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Government has taken a US$200 million loan from a Latin American bank to fund the new ANR Robinson Airport. At current exchange rates, that translates to a new TT$1.35 billion loan on the books.
Last week, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said that the upgrades to the Tobago airport were pegged at $1.2 billion.
He said then that the Government would spend $36 million to upgrade the existing building and $870 million to build the new airport terminal. He said the additional TT$300 million was "raised" by the Ministry of Finance for the land acquisition.
However, weeks before Imbert made that statement, Guardian Media reported that the Government got approval for that $300 million loan from Scotiabank to purchase 53 plots of land from residents in the areas surrounding the airport.
With this new loan, it means that T&T's debt to a Latin American bank has now surpassed the country's existing indebtedness to China.
According to the Ministry of Finance's 2020 draft estimate documents, T&T borrowed over US$800 million from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) between 2016 and 2018.
At the last count in 2018, Imbert pegged T&T's debt to China at TT$2.2 billion. However, the country's debt to the CAF stands at more than TT$5 billion.
This includes the $1.35 billion loan for the upgrade to the ANR Robinson Airport in Tobago and road works in south Trinidad.
According to the Ministry of Finance Draft Estimate document for 2020, the following list is some of the external debts that the country has incurred:
-US $7,540,000 National Energy Skills Centre
-RMB Yuan 812,000,000National Academies for the Performing Arts
-US $150 million for six fast Patrol Crafts
-US $93,571,620. 75 for the Supply of four Helicopters
-US$550 million. 4.375% Notes ( 2013 - 2024)
- CDB Loan Energy Sector Support Policy-Based Loan
- US $169Mn (TT$1,077Mnl—Construction of the Arima Hospital
- Euro 91.769,213—TT$660Mnl Construction of the Point Fortin Hospital
- US $34.2Mn Chinese Multi-purpose vessels
- EUR 168,532, Damen
- US $300Mn CAF
- US $1. OBn 4.5% f R B 2026
- US$180Mn CAF Policy-Based Loan
- Euro 81.4Mn—Point Fortin Hospital
- US $120Mn CAF Policy-Based Loan—Phase II
- US$200Mn CAF—ANR Robinson Int'l Airport Upgrading
- US$104.3Mn Phoenix Park
- EURO $101 million Sangre Grande Hospital Construction
- US$58.5Mn Incat ferry
- US$57. 2Mn Austal ferry
- US$200Mn CAf—Investment Loan (SWAP)
Back in 2018, the Ministry of Finance pegged T&T's debt to China at $2.2 billion but since then the Government has signed off on two new major loans including over $700 million loan for the development of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate in 2019 and another more recent $100m loan for a new forensic centre.
The EXIM Bank of China seems to be the go-to loan facilitator for the State as in 2016, the Government accessed another multi-million dollar loan from it, this time to fund the purchase of the "multi-purpose vessel, provision of logistic support for the acquisition of naval assets and maintenance and training for the acquisition of 12 naval assets."
According to the 2016 Public Service Investment Programme, the external funding which totalled $358.7 million was financed from ING (Holland) and EXIM Bank of China.
According to the same document, the loans for the vessels, the training and maintenance were sourced from three institutions: US$30 million loan from ANSA, US $183 million from ING (Holland), and the US $24 million from EXIM Bank (China).
In the same year, the Government also drew down another $120 million from EXIM Bank of China for the construction of the Arima Hospital.
According to the 2018 State Enterprises Investment Programme document, Government also sourced $532 million in loans from the EXIM Bank of China for the National Tennis Centre, Tacarigua, the National Cycling Velodrome, Couva and a multipurpose youth sporting facility, Sangre Grande (formerly construction of three multipurpose sport/youth facilities)
According to the 2020 PSIPs, Chinese investors have also been selected for the sale of 50 per cent of the industrial estates now under the remit of Evolving Technologies and Enterprise Development Company Limited (eTecK).
Chinese investment has also been sought for the partial divestment of 49 per cent of the shareholding of Lake Asphalt of Trinidad and Tobago (1978) Limited.
The 2018 debt figure included the following:
•Construction of the National Academy for the Performing Arts and Southern Academy for the Performing Arts.
•Outstanding debts from loans for the two are $440,295,212 and $180,835,533 respectively.
