No special favours were granted to anyone in the Invader's Bay project, says Planning Minister Bhoe Tewarie. That pronouncement was among some "fighting" words which Tewarie had for Opposition PNM Senators in the Senate yesterday when they pressed him with queries on the project. He was replying to a question on the agenda about the project from Independent Senator James Armstrong. His reply included that publication of the request for proposals did not have to conform with the Central Tenders Board Act according to advice from the Planning Ministry's legal sector and Attorney General's division. Tewarie listed members of the evaluation team, established by his ministry, regarding the proposals.
He was then peppered with questions from PNM Senators Terrence Deyalsingh, Fitzgerald Hinds and and Faris Al Rawi on the issue. Al Rawi said Tewarie had promised to explain the situation with the request for proposals and the Central Tenders Board Act. "Who did I promise what to?" Tewarie asked when repeatedly questioned about that by Al Rawi.
On Deyalsingh's query whether he had met with businessman Derek Chin on the project before it was advertised, Tewarie rejected the insinuation that any special favours were granted to anyone. Tewarie said: "I want to put to rest immediately that I met Mr Chin at a conference where I was invited as a speaker and he also was a speaker. We sat at the same table and we had talks as other people do." Deyalsingh asked if a member of one of the teams on the project, the CEO of the Environmental Management Agency, didn't have misgivings about the project following flooding in the area. Tewarie said he did not understand how he could answer a question of that kind since it was unreasonable to ask team members' their views until they produced a report from the on-going process. After PNM Senator Hinds quipped that Tewarie was "hiding", he, in a very stern tone, told Hinds there was nothing to be "found out." "I dance to the music everything I do is in the open. There is nothing to be afraid about. I do not hide (but) you will see who will hide," Tewarie warned the PNM senators.