Govt scraps $billion Coast Guard vessel (OPV) deal

[brams112]

Regardless- OPV's or dinghy, it doesnt matter what they have if they dont and cannot use it effectively.
The problem is that the same corrupt personnel will still allow and help the drug lords no matter what vessel is available for patrolling.

Who notice police pimping in pcx series now,but still no dent in crime,is the people who have to carry out the security measures lapsing up.

[pyung99]

how they lowering the dunce level tho. them fellas there for life. and make it hard for any individual with a reputation to try to maintain.

maybe procuring hi tech opvs might have "raised the bridge" a bit, attracting more brite youth, trained abroad-based trinis etc. they could still do it with the 2nd hand ones though....

[De Dragon]

We still lost millions at the end of the day though, so there are no real winners here.

[nemisis]

^^^ not too sure nah the new owners may have been the winners

[De Dragon]

^^^ not too sure nah the new owners may have been the winners

Maybe, but brand new second hand?

[rspann]

I now reach back,Half day out there and no coast guard.My son take some pics ,when I download them you will see where the coast guard was.They park up from when we were going 11.30 to when we were coming back around 6 pm.I make a spin harts cut too and take some pics.OPV makes no sense,better they charge the drug dealers an import tax and let them bring it in legal.

[RIPEBREDFRUIT]

Regardless- OPV's or dinghy, it doesnt matter what they have if they dont and cannot use it effectively.
The problem is that the same corrupt personnel will still allow and help the drug lords no matter what vessel is available for patrolling.

Who notice police pimping in pcx series now,but still no dent in crime,is the people who have to carry out the security measures lapsing up.

Once again, Prado or Xtrail, doesnt matter, if the policemen themselves are not doing a good job it doesnt matter what vehicle they have.

At least this government went with a more affordable line of vehicles for the police service, last pack of morons took how many EXPENSIVE PRados for how many days?

Steups.

[PapaC]

FYI

Billion lost, billion gained
Originally printed at http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Bil ... 90051.html

November 18, 2012
Yesterday, the Sunday Express examined the relationship between the Trinidad and Tobago Government and the United Kingdom firm British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) Systems over a contract for and subsequent cancellation of three offshore patrol vessels (OPVs). It was knitted together from the witness statements and documents submitted to the International Court of Arbitration during the period May 8-18, 2012 for which a non-disclosure clause was agreed. The story revealed that the PNM administration, who had initiated the programme, had been concerned about BAE's inability to meet deadlines, their lack of transparency and their failure to meet contractual obligations. The People's Partnership Government served notice to BAE on September 16, 2010 and the contract was officially cancelled on October 20, 2010.



Part II



Asha Javeed

asha.javeed@trinidadexpress.com



A billion dollars lost for a seemingly billion-dollar gain.

That's how the arithmetic for the cancellation of the offshore patrol vessels (OPV) project works out.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago (under the former administration) had taken a $2.192 billion loan from BNP Paribas and Lloyds for the financing of three Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) in 2007.

The total sum of the OPV boats was £155 million.

Following the cancellation of the contract, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan had negotiated an out-of-court settlement of $1.382 billion with BAE. According to figures provided by Ramlogan in Parliament last Friday, the Government's balance on the loan was $1.041 billion.

Once the settlement is applied to the loan, the surplus is $341 million said Ramlogan. That sum, he had said, can be used at Finance Minister Larry Howai's discretion.

At a press conference at his Cabildo Chambers office last Wednesday, Ramlogan had said it was difficult to estimate the amount of money T&T had lost on the OPV project.

But a calculation by the Express of loan ($2.192) minus settlement ($1.382) points to about $800 million.

An official close to the project under the PNM government, who spoke on condition of anonymity, observed that that cost is exclusive of the cost borne by the State for the infrastructure work undertaken by the Coast Guard to accommodate the 90 metre boats at Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas.

Ramlogan had also revealed in Parliament that "other costs associated with the implementation of the OPV project, which include for infrastructural and logistical support, which were paid by the Government Treasury" amount to approximately $164 million dollars.

The $800 million already spent on the OPV project added to infrastructure costs of $164 million amounts to $964 million.

When the legal fees of the AG's team, which he estimates to be under £2 million that'll take the total loss of the OPV project to over one billion dollars.