•Loan for the construction of the Couva Hospital currently stands at $924,511,500.
•The Government is also owing to a finance facility that allowed for the construction of six sporting facilities.
•Then there is a debt for the purchase of a multi-purpose patrol vessel based on a credit facility, amounting to $138,609,487.
No comment from Finance Minister
Guardian Media was unable to find 2011-2014 Draft Estimate documents on the Ministry of Finance website.
Guardian Media also called and texted Finance Minister Colm Imbert for updated figures and emailed the Ministry's Permanent Secretary for a response. Neither of them responded.
Dukharan:
One economist and two former government ministers expressed their concern over not only the number of government loans but the fact that it's in the already scarce US dollar.
Guardian Media sent questions to economist Marla Dukharan on Thursday regarding the uptick in loan activity.
Dukharan said US loan means US repayment.
"When you take on USD debt, you have to repay it in USD, and if you don’t have enough USD, that means you have a balance of payments or debt crisis, and you have to go to the IMF for assistance," she said.
"This may sound far off, but consider this—we have lost USD4.6 billion in reserves since the peak in 2014, and reserves have fallen to just about USD6.9 billion at the end of 2019, which is about seven months of import cover.
"Now, import cover is not just about how much you import to consume, it also needs to take into account the amount of USD you need to repay your debt and other obligations.
"So the more we borrow in USD, the more we must repay, the faster these reserves will be exhausted, and the sooner we default on our obligations and have to turn to the IMF," Dukharan warned.
Commenting on the country's rising level of indebtedness, Dukharan said T&T's level of debt was already "around TT$ 120 billion and rising steadily."
"We exceed the sustainability threshold by about TTD30 billion which means our debt level is 33 per cent over and above that which is deemed sustainable," she said.
"Another indication of our debt’s unsustainability is the fact that we have had a primary fiscal deficit since 2016—this means that we are borrowing just to pay the interest on our existing debt."
Dukharan said despite this, the country continues to pile on more debt.
"This is a grossly unsustainable and unhealthy situation and it means that the clock is now ticking even faster until we cannot repay our debts, and there is a default.
"Our debt is speculative and risky. And it is my view that very soon, S&P (after having downgraded last year already) will downgrade us to junk, just as Moody’s had done. One may be able to argue that debt in TTD is not so risky since the authorities can print the TTD they need to repay the debt.
"But what about the USD denominated debt we have taken on?" Dukharan asked.
She said that the country was forced to borrow in US because the TT dollar "is about 40 per cent overvalued."
"When the official rate is about TTD6.80 but the black market rate is about TTD7.50-TTD8.00 for USD1.00, and this (overvalued) official exchange rate is decided strictly by the authorities, and not even partially by demand and supply forces, it means that the authorities have deliberately, consciously decided to subsidise imports and penalise exports. This means we will earn less USD," she said.
"This means we will continue to have a net outflow of USD. This means that we are more likely to run out of USD faster than if the TTD was not overvalued. And the excuse for maintaining an overvalued currency that the authorities always use—that they wish to protect the purchasing power of the poor man, as a devalued TTD will mean consumers will pay more for their imported groceries for example is an invalid excuse because importers have already priced in a devaluation and are pricing their goods based on the black market rate they already pay for USD," she said.
Dukharan recalled the Prime Ministers interview with Guardian Media's Khamal Georges where he said his reason for not devaluing the TT dollar was because people were hoarding US in hopes of making a quick return.
"This excuse also holds no water, as holders of USD will hold on to USD even more when the TTD is overvalued, and this incentive to buy and hold USD will not exist if the TTD was not so overvalued. The authorities have created the perfect incentive for a black market for USD, and for people to buy and hold USD in the hope of a devaluation," Dukharan said.
Browne:
Former minister in the ministry of finance Mariano Browne shared Dukharan's view.
Browne also questioned the wisdom of loans in US currency.
"Borrowing in foreign currency makes sense if it is tied to be used to buy foreign inputs to improve forex generation. So that speaks to the purpose of the loans. Borrowing abroad to finance road improvements/resurfacing is a no-no.
"Borrowing to finance the construction/expansion of ANR airport in Tobago makes sense only if there is a valid tourism improvement plan. No government in the last 50 years has had one," he added.
