Wrecked for $6.5m

[Bourbon]

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-06-03/wrecked-65m

A water tender bought for close to $2 million for boosting the fleet at the Arima Fire Station ended up costing almost three times that amount after it was involved in an accident last November 17 along the North Coast. Retrieving the firetruck incurred a bill of $6.5 million. Several attempts by T&T Guardian to seek answers as to why such a hefty sum was paid to Sammy’s Multilift Services Ltd to remove and tow the fire truck met with resistance. The water tender, TBY 9251, was responding to a report in the Blanchisseuse area when it skidded and ran off the road, plunging 300 feet down a precipice.

 

 

At the time of the accident, which occurred near the Asa Wright Nature Centre, the firefighters escaped serious injury. Sammy’s Multilift Services, a subsidiary of Junior Sammy Contractors, of Sum Sum Hill, Claxton Bay, was contracted to retrieve the truck. President of Sammy’s Multilift Ramdath Ramsubir confirmed to the T&T Guardian his company had been hired but refused to disclose specifics of the cost of the job except to say: “I know it was justified. It was around $6 million. I do not understand why this has to be an article in the first place.
“The point is we specialise in our field. A price was based on our expertise and equipment. “I know what we would normally cost clients for jobs like that. I am justified in what we did. When people ask we will justify. I gave you a ballpark figure but you continue to ask more and more questions.”

 

Told the T&T Guardian was seeking a breakdown of the price because questions were raised about the sum paid, Ramsubir replied: “If I do not give you a breakdown, what happens? That is confidential information.” Asked his reason for refusing to disclose the information, Ramsubir said: “That is putting our business out there. I am concerned about our company information out there.” Asked what type of equipment was used, Ramsubir said: “We had to use three different cranes and then equipment to transport it after it was taken out. “It required a lot of equipment and manpower. It took us four days. We used modular trailers and we had other mobile equipment that was used to minimise traffic. We had about 25 people on site who literally camped out there.”

 

 

Ramsubir then asked the T&T Guardian to call back at 1 pm, saying: “I cannot recall the individual prices. I will get the documents. I still will not give you the exact details. I will only give you general information.” Attempts to call back Ramsubir for more information were unsuccessful. At the time of the accident, Jack Warner held the portfolio of Minister of National Security and the chief fire officer was Carl Williams. Warner has since resigned from the Government following FIFA corruption allegations and Williams is on pre-retirement leave. Warner did not respond to text messages yesterday. Contacted yesterday, permanent secretary Jennifer Boucaud-Blake, who is in the United Kingdom, told the T&T Guardian she had absolutely no part in authorising the payment.     

 

In a telephone interview, Boucaud-Blake said: “I cannot approve anything more than $1 million. “I did not approve anything concerning that fire truck. It would have had to be at the level of the Cabinet and that was between the then minister and Cabinet. It did not pass across my desk at all. I did not sign off on anything. “I cannot approve any expenditure over $1 million. It cannot be approved by a permanent secretary. I will not be so crazy to approve expenditure over $1 million. “I vaguely remember the incident, the minister and the chief fire officer was involved.”

 

 

In response to e-mailed requests for information on the cost of the job, the director of the ministry’s corporate communications unit, Marcia Hope, wrote: “The removal of the fire truck was above the permanent secretary’s $1 million limit and was forwarded to Cabinet and got its approval.” Hope later telephoned the T&T Guardian and added that on the basis of the competence and technical assessment of the chief fire officer at the time, the job was recommended to Cabinet for approval. Contacted yesterday, Williams referred the T&T Guardian to acting chief fire officer Nayar Rampersad, saying: “Why have you called me at this time, when I am on pre-retirement leave?”Told that it was because he was the chief fire officer when the accident took place, Williams said: “From a moral standpoint I do not think it will be right. “I think you should speak to the present CFO because I like to give people their due respect.” Confirming the accident yesterday, Rampersad said investigations were ongoing and he was in the process of submitting a report to line minister Emmanuel George and the permanent secretary. Rampersad said the chief fire officer had a limit of only $100,000. “It is out of my remit to approve expenditure of that cost. I am conducting investigations,” Rampersad said.

[just cool]

Thieves!! but they will get off, bc in the history of T&T no one ever went to jail for bobol!