The official pointed out that T&T had lost money and still did not have boats to secure its borders. The official noted that Government now had to purchase new boats and questioned how it will finance this project which could amount to over a billion dollars as no worthy patrol boat could be had for under $400 million.

The Government had taken a collective Cabinet decision to terminate the contract on September 16, 2010. Following this BAE had initiated arbitration hearings in London seeking over $611.032 million and managed to sell the three OPVs— which were named Port-of-Spain, Scarborough and San Fernando- to the Brazilian Navy for £133 million.

There's been the argument that the $1.382 billion settlement was simply a refund equivalent to the £133 million sale by BAE to Brazil. And far from earning money from this arbitration, this country had actually lost- not in settlement but in dollars spent.

The People's Partnership decision to cancel the £155 million contract with BAE came despite recommendations that the Government accept the OPVs from BAE.

Those recommendations came from the UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD), Commodore Garnet Best, Captain Mark Williams and former minister of national security John Sandy. Their recommendations were based on the amount of money already spent on the project which had spanned three years and had no tangible result save for the infrastructure work completed to accommodate the vessels and the training of 120 staff for the project.

In his witness statement, Williams said the MOD's had recommended that was "to keep the moving" forward subject to clear agreements and commitments on the part of BAE

"With respect to recommending acceptance for vessels being built for the Royal Navy, it was usual for the MOD to take decisions that would keep their programme moving forward as their vessels are not normally required to enter service until a considerable time after the vessel has been completed. This, however, was not the case with respect to the OPVs, which is why the MOD's recommendation was caveated with the question of whether of not the vessel had sufficient interim operational capability with the degraded weapon system and whether training of crew could take place on board concurrently with any agreed rectification plan," he said in his witness statement.

As a project leader, Williams said he was concerned about the impact in the morale of staff and crew.

"However, wearing my senior naval officer's hat I was extremely concerned that we were being asked to consider accepting a vessel the defensive capabilities of which fell far short of what had been expected and was contractually required. The OPV was £50 million pound asset as a result itself a target. The degraded Combat System did not enable it to adequately defend itself," said Williams.

Despite his recommendations Williams had remained concerned about accepting the vessel given that rectification by BAE was estimated at 12 months and that the Government of T&T would not receive a vessel for which they had contracted or would meet the requirements needed to secure this country's maritime boundary sufficiently.

"Given the outstanding defects and the uncertain path and time scale to resolution, the OPV was being offered with a degraded Combat System. The MOD noted: Based on demonstrations, the weapon can still be used to fire munitions out to a range of 6km by manually inputting the 'target range' from information extracted form the Scanter radar. However, with the added time delays associated with inputting the range data and without the benefits of the predictor, it is questionable how operationally effective the weapon will be against realistic targets." In other words, it in present condition the 30 mm gun could not effectively engage moving targets and the 6km capability was a maximum range not maximum effective range," he stated.

Following the notice of cancellation in September, he observed that BAE had sought to speed up the delivery before the October 20 deadline. However, by October 16, BAE had not followed the correct protocol in accordance with the contract.

In explaining his decision to terminate the contract, Ramlogan had argued in his witness statement that "BAE was asking us to forego our existing contractual rights in favour of whatever we might be able to negotiate with BAE'S post acceptance and once the OPVs were in service in the waters of Trinidad and Tobago."

In Parliament, Ramlogan said the Government had saved a $32 million dollar recurrent expenditure for maintenance of the boats as well as a $24 million recurrent expenditure for the crew.

To be continued in tomorrow's Express

[zoom rader]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to know why no arrest for cocaine bust

[WetR]

awaiting pics from rspann. let those with eyes see!

[rfari]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to know why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

[RIPEBREDFRUIT]

Calder hart FREE.... millions maybe even a billion of our tax payers money GONE.......... Voodoo( spiritual advisor) Millions GONE............... CL Financial................ cough cough, leave me alone im sick so dont interrupt me while in in treatment in a TOP CLASS HIGH RIse luxury palace in FL..............

OH how trinidadians are stupid and blinded by TRibal Ethics when it comes to politricks.........................

[WetR]

scare tactics everywhere no matter who is in power. those with eyes will see!