Browne said that foreign borrowing increases the demand for US dollars and places additional stress on the system since there isn’t enough to go around. This creates a self-reinforcing dynamic that put pressure on the forex system, including the rate.
He said that T&T was experiencing a primary deficit on an ongoing basis.
"Meaning that revenue is insufficient to meet operational costs and debt service. That means to meet debt service requirement we are borrowing. This is unacceptable generally but tolerable in the short term if there is a way out or a methodology.
"There is none that I can see except that we are waiting for a turnaround in the energy sector which is not going to happen any time soon."
Browne said that any borrowing increases the debt to GDP ratio.
"What is bad about the increasing debt to GDP ratio over the last five years is that the foreign debt component is rising at an alarming rate. The difficulty with this is the competition for foreign exchange with the non-energy sector and the exposure that it brings to forex risk if the rate depreciates as it must in these conditions," he said.
"The foreign debt load is what pushed the closure of the refinery as that burden would have fallen to the State.
"Any foreign borrowing at this time must be adequately justified from a business and economic angle. In the scheme of things political, the two Tobago seats are important to the current administration. But that is not an economic justification. It is a political one," Browne said.
Bharath:
Another former minister, Vasant Bharath also agreed with both Browne and Dukharan.
"They are having to borrow as there are no new revenue streams to replace that lost from lower production levels of oil and gas as well as depressed prices," Bharath said in response to questions from Guardian Media.
"In fact, we are now borrowing to pay interest on existing debt, robbing the productive sector of much-needed capital."
"Additionally, it is the first time since 1986 that the economy has suffered three consecutive years of negative growth and all financial projections point to a fourth. "Total exports have declined by over $6bn for the period January to June 2019 cf the same period in 2018. There has been zero FDI in the non-energy sector and forex reserves have dwindled to US$7bn from US$11.4bn. The situation is dire. At the current usage rate four or possibly five years are left," he warned.
timelapse wrote:Ngc is the new petrotrin
sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
timelapse wrote:Ngc is the new petrotrin
De Dragon wrote:sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
StinkFack Red Colostomy Bag should hang his dotish head in utter shame for defending LFD RFD PNM and their continued decimation of Pt, Lisas. Imagine 7150 MT of methanol per day lost for JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels incompetence. Imagine $300M spent on a plant we don't even own, but BILLIONS in revenue evaporating before our very eyes at Pt. Lisas and this absolute kant of a arse Red Colostomy Bag talking about he husband and dem managing the energy economy.
sMASH wrote:De Dragon wrote:sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
StinkFack Red Colostomy Bag should hang his dotish head in utter shame for defending LFD RFD PNM and their continued decimation of Pt, Lisas. Imagine 7150 MT of methanol per day lost for JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels incompetence. Imagine $300M spent on a plant we don't even own, but BILLIONS in revenue evaporating before our very eyes at Pt. Lisas and this absolute kant of a arse Red Colostomy Bag talking about he husband and dem managing the energy economy.
wE dOnT kNo EkOnOmIkS oR fInAnCe So We DoNt KnOw RoWlEy HaNdLiNg It WeLl
m5000 was world renowned for tying for the largest meoh plants in the world, then it took the mantle by an additional 400mt capacity from a purge gas reactor.
u know how bobolie we looking that we let that plant shut down due to gas shortage? we also had the largest cooling tower in the western hemisphere, in pcs, now nutrien.
the other people when they find out we let the 5400mt meoh plant shut down to funnel gas to an lng plant, and still pay the whole 300m TAR... they prolly laffing... cause lng is jess chilling the natural gas, till it liquefies and then ship it to 'muricah.
lng is jess a big ice factory, using methane instead of water.
