whether any oth­er com­pa­ny bid for the project.He al­so re­marked: "A man al­so call a boat af­ter his wife, the MV Su, short­ened for Suzette...If you buy­ing your wife a gift, buy it, but not through gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy."

Warn­er said there was no pro­cure­ment pol­i­cy in place when the $25 mil­lion MV Su ves­sel was bought. "It nev­er hit the wa­ter...it's parked in Ch­aguara­mas," he added.Warn­er said Im­bert seemed to "have a se­ri­ous prob­lem with pro­cure­ment" and tend­ed to prac­tise the "pol­i­tics of dis­trac­tion."

He not­ed Im­bert had mat­ter in the court to set­tle.Im­bert's court case was al­so the sub­ject of com­ment by Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Tim Gopeesingh who wound up de­bate on the leg­is­la­tion."I heard he (Im­bert) was whis­per­ing like a cock­roach in his own pro­cure­ment mat­ter in the court," Gopeesingh said.

Warn­er said Row­ley was try­ing des­per­ate­ly to ma­noeu­vre all over as PNM leader now when he was the "rag­ing bull of Diego Mar­tin" months ago, smart­ing from be­ing sacked and be­ing called "the worst pos­si­ble names" by Man­ning.

Warn­er said Row­ley tried to be a mar­tyr by pos­ing as a "cor­rup­tion buster" in the PNM. Her said the PNM was cur­rent­ly where it is be­cause of cor­rup­tion."You will nev­er see this side (gov­ern­ment) again! Take my word for it," Warn­er told the PNM side. (See Page A24)