The Tobago Ferry Boat thread

[The_Honourable]

I now see Stuartie whispering in his ears.

Yuh seeing dis. Stuart guiding him well

The man spend nearly 1/2 hr on the galicia.

[bluefete]

Whistle blower asked him in Barbados if he was aware the the vessel was owned by a Mexican entity called Baja Ferries.

Baja Ferries had communicated with the Port Mgm't and offered the Cabo Star.

He got the following documents:

Oscar Romano - 25/5/2017 to Leong@patnt.com: Baja Ferries/MV Cabo Star. (mexico)

Dear Mr. Grant (former CEO of Port Interisland Co)

Mr. Jones and ... said I should get directly in touch with you. Attached is aletter giving info about Cabo Star together with registration docs.

(e-mail came from owners of Cabo star in May 2017)

Next letter addressed to Mr. Grant:

Baja Ferries can offer MV Cabo Star with specs; Vessel was in Mexico at the time.

We prefer to deal with you one on one.

Oscar Romano - CEO Baja Ferries - Mexico


Rowley said he became very concerned when he read these documents.

The port did not obtain the vessel from the owner but from a third party.

Rowley summoned the Chainman of the Port (Sahadeo) the next day. She did not know.

The port could have gotten the vessel from the owner at much less cost.

So bottom line was that PNM operatives jerri curled the PNM to get more money than was necessary for the boat.

[bluefete]

Rowley say Annisette lie , yes.

[bluefete]

Wade Mark - oh gorsh.

[The_Honourable]

He fully blaming the port... Rohan is a good boy he do nothing wrong

[16 cycles]

Smiley try to joke about wood /failboat

[The_Honourable]

Rowley deflecting a lot:

- It was an emergency and people took advantage

- I would not know everything because i depend on people below me to sort out dey business before coming to me

- Check the Mouttet report

[Redman]

Well the Mouttet SBA seems to be the key.

When would this come into the public domain?

[16 cycles]

After it sanitized

[hydroep]

Respect to Baldylocks for facing the committee especially considering some interested parties like the owner of Intercontinental Shipping have chickened-out.

He said that the report will be made available to the public...that's welcome news.

He told a good story:

* As far as the Government is concerned there was a contract in place (even though there was no formal written contract) for the Galicia to remain until October 2017.
*The principals (Intercontinental) did not have control of the vessel as the owners intended to pull it from service in February 2017. Government was informed of this in writing and the principals offered to fulfill the unexpired part of the contract with another vessel called the Elizabeth Ross.
*This was unacceptable as the vessel was not in Trinidad.
*Galicia threatens to pull service Easter weekend. Interventions prevent this but it leaves a few weeks later.
* The Port and by extension the Government found itself between the rock and a hard place.
*The port sent out a tender for a replacement and received only 1 respondent.
*The PM found that unacceptable. Port directed to locate vessel(s) ASAP...(the assumption here is that the tendering process was bypassed).
*They (allegedly) lost two vessels because of the length of time waiting for State Approval.
*So, when they found the Cabo Star the PM gave HIS approval to go ahead and that approval would be ratified at the next cabinet meeting.
*When the mark buss, it appeared that the Mexican owners of the Cabo Star had contacted someone at the port and offered the vessel directly to them.
*However, the final contract was signed though a Canadian firm Bridgeman Services LP (a third party).
*Port Chairman was unaware the Port was contacted directly.
*As a result of this taxpayers are paying $ 5,000 - $ 6,000 US more per day than if they had negotiated directly with the owners.
*Minister and Government not at fault because it is expected that those who are charged to do their job would do it properly (due diligence etc.) and advise their superiors accordingly.
*To further bolster his point that there are elements of corruption and poor practices at the port the PM spent a great deal of time on the procurement of the Galicia focusing specifically on how Port Attorney Nyree Alfonso went from being a legal advisor at the port to an agent/broker for the supplier of the Galicia over the period 2013-2016.

That's all well and fine eh, but like Wade Mark said there are few things that contradict earlier documents and testimonies.

More interesting is that the PM talking about irregularities in tendering procedures on one hand but justifying why the same procedures were "bypassed" when things became critical. For him apparently the ends justify the means.

