Dr Carson Charles

Former President of National Infrastructure Development Company (NEDCO) Dr Carson Charles responds to Minister in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Stuart Young statements on the construction of the Solomon Hochoy Highway to Point Fortin

The Facts:

1. On May 13, 2010, the Tenders Evaluation Committee recommended that Nidco enter into negotiations with Construtora OAS Ltd as a preferred respondent.

2. On May 25, 2010, one day after the general election, under then Nidco president Keisha Ince, Nidco informed OAS by letter that it was the preferred respondent.

3. When the OAS was selected there was a PNM minister in charge, that was Colm Imbert.

4. The letter was sent out on May 25, 2010, to OAS the day after the general election, the incoming administration did not feel that the project should be stopped because the Government had changed.

5. Charles: “It wasn’t a big deal. Nidco did not go into elections and neither did Ms Ince. What I did in July 2010 was simply to pick up where she left off. There was no reason to go a different way as the procurement appeared to have been done properly.”

6. Charles said contrary to what Young said, OAS was not paid $5.1 billion, but $3.482 billion up to October 2015. He also said the project was 63 per cent complete as the initial scope of the project included design and build, and he described any contradictory information as “sensational and misleading.”

7. Charles acknowledged that Nidco could have terminated the contract under International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). He said, however, that the contractor had the equipment and over 1,000 workers on site and Nidco wrote to them regarding the contract ending in May 2016. “Instead, we said, we want you to finish in May 2016 and we would give the rest of the work to local contractors.”

8. The other site was Penal to Mon Desir, which was delayed due to protest by the Wayne Kublalsingh-led Highway Re-Route Movement.

9. He said $5.1 billion had been spent overall on the project and there was still $2.4 billion dollars remaining in the budget to finish the project.

10. Former Works Minister Suruj Rambachan said restarting the shut down project meant additional money.

11. Charles said before he left Nidco in December 2015, he provided reports on the highway to the Government in November.

Charles said the Government was in possession of all the pertinent data relating to the project and Young’s comments were political. “Either he does not understand what he is reading or he is being mischievous.”

Read the full article: PNM approved OAS—Charles