No justifying $850M project

Corruption and overspending are, of course, intimately intertwined. It is an established fact that governments which favour big projects tend to have more instances of funds being diverted into the pockets of ministers, officials, party supporters, relatives and friends. This is especially the case when such projects are not infrastructural, like roads or dams, but prestigious — like a sporting complex or, say, a new Parliament building. So international lending agencies and watchdog bodies like Transparency International tend to view such grandiose plans with a jaundiced eye.

The inadequate responses given last Saturday by Government spokesmen would tend to strengthen such suspicions. Hastily calling a news conference after a group of business organisations criticised the planned stadium, Public Administration minister Lenny Saith, National Security Minister Martin Joseph, and Sports Minister Roger Boynes offered the thinnest of justifications for the project.

Since the business group had argued that $850 million could be better spent fighting crime, Minister Joseph gave the assurance that his ministry has quite enough money to implement all its plans. However, given the steadily rising rate of crime, we can only infer that the enormous budget Mr. Joseph has at his disposal has so far been mostly wasted. Minister Saith also took a crime-fighting line, going so far as to assert that the construction of this stadium would help to reduce crime. We are, however, unaware of any studies which link more sports programmes to fewer criminal acts. Indeed, were this the case, the PNM regime should be presiding over a lower crime rate thanks to the five stadiums built under the UNC administration. Besides, Tarouba and its environs is not a particularly high-crime area so, even if Mr Saith’s assertion were true, the stadium’s effect on crime would be negligible.

Mr Boynes added that sports brought health, social and economic benefits. This is quite true. However, the populace does not need an $850 million stadium to be healthy. People just need to eat correctly, exercise regularly, have annual medical check-ups, and be able to access efficiently-run public hospitals. The social benefits that accrue from sport can also be served quite well by the existing stadiums and the many football and cricket fields and basketball courts, although that $850 million would go a long way towards upkeep of same. And as for economic benefits — well, it will take a long while for the profits from this stadium to repay its enormous investment.

The Sports Minister added one more reason why the Government had to construct this stadium — they would be sued if they didn’t. However, if the Government did indeed sign such an agreement, then this administration has proven itself to be a most incompetent and foolish negotiator. But the threat of a lawsuit is not an ironclad reason for not cancelling this project, since the penalty for breaking the contract is surely much less than $850 million.

Whether this wasteful stadium construction goes ahead or not is, ultimately, the decision of Prime Minister Manning. We hope he will display a sense of fiscal responsibility which, thus far, has been woefully lacking under the present administration.