That he could give his approval and then expect to have it ratified at cabinet just adds credence to the opinion that it's nothing more than a set of "yes men" (and women) to rubber stamp for whatever decisions he makes.

[sMASH]

Justification of shortcuts only occur if they work. When they don't, those who committed them and instructed them need to be hung out to dry.

[The_Honourable]

You know... if Kamla was PM, Suruj was the minister and the EXACT situation took place, Rowley would call for the board, suruj and kamla to resign.

Rowley attempted to paint himself as a "corruption buster" separating himself and the government from the corrupt practices of the port knowing fully well that if the galicia stayed till October, or those two boats by bridgeman was successfully procured, it would be business as usual. The political conversation would move away from Rohan and the board to the "corrupt practices" by all the workers on the port including Michael Anisette and the SWWTU.

If he is this so called corruption buster, it taking 2+ years to deal with corruption at the port?

[zoom rader]

This lil PNM hustle will soon past and its back to business as nomel.

PNM winning next election

[bess almera]

You know... if Kamla was PM, Suruj was the minister and the EXACT situation took place, Rowley would call for the board, suruj and kamla to resign.

Rowley attempted to paint himself as a "corruption buster" separating himself and the government from the corrupt practices of the port knowing fully well that if the galicia stayed till October, or those two boats by bridgeman was successfully procured, it would be business as usual. The political conversation would move away from Rohan and the board to the "corrupt practices" by all the workers on the port including Michael Anisette and the SWWTU.

If he is this so called corruption buster, it taking 2+ years to deal with corruption at the port?

U me friend don't have a clue about what's going on. To each his own I guess...carry on. We need more like you to babble nonsense, for argument sake.

[The_Honourable]

You know... if Kamla was PM, Suruj was the minister and the EXACT situation took place, Rowley would call for the board, suruj and kamla to resign.

Rowley attempted to paint himself as a "corruption buster" separating himself and the government from the corrupt practices of the port knowing fully well that if the galicia stayed till October, or those two boats by bridgeman was successfully procured, it would be business as usual. The political conversation would move away from Rohan and the board to the "corrupt practices" by all the workers on the port including Michael Anisette and the SWWTU.

If he is this so called corruption buster, it taking 2+ years to deal with corruption at the port?

U me friend don't have a clue about what's going on. To each his own I guess...carry on. We need more like you to babble nonsense, for argument sake.

Well i'm subject to correction of my nonsense. Are you going to shed "a clue" on what's going on?

If not, thank you for your irrelevant opinion.

[pugboy]

Wade Mark say keithos will have to come back because the board minutes say Sahadeo signed off on a 5yr lease contract yet all of a sudden they scrap that and went looking for a next set of boats

[bess almera]

You know... if Kamla was PM, Suruj was the minister and the EXACT situation took place, Rowley would call for the board, suruj and kamla to resign.

Rowley attempted to paint himself as a "corruption buster" separating himself and the government from the corrupt practices of the port knowing fully well that if the galicia stayed till October, or those two boats by bridgeman was successfully procured, it would be business as usual. The political conversation would move away from Rohan and the board to the "corrupt practices" by all the workers on the port including Michael Anisette and the SWWTU.

If he is this so called corruption buster, it taking 2+ years to deal with corruption at the port?

U me friend don't have a clue about what's going on. To each his own I guess...carry on. We need more like you to babble nonsense, for argument sake.

Well i'm subject to correction of my nonsense. Are you going to shed "a clue" on what's going on?

If not, thank you for your irrelevant opinion.

Not going to get into any verbal tug of war with you or anyone on this forum. However, I’m suggesting that you gather knowledge on PATT org structure and it’s SBUs before casting aspersions on an entire workforce.

[The_Honourable]

You know... if Kamla was PM, Suruj was the minister and the EXACT situation took place, Rowley would call for the board, suruj and kamla to resign.

Rowley attempted to paint himself as a "corruption buster" separating himself and the government from the corrupt practices of the port knowing fully well that if the galicia stayed till October, or those two boats by bridgeman was successfully procured, it would be business as usual. The political conversation would move away from Rohan and the board to the "corrupt practices" by all the workers on the port including Michael Anisette and the SWWTU.

