Cadiz: Gov’t buying time

“It will not go away,” he said.

“The ferry service affects thousands of people on a daily basis.

The passenger ferry service moves one million people to and from Trinidad and Tobago each year. That is what you interfering with when you do it the wrong way.” Members of Cabinet knew what the terms and conditions of the contracts were to procure the Cabo Star and Ocean Flower II, he said, as they do not approve of any fiscal measures without going into intimate detail of what they mean.

Cadiz said he found it strange that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has appointed a sole investigator to determine the circumstances for the procurement.

“Unless the prime minister says Cabinet never saw a note and they did not approve it, that would be problematic because the port authority is in no position to have any expenditure like that without Cabinet’s approval.

“What this administration has done to Tobago is sinful. Renting and leasing boats is not rocket science. They dropped the ball when they allowed the Super Fast Galicia to leave without renewing the contract or having anything in place.” His former ministerial colleague Vasant Bharat told Newsday the blame for the current fiasco with the vessels and the seabridge lies squarely in the laps of Rowley and his Cabinet.

Bharat said Rowley claimed he was not a rubber stamp for anything and was not going to rubber stamp the Galicia staying after it was recommended by PATT’s management that the contract be renewed on two occasions, but he has rubber stamped the contracts for the lease of vessels now under questionable circumstances.