Ramdeen: Investigate Imbert’s wife’s company

Speaking to the budget debate yesterday in the Senate, Ramdeen said that the company, Bolt Trinidad Limited, was incorporated in 2003 and was awarded the contract for the Mora Heights/Rio Claro project two years later.

“I want the minister of housing as part of the audit that is going on at the HDC (Housing Development Corporation) right now, to please investigate this matter,” he said.

The company, he said, was awarded the contract without any tendering for project management services after only two years with no experience in project management.

The directors of the project, he said, were one Allan Brammer, civil engineer of Fairview, Moka, Maraval and Suzanne Williams-Imbert of Lisa Avenue, Hillsboro, Maraval.

Williams-Imbert is the wife of the Finance Minister. The administrative rates charged were 10.6 percent of the contract price, with an advance payment of $2 million, he said. “What was strange about it,” he said, was an agreement that exempted the company from other administrative costs which are usually absorbed by a project management company. The exemptions included fuel, stationery, travelling, electricity and photocopying.

With the exemptions, Ramdeen said that about 17.8 percent or a total of $13.5 million was made available in fees to the company on the $75 million contract.

He said that even after the $13.5 million was paid, Bolt Trinidad Limited submitted another invoice for $8 million.