Mark: T’go hospital cost doubled

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark objected to being asked to approve a $13.8 million increase in allocation to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) without first being told why the new Scarborough Hospital was now 14 months behind time in construction and why its cost had doubled from $134 million to $264 million. He was debating the Variation of Appropriation Bill 2005 yesterday in the Senate. “We demand a status report on the Scarborough Hospital,” he said, vowing not to support the legislation.

He alleged that the construction project was riddled with corruption and was being investigated by the Integrity Commission and a not yet functioning Commission of Inquiry. Mark lamented that the Senate had no power to delay a finance Bill, but rather was just a rubber stamp. “We have no power to delay the Minister of Finance but we have the power to say we are not supporting that scandal.” But while this alleged corruption existed at the hospital, said Mark, UNC members were being harassed by  the Police Service’s Anti Corruption Bureau whose officers were recently seen “drinking and having a good time” with the Attorney General at Cabildo Chambers.