Government has started the process of paying the $2.4 billion debt owed to contractors says Works Minister Fitzgerald Hinds.
Hinds, who spoke to the media while touring a work site on the Beetham Highway yesterday, repeated Government's position that all bills would be paid, once verified.
"Not all the bills are verified, we pay when we verify. I can tell you from my own ministry we have already paid some of those contractors, so that figure of $2.4 billion may not be altogether correct at this time," Hinds said.
"Some of them have been paid by my own ministry and as we speak, we continue to verify work and to pay."
Asked about the contractors' demands to have bills paid by the end of August, Hinds failed to address the issue specifically but said the contractor for the Beetham project (JUSAMCO) had no such issue.
"We make no secret of the fact that your government is facing a serious cash flow issue. It is the reason why the Minister of Finance found it necessary to go into our national savings, the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund.
"It is the reason why as we speak, he is on a roadshow raising borrowed money through the issue of bonds so that we can gain more cash in order to provide for the benefit of the people of T&T," Hinds said.
He insisted that the work, in terms of development was continuing.
"As you can see, the contractors are here this morning so there is no problem as far as they are concerned in relation to this job."
Yesterday he visited the site of a collapsed culvert on the Beetham Highway.
"We discovered from a survey that was done that all five culverts had become dysfunctional. This one actually collapsed and therefore was the most critical of all so we have engaged a very experienced contractor in this country, well known to all, to conduct this very massive project."
The culverts, which ensure the flow of water from the roadway, were initially built in 1895, with the most recent repairs taking place in 1953.
"They had done some work here and they used a sort of galvanised sheeting for the development of this culvert. That would have worn and rusted over time and actually collapsed, so it stops water from moving."
Hinds said a lot of the stagnated water, potential for Zika, all the other diseases and the living circumstances of the people in his own constituency next door were exacerbated as a result of the collapse.
There are five culverts on the stretch of highway.
"This is just the first. We are working on this side of the highway (westbound) we would have diverted the traffic to the eastbound lane. We did the excavation and they are now about to put fresh concrete cylinders which are expected to last for 50 to 100 years."
The first culvert will be completed over the course of three weekends, and resulted in temporary, slow-moving traffic in both lanes.
"We don't want to disrupt the traffic flow during the course of the week, so today we have diverted some to PBR (Priority Bus Route) and made a two lane on the eastbound. Next weekend we will reverse the process."