Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal yes­ter­day chas­tised the Gov­ern­ment for dis­man­tling an en­tire com­pa­ny, sup­pos­ed­ly for whis­tle-blow­ing, a day be­fore it brought leg­is­la­tion to Par­lia­ment seek­ing to cre­ate whis­tle-blow­ing pro­tec­tion.

Speak­ing im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the Whistle­blow­er Pro­tec­tion Bill 2022 was pi­lot­ed by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Mooni­lal said the board of the Sec­ondary Road Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and Im­prove­ment Com­pa­ny (SR­RIC) were fired on Wednes­day (June 13).

He said the dis­missal came a day af­ter the com­pa­ny’s CEO An­to­nio Ross told a Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) meet­ing that it was starved of re­sources and was treat­ed like an “out­side child” of the Works and Trans­port Min­istry.

In April, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that Her­bert George had re­signed from the SR­RIC amid an au­dit by the Min­istry of Fi­nance in­to the com­pa­ny’s process­es. This came af­ter it was formed in 2022 and giv­en $200 mil­lion, of which $50 mil­lion was spent up to that time. A com­plaint for in­ves­ti­ga­tion was al­so filed at the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) in­to al­le­ga­tions of col­lu­sion, price-fix­ing and bid-rig­ging.

How­ev­er, Mooni­lal ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of hypocrisy, say­ing they were pun­ish­ing those he deemed as whistle­blow­ers but were seek­ing to bring leg­is­la­tion to sup­port and pro­tect whistle­blow­ers.

“Where the $200 mil­lion gone? Why did you fire a board in the mid­dle of a JSC in­ter­ro­ga­tion and ex­am­i­na­tion? This is un­prece­dent­ed! In my many years in Par­lia­ment, I have nev­er come across this where per­sons are giv­ing ev­i­dence and mid­way they are fired, mid­way, mid-stream and be­fore they re­turn?”

Mooni­lal al­so raised the is­sue that the board was re­moved when they were sup­posed to re­turn to the PAAC in two weeks to com­plete their in­ter­ro­ga­tion. Mooni­lal said rather than bring­ing leg­is­la­tion, the Gov­ern­ment should strength­en state in­sti­tu­tions. He rhetor­i­cal­ly asked if any of the fired board mem­bers will now have faith in the whistle­blow­ing leg­is­la­tion af­ter be­ing dis­missed.

In his con­tri­bu­tion, how­ev­er, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi said there was noth­ing wrong with dis­band­ing the com­pa­ny and it was just “bluff and bram­ble” by Mooni­lal.

“This min­is­ter of Oropouche East stood up here to buss mark, the Sec­ondary Roads Com­pa­ny is in­volved in some bac­cha­nal be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee, al­le­ga­tions that the board was fired, Madame Speak­er, a de­ci­sion of the Cab­i­net was tak­en to wind up the com­pa­ny af­ter a de­ci­sion to put it in the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port over a year ago was tak­en.”

He said when the com­pa­ny was placed un­der the MoWT, it was not­ed that a re­view would be un­der­tak­en and a de­ci­sion made on whether it was bet­ter to have one com­pa­ny.

“Since when is wind­ing up of a com­pa­ny equal to some­thing to hide?”