Ani­ka Gumbs-San­di­ford

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has pulled the brakes on two con­tracts worth an es­ti­mat­ed $83 mil­lion that was ap­proved by the Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty (AA) with­out a state board in place. The di­rec­tive, Sun­day Guardian un­der­stands, was hand­ed down in an emer­gency meet­ing held at the Prime Min­is­ter's San Fer­nan­do home yes­ter­day. Ab­sent from the meet­ing, which was at­tend­ed by a few Cab­i­net mem­bers, was Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er. The Prime Min­is­ter, sources told Sun­day Guardian, has al­so re­quest­ed a com­plete re­view of the project and the terms and con­di­tions un­der which the con­tracts were award­ed to Har­ry Per­sad and Sons Ltd of St He­le­na and San Rafael, Unit­ed En­gi­neer­ing Ser­vice Ltd, with of­fices in Point Lisas and Tacarigua.

A par­ty source re­vealed: "With im­me­di­ate ef­fect the Prime Min­is­ter has placed a halt on the project. She has or­dered a com­plete re­view of the con­tract be­cause at the time it was award­ed no board was in place to ap­prove the project. The Prime Min­is­ter wants to en­sure that the con­tract could stand up to scruti­ny so she has re­quest­ed a com­plete re­view. Un­til this is done the project has been halt­ed." Ap­proval for the $47,785,768.92 con­tract for the up­grade of the Air­field Light­ing and Con­trol and Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port was award­ed to Har­ry Per­sad and Sons Ltd on Sep­tem­ber 20. Unit­ed En­gi­neer­ing re­ceived the $35,402,400.62 con­tract for the up­grade of the Air­field Light­ing Con­trol and Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem at the Crown Point In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on the same.

PM re­sponds

In a re­lease last night, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed: "This mat­ter was pre­vi­ous­ly brought to the at­ten­tion of the Prime Min­is­ter, who had then in­struct­ed that should such a con­tract be award­ed in the ab­sence of ac­count­abil­i­ty and trans­paren­cy, the same should be void­ed. "In light of the al­le­ga­tions now in the pub­lic do­main, for the avoid­ance of doubt and in the in­ter­ests of trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty, the Prime Min­is­ter has con­clud­ed that the award of this con­tract must be re­viewed with a view to rescis­sion of same."