(Trinidad Express) – Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her People’s Partnership Government will pursue allegations of unacceptable conduct in a US$120 million desalination project and any other instances of alleged malfeasance involving the public purse.
She distanced herself and members of her administration from allegations of bid-rigging in the contract issued to Desalcott in 1999.
But Persad-Bissessar pro-mised to “energetically, but soberly and intelligently” pursue “all malfeasance in public office”.
A Sunday Express investigation indicated that Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George in 1998, when he was the ministry’s permanent secretary, wrote to a fictitious company fronting as an affiliate of the United Nations in the payroll of deceased contractor Hafeez Karamath.
George has defended the work of a nine-member bid evaluation committee, insisting that the process which led to Karamath and a foreign partner getting a joint-venture contract for construction of the desalination plant was open and transparent.
“This issue as I have seen today in the Sunday Express, and may I congratulate the media for the job they do, is loaded with the complexities of both law and politics,” Persad-Bissessar said in a statement on Sunday.
