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Oropouche West MP denounces Rowley’s misleading statements on the Carenage Fishing Facility
Posted On 10 Jul 2018
The MP for Oropouche West, Mrs. Vidia Gayadeen-Gopeesingh strongly condemns Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley’s malicious and misleading statements regarding the recently opened Carenage Fishing Facility.
Rowley claimed that the multi-million dollar facility was left to rot during the Partnership’s term in office between 2010 to 2015.
“The story being peddled by the Prime Minister is rife with misinformation” stated the MP. “This facility has a sordid history. Originally a PNM project, in 2009 more than $19 million dollars was spent to produce nothing but a shell. Naturally, this raised red flags and was the subject of an investigation during the People’s Partnership government. Yet the biggest question we should be asking the PNM is how a facility originally pegged for $20 million opened with a $28 million price tag? Where did the difference go?”
The MP further slammed the PNM’s attempts to cover its tracks and questioned the ultimate fate of the probe. “Am I to consider it a mere coincidence that as soon as the PNM came to power the findings of the investigation into this project vanished without a trace? Where is the final report? If anything we should be given a transparent and readily available detailed breakdown of the costs for this project,” noted the MP.
MP Gayadeen-Gopeesingh further stressed that the public should be wary of the ambiguities surrounding the project. Despite its considerable cost, she pointed to the general lack of any sound or comprehensive plan relating to how it was expected to turn a profit.
“Dr. Rowley proclaimed that it was a state of the art facility ideal for tourism and modeled after Oistins Fish Fry in Barbados. Yet it all turned out to be the usual smoke and mirrors tactic common to the PNM administration. What we see here in reality is a far cry from what is promised.”
As recently reported, the facility was opened more than a month now by the Prime Minister himself, but not a single fish has been sold.
Mrs. Gayadeen-Gopeesingh called on Rowley to come clean and account to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago on this Carenage fishing facility.
Vidia Gayadeen- Gopeesingh
Dated: 10th July 2018
