Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal says the T&T Government can veto SNC-Lavalin’s involvement in the design and construction of the Penal hospital and rehabilitation centre. He was speaking in response to questions about SNC-Lavalin’s involvement in the design and proposed construction of the $800 million facility at Clarke Road, Penal. Those matters were raised in Parliament on Friday by Opposition MP Colm Imbert, who questioned T&T’s High Commissioner to Canada Phillip Buxo’s involvement in the selection process. Buxo, however, has denied he had any influence in discussions with respect to the matter of SNC-Lavalin working in T&T, even though he was an SNC-Lavalin director before he took up his diplomatic post. Asked to provide a copy of the due diligence review that was done by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), Moonilal responded, via text message, saying: “We are talking to them now.”
However, Laurent Morel-à-l'Huissier, political counsellor for the High Commission of Canada, said there was no meeting with the T&T Government. He said Canadians were celebrating Canada Day yesterday and there was no scheduled meeting with the T&T Government. Buxo also said he was not part of any meeting. Moonilal later explained that Udecott was in touch with CCC. He did not elaborate on the nature of discussions. However, in an earlier interview, Moonilal said that Government could object to SNC-Lavalin’s involvement if the CCC fails to justify its selection based on the due diligence review.
He said the CCC would have to explain on what grounds SNC-Lavalin were chosen. President and CEO of the CCC, Marc Whittingham, in a statement, revealed the T&T Government had signed a contract in February with SNC-Lavalin to design the Penal hospital, on the recommendation of the CCC. This was two months before the World Bank banned SNC-Lavalin Inc for the next ten years from bidding on projects funded by the bank, citing company misconduct by the company in Bangladesh and Cambodia.
Whittingham said a framework agreement was signed between the Governments of Canada and T&T on May 1, 2012, to promote co-operation in the health sector. He explained that in early 2012, CCC and Udecott decided to split the work into two phases: The design of the hospital and the actual construction and installation of medical equipment. He said the design phase is almost complete and Udecott and CCC were now working on a contract for phase two. Several people have voiced concerns about why the hospital is being constructed in Penal. Head of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC), Afra Raymond, and president of the Local Content Chamber, Lennox Sirjusingh, said government-to-government contracts were detrimental to national interest and created financial strains on the economy.
However, Moonilal and Works Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan said the hospital construction was in keeping with Government’s decentralisation thrust. Details of the scope and exact cost of the project remains unclear. CEO of Udecott Kurt Ramlal said financial negotiations were still being discussed.