[mrtrini45]

Calder hart FREE.... millions maybe even a billion of our tax payers money GONE.......... Voodoo( spiritual advisor) Millions GONE............... CL Financial................ cough cough, leave me alone im sick so dont interrupt me while in in treatment in a TOP CLASS HIGH RIse luxury palace in FL..............

OH how trinidadians are stupid and blinded by TRibal Ethics when it comes to politricks.........................

LOL like this one

[NorStar2K]

remember Norstark complaining about the cancellation like someone stole his candy....this comes to mind....“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”

I really hope he isnt in a senior decision-making position.

Yuh know when you start making stupid comments like this, especially when you don't know me, it sets you apart from the rest right?!

[zoom rader]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to know why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Dont worry rfari yuh want boats for drug bust, well it comming from columbee and it wont be no conned deal

[rfari]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to know why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Dont worry rfari yuh want boats for drug bust, well it comming from columbee and it wont be no conned deal

Lets wait for the details

[UML]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to k now why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Look who talking...th King himself. Dat is an epic pot kettle case

[rfari]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to k now why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Look who talking...th King himself. Dat is an epic pot kettle case

Quote instances

[UML]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to k now why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Look who talking...th King himself. Dat is an epic pot kettle case

Quote instances

Too many to remember...but i remember reading u saying that our borders were unprotected after the govt won the opv deal

[rfari]

^^^ tuners dont want to know about money save from a conned deal, they want to k now why no arrest for cocaine bust

Haha. Zoom u does have to twist things in ur mind to feel comfortable about yourself eh?

Look who talking...th King himself. Dat is an epic pot kettle case

Quote instances

Too many to remember...but i remember u saying that our borders were unprotected after the govt won the opv deal

And it isnt? Or right cocaine in submarines now. :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
Ah boy! In any case, I covered this with zr already and im not going to repeat it. Look thru this ched and u would see the points i made and where i stand on the matter.

[dcom23]

so nobody read the express follow up article that point out that we essentially lost a billion on the related opv costs i.e. training andd the infrastructural work that was done? also that we might have been paying intrest on a loan taken to fund boats we didnt buy? can someone explain to me how this is a success?

[rfari]

so nobody read the express follow up article that point out that we essentially lost a billion on the related opv costs i.e. training andd the infrastructural work that was done? also that we might have been paying intrest on a loan taken to fund boats we didnt buy? can someone explain to me how this is a success?

U cyar say that lest u be labelled a jew. Careful

[rfari]

Lil slow on the draw there uml

[rfari]

sorry but i dont live on here like u...i have a life.

Nah nah. I not talking about that. Ur time to share pwnage on this issue kinda pass. Unno

[eliteauto]

remember Norstark complaining about the cancellation like someone stole his candy....this comes to mind....“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”

I really hope he isnt in a senior decision-making position.

would you care to show how you arrived at that?

[UML]

so nobody read the express follow up article that point out that we essentially lost a billion on the related opv costs i.e. training andd the infrastructural work that was done? also that we might have been paying intrest on a loan taken to fund boats we didnt buy? can someone explain to me how this is a success?

there is a term for this, cant think of it right now, where govt continue to pump money into failed projects "to save face" and complete it because of the money already invested in it rather than stop and count their losses.

hence the reason we have so many brian lara stadiums, piarco airport, etc.....they already invested too much to stop....so they continue with the project and it becomes overpriced.....and we criticize for overspending!!

or we cut our losses and try to save a little than all that is lost....and we criticize losing money!!

damned if u do...damned if u dont!!


so would u prefer having $2,000,000,000 boats which cant shoot straight and have no evaluation reports of their performance??? cat in bag?

better buy a pirogue!

[rfari]

Shhshhshh uml popo. Everything gonna be ok. Kpb gonna make everything right again. Doh wowwy 2pat

[eliteauto]

so you cannot?

[sMASH]

so, pnm laid a trap and unc fell for it. the candle cost more than the funeral.

at the end of the day, whether unc or pnm or who ever, all dem ministers playing around in government, living it up, earning gargantuan salaries from our taxes, they could fly out and afford any medical facility, and if i have a medical issue, or my neighbor's child has an issue we go to the hospital and have to wait 24 hrs to get a bed, just to hear the doctor tell us to to to his private practice, where we need to pay him.