Dohplaydat wrote:sMASH wrote:De Dragon wrote:sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
StinkFack Red Colostomy Bag should hang his dotish head in utter shame for defending LFD RFD PNM and their continued decimation of Pt, Lisas. Imagine 7150 MT of methanol per day lost for JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels incompetence. Imagine $300M spent on a plant we don't even own, but BILLIONS in revenue evaporating before our very eyes at Pt. Lisas and this absolute kant of a arse Red Colostomy Bag talking about he husband and dem managing the energy economy.
wE dOnT kNo EkOnOmIkS oR fInAnCe So We DoNt KnOw RoWlEy HaNdLiNg It WeLl
m5000 was world renowned for tying for the largest meoh plants in the world, then it took the mantle by an additional 400mt capacity from a purge gas reactor.
u know how bobolie we looking that we let that plant shut down due to gas shortage? we also had the largest cooling tower in the western hemisphere, in pcs, now nutrien.
the other people when they find out we let the 5400mt meoh plant shut down to funnel gas to an lng plant, and still pay the whole 300m TAR... they prolly laffing... cause lng is jess chilling the natural gas, till it liquefies and then ship it to 'muricah.
lng is jess a big ice factory, using methane instead of water.
Who's fault is this? Honest question
randolphinshan wrote:timelapse wrote:Ngc is the new petrotrin
Thank Bandit Jamka for that. They looted the NGC of BILLIONS, but fools like De Ms. man and Zoomie so dotish they go deny it
De Dragon wrote:Dohplaydat wrote:sMASH wrote:De Dragon wrote:sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
StinkFack Red Colostomy Bag should hang his dotish head in utter shame for defending LFD RFD PNM and their continued decimation of Pt, Lisas. Imagine 7150 MT of methanol per day lost for JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels incompetence. Imagine $300M spent on a plant we don't even own, but BILLIONS in revenue evaporating before our very eyes at Pt. Lisas and this absolute kant of a arse Red Colostomy Bag talking about he husband and dem managing the energy economy.
wE dOnT kNo EkOnOmIkS oR fInAnCe So We DoNt KnOw RoWlEy HaNdLiNg It WeLl
m5000 was world renowned for tying for the largest meoh plants in the world, then it took the mantle by an additional 400mt capacity from a purge gas reactor.
u know how bobolie we looking that we let that plant shut down due to gas shortage? we also had the largest cooling tower in the western hemisphere, in pcs, now nutrien.
the other people when they find out we let the 5400mt meoh plant shut down to funnel gas to an lng plant, and still pay the whole 300m TAR... they prolly laffing... cause lng is jess chilling the natural gas, till it liquefies and then ship it to 'muricah.
lng is jess a big ice factory, using methane instead of water.
Who's fault is this? Honest question
Primarily the LFD RFD PNM. While curtailments started on the Estate during 2010 under the UNC, companies coped by increasing efficiencies elsewhere, however since Red Colostomy Bag's Gods JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels went and "negotiated" a gas price which made companies unable to profitably continue operations, we have seen for the very first time, closures with price being cited as the contributory factor.
Don't worry, our 20% stake in 2 LNG plants, one of which presently has no gas supply, and which we fully funded a TAR to the tune of $300M, will more than make up for the shortfall, according to LFD RFD PNM economist Red Colostomy Bag.
sMASH wrote:De Dragon wrote:Dohplaydat wrote:sMASH wrote:De Dragon wrote:sMASH wrote:Train 1 saved, m4 and m5 sowweee.
And is a good ting proman had their own source of natgss, or m2 and m3 was down too. d2d161675962906938355eeadefca30a.0.jpeg
StinkFack Red Colostomy Bag should hang his dotish head in utter shame for defending LFD RFD PNM and their continued decimation of Pt, Lisas. Imagine 7150 MT of methanol per day lost for JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels incompetence. Imagine $300M spent on a plant we don't even own, but BILLIONS in revenue evaporating before our very eyes at Pt. Lisas and this absolute kant of a arse Red Colostomy Bag talking about he husband and dem managing the energy economy.
wE dOnT kNo EkOnOmIkS oR fInAnCe So We DoNt KnOw RoWlEy HaNdLiNg It WeLl
m5000 was world renowned for tying for the largest meoh plants in the world, then it took the mantle by an additional 400mt capacity from a purge gas reactor.
u know how bobolie we looking that we let that plant shut down due to gas shortage? we also had the largest cooling tower in the western hemisphere, in pcs, now nutrien.
the other people when they find out we let the 5400mt meoh plant shut down to funnel gas to an lng plant, and still pay the whole 300m TAR... they prolly laffing... cause lng is jess chilling the natural gas, till it liquefies and then ship it to 'muricah.
lng is jess a big ice factory, using methane instead of water.