[mukumsplau]

Jack gave firetruck deal before approval

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-06-05/jack-gave-firetruck-deal-approval

CABINET SAID NO TWICE
Published:
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Anika Gumbs-Sandiford
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A truck-mounted crane lifts the damaged firetruck off the flatbed tow truck on the Junior Sammy compound.
Cabinet twice refused to sign off on the whopping $10 million quotation originally submitted for removing the firetruck involved in an accident last November. That original reluctance appears to have been justified, as other wrecking companies yesterday estimated the cost for such a job at $50,000 at most. T&T Guardian learned the recommendation was submitted to the Ministry of National Security on November 22 by former chief fire officer Carl Williams on the basis of a technical assessment.
 
The water tender from the Arima Fire Station was responding to a report in Blanchisseuse when it ran off the road, plunging over a 300-foot cliff, a T&T Guardian exclusive reported yesterday. On the basis of Williams’s recommendation, the line minister at the time, Jack Warner, took a note to Cabinet for approval. However, some ministers objected to the cost and approval was withheld at two Cabinet meetings.
 
Ministry officials yesterday told T&T Guardian that Cabinet eventually approved a revised price of $6.8 million for retrieving the truck. The approval, however, was granted in December—some weeks after the job had already been done. Documents obtained by the T&T Guardian yesterday showed the Rosenbauer water tender was bought in 2006 for $2,236,275.35. Contacted yesterday, Williams said: “I am on pre-retirement leave. Please call me back at 4 pm.”
 
However, later phone calls went directly to his voice mail. A senior government minister said yesterday: “The former minister submitted a note for cover approval. “In the first two instances, approval was not granted because concerns were raised about the price. But because the work was completed, approval was eventually granted. Concerns were raised.”
 
Permanent Secretary in the National Security Ministry Jennifer Boucaud-Blake, who is in the United Kingdom at present, has distanced herself from any involvement, saying she is not authorised to approve spending over $1 million. Acting Chief Fire Officer Nayar Rampersad, contacted yesterday, said a report was expected to be submitted to current line minister Emmanuel George next week, to determine if it was cost-effective to repair the water tender.
 
The truck is currently parked at the Chaguanas Fire Station as investigations continue.
 
 
Other estimates: $25-$50,000
Owners of other wrecking companies were yesterday shocked at the bill for retrieving the firetruck. The head of the company that retrieved the truck, Ramdath Ramsubir, of Sammy’s Multilift Services Ltd, is insisting that the cost is “justified.” Sammy’s Multilift Services is a subsidiary of Junior Sammy Contractors.
 
The T&T Guardian was referred to two companies that specialise in removing heavy equipment: Chiney Wrecking Services, owned by Larry Mohan, and Fyzam Garage 24hr Wrecking Service. Both are south-based and have been in business for over 20 years. Yesterday, the owners said they were at a loss as to what would have contributed to such a hefty price.
 
Mohan scoffed at the $6 million price tag, saying: “It could have cost nowhere near that. “We have been in the wrecking business over 25 years, and did several jobs like that in Maracas,” he said. “That job will cost no more than $50,000, and that is the maximum. “We have equipment to move heavy vehicles like that and I am sure we could have pulled it out. “In no part of the world could it ever happen...The vehicle is not even valued at that price.
 
“For a crane to pick it up means that it was not in such a bad area. If it was in a dangerous place, a crane could not even reach there. Two wreckers could have pulled out the water tender.” Fyzam Ali said based on his calculations, he would have charged a mere $25,000 for the job. Ali, the owner of Fyzam Garage, said after he read the report in yesterday’s T&T Guardian, he tried to calculate an estimated cost and was unable to arrive at the figure of $6.5 million.
 
“The most I will say is $25,000,” Ali said. Told that the water tender had plunged down 300 feet over a precipice and three cranes were used to retrieve it, Ali replied: “It was to make the work look big. “They could have bought a new water tender and leave that one there,” he said. “I am shocked. That is too much money. I have been in the business for 30 years and no job has ever cost $6 million—not even close. "I think somebody is mad.”
 
