Princes Town Member of Parliament Barry Padarath is threatening legal action against State-owned UDeCOTT, for breach of the Freedom of Information Act with regard to information relating to the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba.
Padarath said one of his constituency executive members filed a Freedom of Information application seeking to find out who were the contractors awarded work on the Brian Lara Stadium during the period September 8, 2015 to August 2016; the values of the contracts and the process by which they were awarded. He said UDeCOTT acknowledged the application on August 29.
But after several months Paradath said "there has been no response from UDeCOTT, the company responsible for the works being done to the controversial stadium," and as a result, he said, plans are "afoot to file the necessary court action against UDeCOTT."
He said the board and chairman of UDeCOTT stand accused of violating section 15 of the Freedom of Information Act, which says "a public authority shall take reasonable steps to enable an applicant to be notified of the approval or refusal of his request as soon as practicable but in any case no later than 30 days after the day on which the request was duly made".
UDeCOTT chairman Noel Garcia told the T&T Guardian the project was broken up into 19 packages and went out to tender for each package. He said based on the tenders received "contractors were selected."
He said 15 contractors are working on the project with different contractors having been selected for air conditioning, landscaping, installation of chairs, general building works, electrical, plumbing and the fire system.
Completion of construction work on the stadium is earmarked for tomorrow with installation of 10 thousand chairs to be completed by February 15.
Garcia said the stadium will be "up and ready by February 15, and we hope to host a 2020 match."
He said the civil contractor on the project is LCB Contractors. LCB is a company based in South Trinidad, but efforts to contact company official Jameel Baksh proved futile. The building contractor on the project is Diamond Contracting Company.
Garcia had previously told the T&T Guardian that a range of work had been completed on the stadium so far, including civil works, decorative fencing, structural works, security fencing, hand rails, guard booths, roofing repairs, upgrade of the playing field, installation of new pitches and landscaping with the exception of the entrance to the stadium.
Among the work completed but which still require commissioning after reconnection of permanent power to the stadium by T&TEC: include refurbishment of the fire, potable, irrigation and sewer pumps, three standby generators, the installation of all speakers for audio media, all air-conditioning units and access control and CCTV cameras.
Consultant NLBA Architects Ltd is responsible for overseeing the project.
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The Patrick Manning administration commissioned the stadium in 2005 in preparation for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, which was named after legendary local batsman Brian Lara.
It was to be built at a cost of $275 million. But the cost ballooned to over $800 million. It was not ready for the world tournament.
Although the People's Partnership government under Kamla Persad-Bissessar agreed in 2013 to continue work, nothing happened.
Then housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal, who was in charge of UDeCOTT, said it would have taken an additional $185 million to complete the stadium.
Shortly after taking office the government of Dr Keith Rowley announced that work on the stadium would resume and $90 million was allocated for the project.
Garcia said because the building was left unattended for six years there was significant damage to fixtures and furniture. The place was vandalised and electrical cables were stolen.
Replacing those cables cost between six to nine million dollars of the $90 million allocated by the Government for the project.
So far, $73 million has been spent and Garcia said the project was within budget and on time.