Who's fault is this? Honest question
Primarily the LFD RFD PNM. While curtailments started on the Estate during 2010 under the UNC, companies coped by increasing efficiencies elsewhere, however since Red Colostomy Bag's Gods JUHN Scarfy and Goebbels went and "negotiated" a gas price which made companies unable to profitably continue operations, we have seen for the very first time, closures with price being cited as the contributory factor.
Don't worry, our 20% stake in 2 LNG plants, one of which presently has no gas supply, and which we fully funded a TAR to the tune of $300M, will more than make up for the shortfall, according to LFD RFD PNM economist Red Colostomy Bag.
in the 2010 to 2015 period u made a few plant rate adjustments a month for the most, and was practically tweaking. from 2015 onwards, u adjust plants from the minimum steady state to its max, some times each shift. one time i know we did it 3 times in one shift. some plants, like m1 used to be the sacrificial plant to take off line totally, to share that feed to the other plants, and still sometimes ngc called to cut back.
loquan played srs hard ball from 2015 later. it got so bad, what methanex and proman is doing now, u heard all the way back then those numbers were being crunched on the shareholders side in the amonia division. cause they also had plants where shale gas is ready... so dont really need to suffer trinidad shortages. they had options.
although it was one company doing workers and one company doing plants, the shareholdings within each site were vastly different, to the decisions making was differnt from site to site.
the 'unitizing' that red plastic talking bout, as being a big deal in how to negotiate, is a bunch of hogwash. within the complex the shareholding and decision making clout remains the same. its only when they deal with external parties, they have some means of power of saying that they have 4 trains worth of raw material or product to deal with, instead of each train negotiating with their own selves.
trinidad has 10% in one train and 11% in another after u unitize, trinidad will buss down to 5% shares of the whole lng complex. ur bargaining power just cut in half.
This dross kant doesn't realize that in addition to production cuts and the attendant drop in revenue, when you cycle the plants like that, you reduce the life span of critical equipment. sMASH wrote:can he buy a reformer tube?
zoom rader wrote:Hard to decide Tuner Bobolee
Redman or Pastor P¤rnhabit 7
shake d livin wake d dead wrote:Explain
shake d livin wake d dead wrote:Explain
Gladiator wrote:Somebody crack open the barrel of worms...
https://www.facebook.com/578621119/post ... 260426120/
Senior Government official suspected of being involved in “criminal conspiracy :
Minister writes Gary Griffith, Requests Probe.
Via the Express Newspaper
"I have no comment to make. It is going to be war this time.”
That was the response of a senior Government official suspected of being involved in “criminal conspiracy” involving the granting of several tenancies for State land.
Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries Clarence Rambharat has written to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith asking for a probe into the matter.
Contacted by the Sunday Express on April 2 and informed of the details of Rambharat’s complaint and the fact it was sent to the Prime Minister and the Commissioner of Police, and it alleged involvement in a criminal-level conspiracy to grant a benefit to a daughter and other relatives, the official said: “I have no comment to make.”
Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries Clarence Rambharat has written to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith requesting an investigation into a possible “criminal conspiracy” involving two senior public officers in the granting of several tenancies for State lands.
In a letter dated November 3, 2020, Rambharat asked Griffith to have the matters referred to the Fraud Squad.
“These matters require further investigation and urgent action to defeat any interest or expectation created by the tenancy agreements executed by the parties,” the minister wrote.
Rambharat said in the letter that his examination of the documents raised serious concerns regarding his view (held) since 2017 that in relation to several State Land matters, the conduct of a top Government official “was collusive and conspiratorial”.
He said it “points to the strong prospect that conflict of interest rising to the level of a criminal conspiracy between (names of two officials called) for the benefit of close relatives and associates of relatives of one of the officials to abandon the required oversight of the Ministry’s Land Management Division, and the other (a subordinate), in particular, notwithstanding my continuous cautions”.
sMASH wrote:aksin gg to investigate land fraud?... hmmmm.
didnt come here for all dat.
just came to chook that malcom jones gave the country the now NiQUAN wgtl project, and kevin ramnarine gave the country the Mitsubishi CGCL project
https://newsday.co.tt/2021/04/15/living-on-promises-in-the-pandemic/While the rest of the western hemisphere begins to back slowly out of the epidemic, we listen to promises about when TT will get vaccines, at least to boost our confidence in being able to do almost-forgotten things like go to a Machel Montano concert, eat in a restaurant and send our children back to school.
