Derek Achong

The com­pa­ny be­hind the con­tro­ver­sial Mil­shirv ad­min­is­tra­tive com­plex in To­ba­go has re­sist­ed moves to stop the project by claim­ing it has al­ready en­tered in­to more than $100 mil­lion in con­tracts with var­i­ous sub-con­trac­tors.

Dur­ing a case-man­age­ment con­fer­ence in the Port-of-Spain High Court yes­ter­day, at­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing the com­pa­ny, Mil­shirv Prop­er­ties Ltd, made the dis­clo­sure and agreed to dis­close the rel­e­vant doc­u­ments and con­tracts to the of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al for its con­sid­er­a­tion.

On Jan­u­ary 15, Jus­tice James Aboud grant­ed the State leave by to pur­sue a ju­di­cial re­view claim ques­tion­ing the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly's (THA) au­thor­i­ty to en­ter in­to the deal with the com­pa­ny. The deal is re­port­ed­ly worth ap­prox­i­mate­ly $320 mil­lion. The THA re­port­ed­ly took the de­ci­sion on April 13, 2011. The ad­min­is­tra­tive build­ing is in­tend­ed to ac­com­mo­date the Di­vi­sion of Agri­cul­ture, Ma­rine Af­fairs, Mar­ket­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment of the THA.

The State is seek­ing de­c­la­ra­tions that the de­ci­sion to en­ter in­to the build-own-lease-trans­fer (Bolt) arrange­ment with Ra­hael Hold­ings Ltd for the con­struc­tion and fi­nanc­ing of an ad­min­is­tra­tive com­plex was il­le­gal. The law­suit al­so claims the deal was con­trary to the THA Act and the Cen­tral Ten­ders Board Act.

The State is al­so ask­ing for the de­ci­sion made by the Orville Lon­don-led THA to be quashed and the deed of lease be­tween the THA and Mil­shirv Prop­er­ties set aside as well as the deed of li­cence and deed of mort­gage be­tween Mil­shirv Prop­er­ties and First Cit­i­zens.

Ac­cord­ing to the facts in the case, on No­vem­ber 15, 2011, the THA pur­chased three acres of land at the cor­ner of Shir­van and Mil­ford Roads for $12 mil­lion from Dan­kett Ltd. Six days lat­er, the THA leased the same three-acre prop­er­ty for 199 years at an an­nu­al rent of $10 to Mil­shirv. The lease doc­u­ment said Mil­shirv would con­struct an of­fice build­ing and fa­cil­i­ties which it would then rent to the THA for 20 years at $1.3 mil­lion a month.

The com­pa­ny was rep­re­sent­ed by Dou­glas Mendes, SC, and Michael Quam­i­na, while the THA was rep­re­sent­ed by John Je­re­mie, SC, and Ker­win Gar­cia. The State's le­gal team in­clud­ed Alvin Fitz­patrick, SC, Les­ley Lucky-Sama­roo and Mar­tin George.