Rapid Rail worries Transparency Institute

Hart, who was a member of the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Project, called on Government to immediately implement its new procurement regime to prevent another fiasco from occurring.

Addressing a rapid rail forum implemented by the Association of Professional Engineers (APETT) at Trincity Industrial Estate, Hart said TTTI was not opposed to the rapid rail but was concerned the project may not be meeting the criteria of value for money, transparency and accountability which were outlined in Government’s own policies in the White Paper on Reform of the Public Sector Procurement Regime which was laid in Parliament in Sept-ember 2005.

Hart said TTTI was also concerned over what he described as “the cavalier approach” by Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert to public concern over the proposed rapid rail.

Quoting a March 14, 1997 statement made by former Works Minister Sadiq Baksh in Parliament about Piarco, Hart claimed this statement was very similar to ones made by Imbert last December over the rapid rail.

He said in both cases, the two men (Baksh and Imbert) branded critics as persons “who participated in the tender process and having lost, were guilty of ‘sour grapes’.” Baksh was present at the forum.

On issues of transparency, accountability and political interference, Hart said TTTI was already seeing “worrying similarities between the proposed rapid rail and Piarco”. First, Hart said, Government did not publicise findings of technical studies supporting the rapid rail but is having public consultations on highway extensions and new highway construction.

“One is left to wonder if there is something to hide,” Hart opined. He said Imbert admitted that the National Infrastructure Development Company did not have the ability to oversee the rapid rail project and is hiring foreign consultants to do so.

Recalling that inadequate oversight on Piarco led to reliance on foreign consultants Birk Hillman and the resulting events in both foreign and local courts, Hart said: “The situation begs the question, who will guard the guards?” Hart recalled there was management breakdown on the Piarco project with “more than one government minister” upsurping the authority of NIPDEC and the Airports Authority.

Hart said “the chances of Rapid Rail becoming another Piarco can be reduced considerably if Government shows the political will to enact in the very near future,its new procurement regime.”