Senior Political Reporter
Four of the six air conditioning units in the dormitories at Fire Service Headquarters were repaired on Thursday and the final two were to be fixed by yesterday.
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds gave this information in Parliament in answer to a question from Oropouche East MP Roodal Moonilal.
In his response, Hinds complained about a group of people in the country who are “confusionist, bacchanalists and scandalous.” He said the matter concerned the breakdown of units at the dormitories.
“The matter was first brought to the attention of the Chief Fire Officer by his assistant Chief Fire Officer North on Tuesday, April 23. The CFO immediately actioned the repairs to the AC system. All parts were acquired by Wednesday and work started,” he said.
“Last night (Thursday) four of the six units that malfunctioned were complete and the other two are on service as we speak and expected to be completed later today,”
In response to additional questions, Hind said he was given information by the CFO and he stood by that. He added that “those that are well-meaning and patriotic” and mean well for the Fire Service and T&T took the opportunity to clean and paint the dormitory.
“That work is expected to be completed by Sunday,” he said.
Moonilal commented that the public is aware the minister “could fall asleep anywhere but the fire officers cannot” and asked Hinds if having fire officers sleeping in a parking lot is OSHA-compliant.
Hinds replied: “As far as I’m concerned, I’ll remain focused on the development issues of Trinidad and Tobago and will not be derailed by the bacchanal, scandal and confusion that people outside of this Parliament know they can use the Parliamentarians here to execute.”
Naparima MP Rodney Charles asked about the 20 wooden ladders purchased in 2022 for the T&T Fire Service at a cost of $1 million. Hinds said, according to information received from the Chief Fire Officer, no internal investigation had been conducted by the TTFS into the purchase.
“Not in, 2022, or for that matter, any time before, or at all,” he said.
“The reason is because such an investigation was not previously deemed necessary by the TTFS. Following a Freedom of Information request filed by a citizen, the matter generated fairly widespread public discourse. It was only at this stage, that the Integrity Commission and the Auditor General’s Office, launched probes into the purchase of the wooden ladders for the TTFS. The TTFS is cooperating fully with these probes.”
Charles asked if it wasn’t shameless and a dereliction of duty for Hinds to be in charge when such “malfeasance” occurred and it took two years before action was taken.
Hinds said he couldn’t understand how Charles could arrive at a conclusion of malfeasance.
“When the issue came up in public after the FOI request, the Auditor General and Integrity Commission instituted inquiries and they’re ongoing.
“There were no issues with the ladders, they were functional, they’re used as they’ve been for decades in the TTFS. There’s no inherent dysfunctionality with the ladders and therefore there was no need, no deeming of any issue before an issue arose sometime later,” he said, adding that it was false and wrong to say the ladders had never been used by the TTFS.