Privatization Without Transparency
The Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan has announced the privatization of the Port of Port of Spain. Most citizens recognize that politicians have committed heinous crimes in the past and are disgraced when branded “Trickydadians”. Today, honest taxpayers are terrorized by the suspiciously secretive conduct by the Rowley team. We are all aware that with a weakened Procurement Law our people are vulnerable to more shady transactions when national assets are secretly sold off. What is there to hide anyway?
The recent Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2015 amendments have created dangerous loopholes which exempt public private partnerships. Similarly, the recent Shipping Bill, 2020 which is before parliament creates a corporate body known as the Maritime Authority of Trinidad and Tobago which is being given the ability to remove itself from the purview of the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR). Why? What possible motive does secrecy serve?
We all embrace progress, but no one supports playing hide and seek with our limping treasury.
Why spend millions to upgrade a facility if it’s being sold off? Today, after spending 75MTTD on a new crane they are privatizing our Port of Spain Port …. what next tomorrow?
From Johnny O’Halloran to the infamous Calder Hart our country is plagued with a history of corruption and kickbacks.
Even within the party the majority of citizens are calling for the recent amendments made to the procurement Law to be repealed so that our OPR can perform their task without limitations. Only then will our progress be meaningful. In the words of Ayn Rand, “When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours – When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed”. Our people must rise up to defend our country. If we do not stand up for what is right, we might as well disown our own children who will be condemned to the chaos and disproportion that mark a failed state.