The Sunday Guardian of September 28, reported some surprising remarks of Finance Minister Larry Howai on the role of NGC as the procuring agency for the controversial Beetham Water Recycling Plant (BWRP):
�2 BWRP is to be funded solely by NGC. Those funds are all public money which must be properly accounted for at a higher standard than that required for private money. The 2014 budget contained no mention of this huge $1 billion-plus project. None whatsoever, so the natural question is, why?
�2 Public accountability would be ensured since NGC was a government-owned company covered by the Parliament's committees. NGC is state-owned, which is a critical difference since the Government is effectively in charge of the operation of our Parliament and its oversight mechanisms. Just as an example, it was not until 2011 that the relevant Parliamentary Committee was able to examine Caribbean Airlines Ltd's (CAL) 2008 audited accounts. The report of that committee's work was not published until 2013 and of course CAL has not published any subsequent audits, so that is the kind of delay we have in obtaining elementary, backward-looking oversight.
�2 Any action can be subject to judicial review. That is simply not so since as things stand, after the Appeal Court decision in NHIC v Udecott (#95 of 2005), NGC, as the state-owned enterprise implementing this project, is shielded from judicial review in its commercial contracting operations, unless evidence of fraud or illegality can be produced.
The fundamental questions remain unanswered as to why this project is proceeding; why is NGC building it; and not WASA; and of course, what are the commercial arrangements underlying this further privatisation of our country's water supplies?
The procedure for reporting of upcoming projects was sidelined, while the norm for examining past expenditure is chronically delayed. The stage has now therefore been set for this huge "off-balance-sheet" project to proceed without even the usual oversight.
The Minister of Finance needs to account now for this project.
Afra Raymond
President, JCC