Hot Like Pepper - Hart goes on the defence over award of contracts - Top Story

Top Story : Hart goes on the defence over award of contracts

2008/3/14 18:26:27

The clamour for transparency in the award of public contracts is continuing, but the official in the eye of the storm is insisting there is no wrongdoing. There is now a spirited public debate on the government’s procurement practice with respect to multi-million-dollar public contracts.

The issue was stoked by an ad hoc group of contractors, engineers, architects, manufacturers and other stakeholders, who alleged that the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT) was not inviting tenders for the delivery of goods and services.

The aggrieved professionals took their case to Prime Minister Patrick Manning, and have been grousing publicly that there is no probity and accountability even though a flood of costly projects are being undertaken.

They pointed fingers to UDECOTT’s Chairman Calder Hart, who, they said, was not bound by any regulatory or oversight agency.

This allegation upset Hart, who hit out that that the critics were making it out "that we’re this clandestine organisation operating secretly."

The Canadian-born chairman stated: "We don’t operate secretly. We publish everything we do." Hart insists that there was accountability with respect to UDECOTT, adding that annual reports are published "on time."

He observed, too, that the agency appears before the Parliament’s Public Accounts Enterprises Committee. He stressed: "Very few of UDECOTT’s projects are done on sole selective tendering."

He said that virtually two-third of the company’s ventures invited tendering proposals and are open to scrutiny.

Responding to stinging claims that giant undertakings do not face the competitive bidding process, Hart cited certain projects that been subjected to tendering. They are the government campus, the Port of Spain International Waterfront Project, Chancery Lane building, Brian Lara Stadium and Cricket Academy, the Ministry of Education’s headquarters, and projects in Tobago.

Opposition Chief Whip Ramesh Maharaj has also hit out at UDECOTT’s practices. The opposition is likely to raise queries in Parliament about the company’s business practices.