Comments on: From THA/BOLT to Calcutta – tangled webs: Part 1

By: From THA/BOLT to Calcutta – tangled webs: Part 2 « AfraRaymond.com

From THA/BOLT to Calcutta – tangled webs: Part 2 « AfraRaymond.com — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:34:33 +0000

[...] « From THA/BOLT to Calcutta – tangled webs: Part 1 [...]

By: AfraRaymond

AfraRaymond — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:21:45 +0000

Chris,

I have the opposite view in this instance…our politicians are just too bright! That is the sad fact and a living lesson on the painful consequences of a wasted mind…in the case of our successive Cabinets, many, many wasted minds…as I have repeatedly said, the T&T alphabet is A for Apple, B for Bat and C for their self…that is how the thing is running here now…

Very telling also is the amount of time spent on the internet in sheer escapism, even when we are supposedly communicating or debating…so many racist, trivial or just plain dotish remarks that it is indicative of denial, defined as a coping mechanism for matters which are at one and the same time insescapable and painful…the reading on that word is fascinating.

I am going to continue my work by analysing these various schemes so that people who are interested can become more aware…

Thanks for your support, Chris and I hope that you share my work with your students.

Afra

By: Christopher Mc Master

Christopher Mc Master — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:32:40 +0000

Afra, I see the issue as being hegemonic. We do not vote for the best minds to hold public offices so that commerce manipulates them as easily as the African chiefs were ‘bargained’ with to supply Africans to be enslaved. Many of our decision-makers are unequipped to ‘do-right’ because the options placed before them to select from have been grafted from amorphous sources so entangled in corruption and greed that either way the private sector wins. They are there for the long haul whereas many politicians have ‘five-year’ life spans and they yearn to construct visible ‘legacies’ of their reign like Ozymandias. It is no surprise that after 50 years of ‘self-rule’ no legislation for real transparency exists or if it does, enforcement is lacking. I refer to the closed sessions of cabinet meetings, the disbursement of public funds with no justification or receipts and no consequences for abuse. I have always felt that there should be surrogate parliament at the UWI where each sitting is video-twinned to selected disciplines that could endorse, verify, validate and record every aspect of administrative decision-making. The public is inadequately informed and have few avenues for filing challenges that can direct policies which affect them. The ombudsman is either under-worked or dis-empowered. Schools should investigate public and private sector activities so that graduates will know how viable their career choices will be and I believe too that secondary school graduates should be employed-all of them. The various private and public sector establishments should project growth-estimates and lists of vacancies should be published so that on entering form one students will know that by being successful in certain disciplines these jobs will pay them X dollars monthly and that those who do not qualify themselves will be required to do manual, military or some other identified vocation for a fixed income. These and other recommendations that can be sourced from those actively engaged in the processes of education, health, finance and jurisprudence among others. Academics are trained to become consumers so that the hegemony of corrupt commerce will thrive. We are so steeped in greed that it will take draconian measures to reverse the current trends that are backed by international vipers whose wealth and strength are formidable constructs. We simply have to re-construct the way we grow. We need Thomas Sankara.

C. McMaster

Drink only Deco Rum and coconut water or cane juice for Carnival 2013 The Venus Project is the answer

Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:43:15 +0000 To: mc.masterchris@hotmail.com

By: Trinidad & Tobago: Proper Procurement Practice · Global Voices

Trinidad & Tobago: Proper Procurement Practice · Global Voices — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:51:59 +0000

[...] In part one of a two-part series on governance and integrity in Tobago, Afra Raymond examines the Tobago House of Assembly project. [...]

By: AfraRaymond

AfraRaymond — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:16:39 +0000

The mere fact that the THA leader could place such reliance on the Hamel-Smith opinion – with which I have substantive difficulty, but that is another column in itself – and the PP government did not call him on it, is a sign of how far off-course we are. I am setting-aside that Hamel-Smith is a major player in the PP, that is simply immaterial. We seem content to rely on form and ignore the substantive issues…

Just imagine your parents leave a $5M property for you and your siblings…you are managing the property because your siblings trust you…you sell it to me for $3M – because we good like that! LOL! – and when asked to explain by your siblings, you telling them how the deed is prepared by such and such lawyer and was registered on such and such date…if the substance of transaction is unsound it should not proceed, even if attorneys find some way to make it all fit within the existing laws! To do a bad deal like that to your siblings is a substantial breach of your position of trust.

By way of comparison, in the related profession of Accounting/Auditing, the ‘rule-of-thumb‘ is to allow the substance of a transaction/arrangement to prevail over its form in exercising one’s judgment properly.

Making that shift in the mind of the public – the shift from asking if something is literally illegal to the place where the standard is the proper exercise of one’s judgment as a responsible person in a position of trust – is at the core of our Public Procurement work and all my own non-JCC campaigning…you see?

Afra

By: The Pantomime

The Pantomime — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:59:42 +0000

So, you’re saying that the measures and safeguards don’t exist? So THA or RBT don’t have guidelines to follow in arrangements such as these? Or is it that they ignore the procurement procedures and there is no body to make them do what is enshrined in law?

By: AfraRaymond

AfraRaymond — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:21:31 +0000

Thank you for taking time-out to respond, Rhoda…

Just to be clear, both the deals I am critiquing in this two-parter are severely detrimental to the public interest due to the large-scale and inadvisable use of Public Money.

But there is an important part of the discourse we often overlook (ignore?) which is the fact that the private sector is also a participant in these PPP deals. As I pointed out in the part 1 article, the BOLT method and the proper procurement practices have common foundations irrespective of whether the client is a public sector or private sector entity. By way of example, I cite my Business Guardian article – published on 7th August 2008 at http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2008-08-09/bussguardian10.html – on RBTT’s new HQ. That was a major office building procured via BOLT which involved only private sector players, yet there was also the familiar pattern of inadvisable large-scale investment with a resounding silence to my legitimate queries.

The point emerging from the learning here is that without proper safeguards and procedures to eliminate absurd investment proposals, the monies entrusted to these major entities is at risk of being targeted by ‘Economic Hit-Men‘…it doesn’t matter if is THA, RBTT or even the Patrick Manning-led Cabinet (remember he told us on 13th May 2008 that every UDECOTT project was approved by Cabinet)…

Next week is the next side of the same coin…

Regards

Afra

By: The Pantomime

The Pantomime — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:13:48 +0000

Afra, this was a very interesting and engaging read. I’m actually impatient for the part 2. So a couple layman/woman/person questions: 1. If what you have outlined is correct then it appears to me that the THA is making an unwise investment, certainly an expensive one, and the client from whom they have purchased the land and will be leasing the building from is the real winner here. Why would the THA enter into an agreement to benefit that client over the electorate?
2. Let us for the sake of argument say that the THA is making a wise investment here, is there some down-the-road benefit that we are not seeing? Is there some overall saving or benefit here?
I ask because if there isn’t some long term benefit then it’s state funding being wasted all over again with this Milshirv project and given all the other instances that have our minds reeling this may get lost in the rush.