We all know that the 33,600 doses of vaccine that hit the headlines last week amount to enough to inject
less than one per cent of the population. Do the maths and let everybody know how many days or months it will take, at 1,000 vaccinations a day, if you can get through to the 23 clinics, to get around to the rest of us.
We live on promises, like the vaccines from India, which finally arrived this week, the 2011 promise from the then minister of energy that the price of gas that sustained virtually all our downstream industries would be fixed (but wasn’t), or the promise by the subsequent minister of energy in 2017 that his administration, through the prime minister, would fix it (but didn’t).
Those are just some of the political promises we listen to as we watch what is left of our economy steadily dwindle. Business may not be able to offer the inflexibility of employment or the frozen protection that the public service offers, but it is the business sector that must generate income and pay taxes upon which the public service lives. It was ever so.
I remember one high official on the government benches in the Senate boasting that she had joined the teaching service many years earlier because “that meant I would never be fired, no matter what.”
There was an audible gasp in the chamber at the time at the unabashed honesty and lack of humility the statement portended. If you do not believe me, check Hansard. It was recorded.
There used to be a perfume ad that said: “Promise her anything, but give her Arpege”: the implied recipe for seduction. Politicians are even more dependent on that concept than perfume manufacturers.
However, as we witnessed this week, some politicians tell it like it is. The President and the Prime Minister both spoke of the non-productive but very expensive public service. Even the Ministry of Education bemoaned the paucity of truly committed and steadfast teachers in that service.
We must accept that as a cultural fact. We were stuck with service commissions at independence and have never admitted since that they are slow, cumbersome, inefficient and obstruct social and economic progress. In other words, we have not admitted, much less noticed, their obsolescence. I have no idea why they have not been abolished. Do you?
In the past two decades we have seen the closure of our income-generating energy resources, and as two very perceptive economists pointed out last week, in the face of its own advisers, ignored such advice as not to close the Petrotrin refinery. The advice, as I recall it, was to re-organise. It was vastly overstaffed and over-managed, a cash cow for the Boys, dominated by the union and badly in need of re-structuring. Well, we all knew that.
The advice was not accepted by a Cabinet which included only a single energy professional, whose 2017 recorded comments indicate he actually knew what had to be done, and the refinery was closed down. That the government-owned energy company owed a reported $3 billion per year in tax, which, like WASA, it did not pay, did not matter. Politicians knew better than industry experts. No one forces state operations to pay their taxes.
It sounds like the WASA report. In Trini-speak, "it is déjà vu all over again." Overstaffed, union-dominated, vastly over-managed, with double the numbers of managerial staff it needs (aka "a cash cow for the Boys"), so many that they are falling over each other giving contradictory orders. A consultant has been put in charge to clear up the mess.
When it was Petrotrin, it was committee after committee. The Prime Minister himself is quoted as saying about the government-owned energy company “there have been many instances and or arrangements which can only be described as gross mismanagement of the national patrimony, massive cost overruns, lengthy delays." He spoke of the gas-to-liquid plant which cost the country $3.15 billion and was sold for $215 million, and the de-sulphurisation plant for which we paid $2.89 billion and never opened because the structure was so faulty.
Who hired these people anyway? Who oversaw the contracts? Did anyone?Who is in charge here? Captain, the ship is sinking!
And now, is it true that because of the gas contracts that were negotiated unfavourably, the many downstream companies that depend on gas inputs are collapsing as well? Methanol Holdings has announced the closure of two of its plants in Point Lisas, affecting not just the employees there but all the small ring-fenced businesses, the service operators, the food vendors, the commercial assistants, the small entrepreneurs.
Economist Dr Terrence Farrell warned about this in the study he did on petrochemicals three or four years ago; so did journalist Curtis Williams. They were ignored by the decision-makers.
At one time, TT led the world in production and sale of methanol, urea and ammonia. It is as though, step by step, a decline has been forced on the country.
At one time people would emigrate to save their families. Now there is nowhere to flee to. Even the Venezuelans are leaving
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