The purchase of 209 water tanks by the Port-of-Spain City Corporation - some of which have already been distributed to citizens in the height of 2019 Local Government elections by its councillors is being viewed by the chairman of the Port-of-Spain People’s Movement and former mayor Louis Lee Sing as “an election racket” to muster votes for the People’s National Movement (PNM)-controlled corporation.
The issue of the tanks, valued at $133,868.79, was raised by Lee Sing yesterday, as he claimed that the move was a desperate bid by the PNM to win all 12 electoral districts in the December 2 election, which his newly formed party is also contesting.
But Port-of-Spain Mayor Joel Martinez insisted that the 188 (400 gallon) and 41 (200) gallon tanks were not an election ploy by the corporation to garner votes but to help the needy and underprivileged in communities spanning from Cocorite to east Port-of-Spain, to store water in the harsh dry season.
Martinez said the tanks were bought using monies from a Deposit Vote Fund raised by the corporation through the rental of parks and squares, banners and events and not from the consolidated fund.
The purchase order of the tanks was dated May 21, 2019, Martinez said.
It was sourced from Electrical Industries Group.
Martinez said his council took a vote to purchase the tanks last August which they have on “a minute paper.”
“We have a lot of people who are unable to collect water and keep it. Usually, it is done through drums at the side of the roads.”
Why give out the tanks in the height of an election campaign and not in the dry season when there were water shortages and restriction imposed by WASA?
Martinez said the corporation had been trying to acquire the funds to buy the tanks which they recently received.
“The opportunity did not exist.”
Pressed as to when the tanks will be distributed, Martinez said they have already been handed out to citizens.
However, when told by Guardian Media that several tanks were still stored at the corporation’s compound on Christopher Samuel Drive, St James, awaiting distribution, Martinez said he had no idea.
“It wasn’t in my purview of what I was doing. Things are normally handled by the councillors. I am informed of it while it is happening or sometimes thereafter.”
Each of the corporation’s 12 councillors received 13 tanks for distribution, Martinez said.
Distribution has taken place in St James and Woodbrook, Guardian Media was told.
Councillors were tasked with the responsibility of evaluating each recipient.
“It’s not many tanks so you have to give to the underprivileged...the very needy. How many people we are talking about? Let say 13 tanks from each councillor...that is a handful of votes.”
Martinez said he did not see the matter as a major issue “from an election point of view.”
Responding to Lee Sing’s claims that the tanks were part of a racket to bribe voters and take control of the corporation again, Martinez said Lee Sing was entitled to his views.
“If he thinks it’s a racket then that is his thoughts. I don’t see any relevance to his point. It’s not about looking for election votes.”
Martinez said he viewed the tanks as an initiative that came to fruition.
He said this was not the first time the corporation had given out tanks.
“Anything near an election people are going to think it’s an election ploy. If it’s now happening it does not mean it’s an election ploy. The term of a councillor is three years and the timeline is tight to get things done. Sometimes you start making plans in the first year and then you try to get the funding and make all the arrangements in the second year and the third year is when you execute.”
Pressed if the corporation had delivered tanks leading up to the 2015 general election and 2016 local government election, he said he had no idea what took place before his term.
Martinez was confident of the corporation’s success at next Monday’s polls, stating they have been performing.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Lee Sing said several tanks have already been handed out at Jeffers Lane, St James.
“It was a racket to get votes.”
He said the situation tells “how reckless and desperate this organisation (PNM) has become. There is nothing decent, honest and sincere about this party that I once supported. As mayor, I would have never condoned that.”
Lee Sing said he was disturbed by what has been passing for governance in the city of Port-of-Spain.
“I suspect they feel the only way they can win the electoral districts is if they give people a water tank for their votes and it might work.”