If he is this so called corruption buster, it taking 2+ years to deal with corruption at the port?

U me friend don't have a clue about what's going on. To each his own I guess...carry on. We need more like you to babble nonsense, for argument sake.

Well i'm subject to correction of my nonsense. Are you going to shed "a clue" on what's going on?

If not, thank you for your irrelevant opinion.

Not going to get into any verbal tug of war with you or anyone on this forum. However, I’m suggesting that you gather knowledge on PATT org structure and it’s SBUs before casting aspersions on an entire workforce.

It is not me who are casting aspersions sir. It was the Prime Minister who went to the JSC and make out the port to be a den of corruption that he, his minister and the board trying to solve (yeah right).

Now we all know it have a lot of BS going on at the port but I am not going so far as Rowley did to blame the whole workforce to protect the tails of Rohan and the PATT board.

[sMASH]

Is rowley that say port authority is corrupt. Big rigging happening in UDECO... port authority.



A few people must be held responsible for the debacle that is communication between Trinidad and tobago.

[bess almera]

Mark’s testimony sheds a ray of light on who’s actually culpable.

[zoom rader]

Lets face it nothing will come out of this. It has been said that PNM look after their own people

[hydroep]

Thank goodness the 8-ball and his minions came to save T&T from the corrupt devils that formed the last Government because as y'all can see nothing like that happening under his tenure...nothing at all...

I was offered bribe to drop ferry probe*
Mark Bassant testifies before Joint Select Committee:

Published on Sep 19, 2017, 10:18 pm AST
By Ria Taitt
ria.taitt@trinidadexpress.com

A woman claiming to be the close friend of a Government official offered TV6 investigative journalist Mark Bassant a “six-figure” bribe to drop his investigation into the ferry fiasco.
So claimed Bassant, the author of the Gap in the Bridge 13-part series, as he responded to questions from Joint Select Committee (JSC) member Wade Mark on Monday night.
Asked by Mark to elaborate on his statement that he and his employer had come under fire for his investigative pieces on this matter, Bassant said: “Following the broadcast of the first piece, there was talk for quite a while by armchair journalists who sit at the radio and do nothing and by financiers of the PNM Government [who were] calling up my CEO.
“I got threats from people. I got offers of inducements. I had people witness it where somebody came up to me at a function and said, ‘Let’s make this all go away, I’ll write you a cheque tomorrow.’ And she was dead serious.
“I took umbrage to that. I was very offended. And I told the person she was with whom I happen to know, that I was not about that. Ever! And I had police officers call me and say ‘Be very careful. Yuh treading on ground that people not very happy with, because this is a lot of money’.”

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20170919/news/i-was-offered-bribe-to-drop-ferry-probe

[Redman]

if he was serious Bassant would have taken the cheq-straight to fraud squad

[Monkey Man]

and the flood gates have opened with all the pnm loyalists jumping out and saying that why mark cudda do dis, and why he didnt do dat and if he wouldda do it this way...

jus come out a show your true colours and say it straight forward that you pnm till you dead and u dont believe him.

[De Dragon]

if he was serious Bassant would have taken the cheq-straight to fraud squad

Like EMailgate?

[Redman]

Sorry .
I certainly believe that Bassant was approached.
But why not ?

If she dumb enough to issue a cheq....she dumb enough to have to explain it and on whose behalf it was paid.
a chq with 7 zeros is plenty explaining

[De Dragon]

Sorry .
I certainly believe that Bassant was approached.
But why not ?

If she dumb enough to issue a cheq....she dumb enough to have to explain it and on whose behalf it was paid.
a chq with 7 zeros is plenty explaining

Maybe, (and this is ascribing a lot of intelligence to a PNM bigwig "friend"), she had no intention, or means to honour the cheques, and his acceptance of it would have discredited him immensely.

[wall]

It's strange that I Saw the ocean flower II in trini waters this morning.Wasn't that contract terminated a couple weeks ago if I remember correctly?

[Chimera]

https://www.facebook.com/CNC3Television ... 3300777996


OCEAN FLOWER 2 ARRIVES
The Ocean Flower 2 has arrived in Port-of-Spain to serve on the inter-island seabridge.

[K74T]