?To­bag­o­ni­ans need an an­swer on the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal Project which was ini­tial­ly be­ing done by NHIC and whose costs moved from $135 mil­lion to $400 mil­lion in two years, To­ba­go West MP Stan­ford Cal­len­der has said.

Speak­ing in yes­ter­day's Val­i­da­tion Bill de­bate, Cal­len­der said To­bag­o­ni­ans have suf­fered great­ly at the hands of some con­trac­tors. Cal­len­der warned MPs against "those on the oth­er side who were try­ing to cre­ate dis­cord in the PNM" and whom, "all of a sud­den" had found that "some­one on the PNM side was their friend."

He said he sup­port­ed the bill since To­bag­o­ni­ans had been sub­ject­ed to con­trac­tors who had not been per­form­ing ac­cord­ing to their con­tract. "How­ev­er," he said, "we seem to be fo­cussing on Ude­cott and mak­ing judge­ments when the (Uff) com­mis­sion is to in­ves­ti­gate the facts and present a re­port." Cal­len­der said the Uff Com­mis­sion vis­it­ed To­ba­go and ex­am­ined var­i­ous projects, in­clud­ing the hos­pi­tal.

He added that for years To­bag­o­ni­ans had suf­fered for want of a hos­pi­tal. He said he had vis­it­ed the site years ago with then Min­is­ter Kei­th Row­ley and Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert when the award for the project was giv­en to NHIC at a cost of $135 mil­lion and with a two-year com­ple­tion date. He said: "We are now in 2009 and the whole world knows that with­in a year of con­struc­tion of the project a num­ber of is­sues arose."I hope the com­mis­sion of in­quiry can point us in the right di­rec­tion. I don't know if it was the ar­chi­tect, con­trac­tor, sub-con­trac­tor or what. There­fore we need an­swers and I look for­ward to the com­mis­sion's re­port."