 
Breakdown of the $10 million bill:
In the recommendation he submitted to Warner, Williams gave a breakdown of the proposed $10 million bill. It listed:
Mobilisation and demobilisation fee
Excavators
Heavy-haul extended trailer-track truck
Lighting towers
Rigging equipment
Crane mats
Safety officers
Project managers
Riggers
Hygienic facilities

[MEP]

Breakdown of the $10 million bill:
In the recommendation he submitted to Warner, Williams gave a breakdown of the proposed $10 million bill. It listed:
Mobilisation and demobilisation fee
Excavators
Heavy-haul extended trailer-track truck
Lighting towers
Rigging equipment
Crane mats
Safety officers
Project managers
Riggers
Hygienic facilities


then you factor in
computer fee
Manager to the Project managers fee
Delousing fee seeing that there were several Project managers one of dem had to be ah louse
Rumshop fees
The oh shit.....like de driver was drinkin or wah fee
security guard fee...yuh know Trini like to macco

[Brownsugar]

uuuuummmmm......in his first year as Min. of Works, Jackula put out a full colour mutiple pages worth of information in the newspapers touting his achievements in the year.  One "sponsor" of the document was Junior Sammy.  Well it could be that since Junior Sammy doing practically ALL the paving in the country it is fitting that they put their 2 cents in the effort.  But then I sure I hear somewhere dem and Jackula tight, tight.....

........or I'm probably just looking for conspiracy where there is none.......

[Touches]

Sorry for the double post admins...I delete it.

I want to wreck too.

I want to wreck all the cars on the avenue.

Money like dat

[Dutty]

So besides de fact that Jack and Sammy take dey cut

Why ah fire truck commin all de way from Arima to assist in Blanchisseuse ...it eh have bout 10 station in beetween
Or the fire chief take he cut too?

[grimm01]

Steups for the money they shoulda leave it there and buy two new ones, one to replace the lost truck and the other for Blanchisseuse. The balance coulda been used to hire a crew for the new truck too.

[Bourbon]

So besides de fact that Jack and Sammy take dey cut

Why ah fire truck commin all de way from Arima to assist in Blanchisseuse ...it eh have bout 10 station in beetween
Or the fire chief take he cut too?

There is a road to Blanchisseuse from Arima known as the Bypass road. This is the road it happened on. Its actually the shorter way to Asa Wright etc.

[weary1969]

So besides de fact that Jack and Sammy take dey cut

Why ah fire truck commin all de way from Arima to assist in Blanchisseuse ...it eh have bout 10 station in beetween
Or the fire chief take he cut too?

There is a road to Blanchisseuse from Arima known as the Bypass road. This is the road it happened on. Its actually the shorter way to Asa Wright etc.

Was now goin and tell Dutty he need a Geography refresher.

[Dutty]

So besides de fact that Jack and Sammy take dey cut

Why ah fire truck commin all de way from Arima to assist in Blanchisseuse ...it eh have bout 10 station in beetween
Or the fire chief take he cut too?

There is a road to Blanchisseuse from Arima known as the Bypass road. This is the road it happened on. Its actually the shorter way to Asa Wright etc.

Was now goin and tell Dutty he need a Geography refresher.

sad but true
Allyuh eh lie dey nah, I could find all kinda rango waterin hole from Kansas to Kentucky......but if yuh drop mih by the Arima Dial and say 'meet we in Princes Town' without ah GPS, I go real ketch mih ass oui

[g]

Doesn't the army have an engineering unit? Not sure if they have that kind of equipment but surely they have the manpower and on top of that all of them fall within the same ministry and are already funded via Tax dollars.

Based on the other estimates of less than 1% of what was actually paid, this is really grotesque.

[Peong]

These fellas SICK!  Outrageous tiefin and yuh know this is only the tip of the iceberg.

[Bourbon]

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-06-06/warner-decision-wreck-firetruck-taken-cabinet

Former Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner yesterday dismissed the story of a decision he made as Minister of National Security to pay $6.5 million to wreck a fire tender as “foolish.” Speaking before the start of a walkabout in the constituency, Warner said he alone could not have taken any decision to pay the $6.8 million for the removal of the firetruck. He said: “Any decision in Cabinet is what you call collective responsibility and therefore Jack Warner alone could not take any decision.

 

“If there was no Chaguanas by-election you would not see that report. If I was still in Parliament or Cabinet you won’t see that report.” He said he found it strange that a copy of the technical report on the incident had not been sent to the media. The T&T Guardian in fact obtained the report yesterday as it continued its investigations into the incident

 

Warner said he believed that was part of a “dirty tricks campaign” that he expected to worsen as the date of the by-election drew closer.

