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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

PP changes to OAS contract are not what PM claims, says Moonilal

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1139 days ago
20220525
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal shows the arbitration ruling from a London court which upheld Constructora OAS’s arbitration claim against Nidco and ordered the T&T Government to pay US$126.3 million in compensation.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal shows the arbitration ruling from a London court which upheld Constructora OAS’s arbitration claim against Nidco and ordered the T&T Government to pay US$126.3 million in compensation.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@gua­di­an.co.tt

 

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has ad­mit­ted two changes were made to the con­tract be­tween the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (Nid­co) and OAS Con­struc­to­ra just be­fore the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment Gov­ern­ment took of­fice in 2015.

How­ev­er, he says these changes had noth­ing to do with OAS’ bank­rupt­cy or the re­lin­quish­ing of al­most $1 bil­lion in per­for­mance bonds, which the T&T Gov­ern­ment now has to pay back to the Brazil­lian con­struc­tion firm.

Hold­ing up the ar­bi­trary rul­ing from a Lon­don Ar­bi­tra­tion Court, dat­ed April 16, Mooni­lal yes­ter­day blamed the Gov­ern­ment for break­ing the con­tract with OAS Con­struc­to­ra.

He con­tend­ed that when the PNM took of­fice, it stopped all pay­ments to OAS, un­der­min­ing its abil­i­ty to com­plete the high­way.

“This rul­ing is about wrong­ful ter­mi­na­tion of the con­tract. This has noth­ing to do with bank­rupt­cy. Dr Row­ley is rais­ing an is­sue of an ad­den­dum to the con­tract. We can con­firm it was not just one change. In fact, the (Peo­ple’s) Part­ner­ship made two changes to that con­tract and those were done pur­suant to monies owed to the con­trac­tor. This rul­ing has noth­ing to do with bank­rupt­cy or Clause 15,” he said.

Mooni­lal al­so said OAS had nev­er de­clared bank­rupt­cy.

“They had what is called, in Brazil­ian law, was called ju­di­cial man­age­ment but they con­tin­ued to work in Trinidad. Sub­con­trac­tors were work­ing for them. Gov­ern­ment re­fused to meet and treat and this 305-page rul­ing says you have to pay US$126 mil­lion, which is sep­a­rate from le­gal fees,” he said.

Ex­plain­ing the changes to the con­tract, Mooni­lal said: “There were changes made by Nid­co re­lat­ing to pay­ments. OAS had le­git­i­mate claims for pay­ment and be­cause they had le­git­i­mate claims, the gov­ern­ment kept the project at the same cost, so we changed the scope of the project. Those ad­den­dums had to do with that. It was to pay OAS mon­ey that we could not get from the Trea­sury, so we changed the scope of work.”

He de­nied that the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship gov­ern­ment had robbed cit­i­zens of al­most $1 bil­lion.

“This rul­ing is a damn­ing con­dem­na­tion of the mis­man­age­ment of Stu­art (Young) and oth­ers from man­ag­ing the high­way. This speaks to a cam­paign of hate and mal­ice and in­com­pe­tence and cor­rup­tion,” Mooni­lal said.

Ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of op­press­ing con­trac­tors, Mooni­lal al­so gave a break­down of the debt that the Gov­ern­ment was now ow­ing to OAS.

“The Gov­ern­ment has to pay an out­stand­ing US$126 mil­lion. The ma­jor­i­ty of this is the per­for­mance and re­ten­tion se­cu­ri­ties, which is $US93 mil­lion. This is the mon­ey that the Gov­ern­ment stole. They grabbed this and stole it from OAS and said it was tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey when, in fact, it was the per­for­mance bonds that they took. OAS took them to the Lon­don Court of Ar­bi­tra­tion and now they have to pay oth­er things. Con­trac­tor equip­ment ly­ing idle here, you have to pay US$5 mil­lion for that. Ma­te­ri­als and stock, US$5.2 mil­lion for that. Un­paid in­ter­im pay­ment cer­tifi­cates, US$22 mil­lion. IPCs are pay­ment cer­tifi­cates ap­proved by AE­COM,” he ex­plained. 

On Tues­day night, Dr Row­ley said it was the for­mer gov­ern­ment that added an ad­den­dum to the OAS con­tract which opened up Nid­co to li­a­bil­i­ty in the mat­ter and he called on the po­lice to in­ves­ti­gate who made the changes. 

He said the Sep­tem­ber 4 re­moval of the clause by way of an ad­den­dum in the high­way con­tract al­lowed OAS to go away with al­most $1 bil­lion.

“To­day, be­cause of that sit­u­a­tion, the court gave us the mon­ey, but the ar­bi­tra­tor has now tak­en it back. And we now owe the con­trac­tor $852 mil­lion (the US$126 mil­lion),” he said. 

He claimed this could on­ly have oc­curred be­cause the pro­tec­tion for peo­ple’s mon­ey was re­moved by the UNC on its last day in of­fice be­fore the 2015 elec­tion.

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