Beckles: PM distracting from LandmarkTT

Akash Sama­roo &

Jesse Ramdeo

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has ac­cused Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar of lead­ing a “wicked” and “in­com­pe­tent” Gov­ern­ment now try­ing to dis­tract from mount­ing con­tro­ver­sies sur­round­ing the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) and Land­mark­TT Prop­er­ties Lim­it­ed.

In a strong­ly word­ed state­ment yes­ter­day, Beck­les claimed Per­sad-Bisses­sar is de­lib­er­ate­ly at­tempt­ing to shift na­tion­al at­ten­tion away from ques­tions sur­round­ing more than “$4 bil­lion” in hous­ing-re­lat­ed con­tracts.

“Her voice has sud­den­ly emerged in an at­tempt to dis­tract the na­tion from Land­mark­TT-Gate and HDC-Gate, but it is not work­ing,” Beck­les de­clared.

Her com­ments came af­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar on Mon­day told Beck­les she was “the last per­son” to speak about ques­tion­able char­ac­ters in Par­lia­ment. The Prime Min­is­ter made the re­mark amid the on­go­ing con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates and al­le­ga­tions tied to her tenure on the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC).

On Sun­day, Beck­les called on the Prime Min­is­ter to deal with the qual­i­ty of sen­a­tors on the Gov­ern­ment bench be­fore wor­ry­ing about their Op­po­si­tion coun­ter­parts.

Beck­les ar­gued that Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent re­marks were “dis­taste­ful and des­per­ate com­ments” in­tend­ed to dis­tract from what she de­scribed as a fail­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion fac­ing “mount­ing dis­plea­sure of cit­i­zens.”

Beck­les added that the PM was pre­sid­ing over a Gov­ern­ment plagued by con­tro­ver­sy and pub­lic dis­sat­is­fac­tion.

“Her Gov­ern­ment is on the verge of col­lapse, and she is clutch­ing at straws,” Beck­les said, adding that the ad­min­is­tra­tion had “on­ly brought pain and suf­fer­ing to this na­tion.”

Beck­les al­so took aim at the char­ac­ter of in­di­vid­u­als as­so­ci­at­ed with the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Gov­ern­ment.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go looms un­der the shad­ow of a na­tion­al cri­sis un­der this UNC Gov­ern­ment, led by ques­tion­able char­ac­ters, in­clud­ing per­sons on bail and those be­fore the courts on oth­er se­ri­ous mat­ters,” she stat­ed.

Beck­les in­sist­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar had no stand­ing on which to lec­ture her.

“I find it shame­less­ly oxy­moron­ic that Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar seeks to lec­ture me on in­tegri­ty, ac­count­abil­i­ty, or lead­er­ship when she her­self has ques­tions to an­swer,” Beck­les said.

She added, “The Gov­ern­ment is des­per­ate for dis­trac­tions, even as the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go con­tin­ue to ask hard ques­tions about crime, the ris­ing cost of liv­ing, eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty, fail­ing in­fra­struc­ture and the grow­ing dis­con­nect be­tween this ad­min­is­tra­tion and the re­al­i­ties fac­ing or­di­nary fam­i­lies.” Guardian Me­dia reached out to Per­sad-Bisses­sar for a re­sponse yes­ter­day but none came be­fore press time.

Mean­while, PNM deputy leader San­jiv Bood­hu is call­ing on Min­is­ter of Land and Le­gal Af­fairs Sad­dam Ho­sein to break his si­lence and di­rect­ly ad­dress al­le­ga­tions of crony­ism and nepo­tism sur­round­ing ap­point­ments and con­tracts at Land­mark­TT.

Bood­hu made the call while re­spond­ing to ques­tions from re­porters out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, as scruti­ny in­ten­si­fies over claims that friends and close as­so­ciates of Ho­sein may have ben­e­fit­ed from po­si­tions with­in the state agency.

The con­tro­ver­sy comes af­ter Ho­sein de­fend­ed Land­mark­TT’s pro­cure­ment process in Par­lia­ment, in­sist­ing the Al­lam­by con­tract award­ed to Mooti­lal Ramhit & Sons Con­tract­ing Ltd was com­pet­i­tive­ly ten­dered and not sole-sourced.

He al­so main­tained Land­mark­TT was co­op­er­at­ing with the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) and de­nied any fam­i­ly mem­bers ben­e­fit­ed from gov­ern­ment con­tracts. How­ev­er, scruti­ny has in­ten­si­fied fol­low­ing re­ports link­ing Ho­sein to Saman­tha Han­sra­jie Singh-Poona, now North Cen­tral Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty deputy chair, through a com­pa­ny they joint­ly in­cor­po­rat­ed in 2022. Her hus­band, Nis­chall Shane Poona, lat­er be­came Land­mark­TT’s CEO.

Bood­hu said the pub­lic de­served an­swers.

“I think the min­is­ter, out of an abun­dance of in­ter­est and re­spect for the pub­lic’s ques­tions on the mat­ter, ought re­al­ly to say some­thing,” Bood­hu said.

Bood­hu said the is­sue should be clar­i­fied one way or an­oth­er.

“It’s ei­ther that it is so or it is not so. If it is not so, then there’s no prob­lem, come out and say that. If it is so, I’m sure there must be some log­i­cal ex­pla­na­tion as to what is the con­nec­tion among these peo­ple.”

He stressed that trans­paren­cy was es­sen­tial, adding that the pub­lic had a right to know the facts sur­round­ing the mat­ter.