Although Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi blamed the Opposition for narrowing government’s options to increase revenue in Parliament on Friday, opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal offered another explanation for resource constraints – financial wastage.
In his contribution to a debate on health-care delivery in the House of Representative on Friday, Moonilal said the government spent almost $400 million to construct a new Ministry of Health and a multi-storey carpark near the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) with money that could have helped patients.
He said, “Four hundred million dollars gone into health-related infrastructure that does not touch on a patient in terms of equipment, in terms of machines, in terms of medication, in terms of cutting down waiting time. While they were spending $400 million, 500 doctors were unemployed in this country.”
Apart from claiming the new headquarters was a waste of money, he raised concerns over the Build-Own-Lease-Transfer (BOLT) contract used to construct it. He said according to the project contract, the government transferred the property to Asclepius Holdings Ltd to use as equity to secure a loan to finance the project.
Furthermore, he said the project now left the government on the hook for a $30 million annual bill to the contractor for the next 15 years – a total of $450 million by the end of the period.
“The government could have simply used the land itself and built a building for $260 million. Why go through all this intricacy to pay $30 million per year for 15 years?”
Moonilal was quoting from a February 19, 2024 release on the website of Aleron Ltd, an engineering company associated with the project. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh previously announced the cost at the building’s ribbon-cutting ceremony last year.
He then explained that the ministry had been renting for decades and had nothing to show for it. Deyalsingh said, with the new building, at the end of the 15 years, it will be owned by the government.
On Friday, Moonilal also claimed the SFGH spent $100,000 weekly to dispose of medical waste through contracts since its furnace stopped working owing to lack of maintenance. He said the hospital had also been spending $75,000 weekly on standby generators as its three in-house generators were not working.
In response to Moonilal’s claims about the medical-waste-disposal bill, Tobago East MP Ayanna Webster-Roy said an autoclave machine would be commissioned at SFGH on Monday and would be able to safely treat 1.8 tonnes of medical waste daily.
Members were debating a motion piloted by opposition MP Dr Rishad Seecheran in January. It claimed the government failed to provide safe, reliable, and compassionate health-care services for all citizens.
Udecott head: Moonilal mistaken
Contacted for a response to the claims Moonilal made in Parliament earlier on Friday, Udecott chairman Noel Garcia told Newsday the former housing minister did not understand how the BOLT arrangement worked.
“It is clear that
