PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.chris­tisto­pher@guardian.co.tt

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Faris Al Rawi has said the past ad­min­is­tra­tion al­most cost this coun­try US$32 mil­lion for the pur­chase two he­li­copters that were nev­er ac­tu­al­ly used in T&T.

While wrap­ping up the de­bate on amend­ments to the Bail Bill in the Sen­ate on Tues­day, the AG re­spond­ed to UNC Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Sad­dam Ho­sein’s con­tri­bu­tion at a pre­vi­ous sit­ting which de­tailed sev­er­al cas­es the state lost dur­ing this gov­ern­ment’s tenure

Al Rawi sought to fact check the claims con­cern­ing the cas­es list­ed. They in­clud­ed the bil­lion-dol­lar ar­bi­tra­tion for off­shore pa­trol ves­sels which were can­celed un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion. He said the on­ly rea­son the coun­try can claim that $1 bil­lion re­cov­ery was due to Brazil tak­ing the ves­sels in­stead.

He then raised an­oth­er mat­ter which in­volved the pur­chase of the he­li­copters.

“I can tell you in two mat­ters that I have per­son­al­ly ne­go­ti­at­ed and are now set­tled and they are in ref­er­ence to the UNC’s ac­qui­si­tion of two he­li­copters. We were fac­ing claims of US$32 m. You know why? In one case the UNC bought a he­li­copter and paid for it for an en­tire five years and the he­li­copter was nev­er sent to T&T, so we paid five years for a he­li­copter that stayed in the man­u­fac­tur­er’s hangar,” the AG said.

“In the sec­ond case we ac­tu­al­ly had a he­li­copter sent to us and we couldn’t get the air­wor­thi­ness cer­tifi­cate done.”

Al Rawi added:”I am very pleased to tell you Madame Pres­i­dent that I ne­go­ti­at­ed those claims down to $6.5 mil­lion, down from the US$32 mil­lion that the UNC left us in, so I re­spect­ful­ly say to Sen­a­tor Hus­sain, do some home­work and get your facts right be­fore you throw stone at oth­er peo­ple’s house.”