Marlene McDonald, PNM’s Port-of-Spain South MP, in which Sea Lots is located, said yesterday she was “rather taken aback and surprised” at Jack Warner appearing in her constituency to do the Sea lots walkway project on his own. She expressed concern about the ethics and procedures involved in Warner’s move to allegedly pay for the project on his own.
“We also want some clarification from Government on this and how this can really be taking place since Warner is no longer minister nor MP in the Government,” McDonald added. She was commenting yesterday on Warner’s statements about paying for a government project, the Sea Lots walkway over the East Dry River on Beetham Highway, from his own pocket and claims that nobody should ask him where he got the $500,000 funding from.
McDonald said: “I’m not so much interested in where Warner got the money. What I am interested in is that he has demitted ministerial and MP positions and he no longer has any locus standi to do the programme in Sea Lots. “Also, who’s really in charge of the programme, the Works Ministry or National Security? I don’t know how he (Warner) has especially undertaken to do the work at Sea Lots. I’m also surprised at the talk he had with the contractor on the phone.”
She said Warner appeared to confirm the work was private undertaking, “so the Minister of Works must say if this is Warner’s private project or a Works project. “Until that, I don’t think it was ethical of him to call the contractor on the phone and talk to him in front of the public as he did. “I wonder if the guy knew he was being taped for the national community. That development also raises ethical issues.”
Raising questions about the procedure of the project, McDonald added: “If it’s Warner’s private project, then the Prime Minister must now say how come that a minister of her government could have set out to do such a job.”