Army to protect NHA projects

THE ARMY has been called in to protect a new National Housing Authority (NHA) refurbishment programme and Government has reached agreement with the People’s Republic of China to establish a military hospital in Trinidad and Tobago.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning made these announcements yesterday at a news conference at Balisier House after a PNM General Council meeting. The Prime Minister said Government will soon begin a new NHA apartment refurbishment programme throughout the country to complete some 15 percent of work left undone by its predecessor programme. However admitting that all was not well in the programme, Manning disclosed: “On this occasion, we are going to ensure that the monies applied to the programme reach the right destination and are not diverted to destinations that were never intended by the framers of the programme in the first place. For this purpose, the armed forces of TT will be pressed into service to assist in guaranteeing that the objectives of the programme are properly achieved.” He added that the parameters of the army’s mission in the NHA programme are now being worked out. The last NHA apartment refurbishment programme was marred by allegations of criminal involvement. In addition, an NHA housing project in Beverly Hills was attacked on two occasions by a Muslim group which claimed that it should have been awarded the contract.

Manning further revealed that following last week’s visit to TT by Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Li Zhaoxing, the two nations have agreed to establish a military hospital in TT. However, asked if Government was seeking military assistance from China, following the suspension of US military aid in July due to TT’s support for the International Criminal Court, Manning replied: “Military assistance is a political matter and I’m not sure that any view other than a political one is relevant in this regard.” The Prime Minister said he did not feel slighted by his exclusion (along with five other Caricom leaders) from a breakfast meeting with US President George W Bush on Wednesday in New York. Manning indicated that TT is currently pursuing its own initiative with the US and that initiative “is alive and very well indeed and we hope to see it come to fruition not too very long from now.” “There are considerations involving TT that make us different from everyone else in the region. It is the question of energy security to the US. In fact, in the hemisphere no other country including Venezuela,” is in the position that TT finds itself he declared. The Prime Minister reminded reporters that in 2002, 68 percent of all Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports into the US came from TT.