[Bourbon]

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2013-06-06/top-fire-officer-advised-write

The water tender involved in an accident last November was so badly damaged that it should have been disposed of. Acting deputy chief fire officer Dana Roach made that recommendation in a November 29 letter which also recommended that a replacement should be acquired for approximately $2.7 million. The letter was written before Cabinet agreed to the reduced price of $6.8 million for retrieving the firetruck after it ran over a cliff in Blanchisseuse.

 

 

Cabinet twice refused to agree to the original quotation of $10 million. The letter, obtained by the T&T Guardian, said nine days after the accident on November 17, the truck was inspected by a team comprising acting brigades engineer Earl Browne, acting divisional fire officer Arnold Bristo and the service manager of Indocom Ltd, local agent for Rosenbauer International, the company that supplied the water tender.

 

 

The inspection was to evaluate its serviceability. The team found damage to the entire rear of the appliance, damage to the water tank and severe damage to the crew cab and the drive train. On this basis Roach wrote: “In this regard the general consensus was that it was too costly to refurbish the vehicle as opposed to purchasing a new appliance for approximately $2.7 million.

 

“It is therefore recommended that the appliance be placed on a board of survey listing to be disposed of, with a further recommendation that the appliance be retained and those serviceable parts be utilised for the maintenance of existing and similar appliances in the fleet.” Contacted yesterday, Roach said, “Well, first of all I have no comment to make...As far as I am concerned that is an internal matter. “A decision was made to retrieve the vehicle and that is it,” he added.

 

The water tender, from the Arima Fire Station, was responding to a call from Blanchisseuse when it ran off the road, plunging over a 300-foot cliff, a T&T Guardian exclusive reported on Tuesday. Six firefighters were aboard but escaped serious injury.

 

Cabinet twice refused to sign off on the $10,189,115 quotation submitted, but eventually agreed to a revised price of $6.8 million. The note was taken to Cabinet by the national security minister at the time,  Jack Warner. The tender was retrieved by Sammy’s Multilift Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Junior Sammy Contractors.

 

In an interview with the T&T Guardian last week, Ramdath Ramsubir, of Sammy’s Multilift, insisted the cost was “justified,” when told that concerns had been raised about the hefty sum paid for the job. Ramsubir said: “It required a lot of equipment and manpower. It took us four days. We used modular trailers and we had other mobile equipment that was used to minimise traffic. We had about 25 people on site who literally camped out there.”

 

However, in a report dated November 22 and sent to permanent secretary in the National Security Ministry Jennifer Boucaud-Blake, former chief fire officer Carl Williams said the job was completed two days after the accident. Ramsubir could not be contacted yesterday.

 

 

What the Fire Service reported:

In a cover letter attached to the report sent to the PS, former chief fire officer Carl Williams wrote:
“Mr Junior Sammy of Jusamco Ltd was contacted and a crew from that company was sent to retrieve the water tanker from the precipice. This Herculean task was achieved at around 9 pm on November 19. “The appliance vehicle was sent to Arima Fire Station to maintain our emergency response in that area.” Williams also mentioned the outstanding payment to Sammy’s Multilift Services Ltd.

 

Referring Boucaud-Blake to the invoice submitted, Williams said: “I have perused the attached document and found the contents to be genuine. “In this regard, the payment to Sammy’s Multilift Services Ltd in the sum of $10,189,115 remains outstanding. “This payment is to be made for retrieval of No 504 water tanker, registration TBY 9251 which fell down a precipice in Blanchisseuse (in the vicinity of Asa Wright Nature Centre) on November 17, 2012.”

 

Williams reported that the Fire Service land search and rescue teams from the Santa Cruz and Chaguanas Fire Stations had gone to the scene but were unable to retrieve the water tender.

 

 

Breakdown of the bill:
While Ramsubir refused to give a breakdown of the bill,  the T&T Guardian obtained a copy of the pricing for the job.
The $10 million bill (VAT inclusive) listed:
Supply of equipment—$7,539,000
Supply of manpower—$303,600
Supply of supervisors—$522,500
Transportation of workers—$100,000
Miscellaneous tools (compressor, power tools)—$150,000
Consumables—$115,000
Hygienic facilities—$65,000
Meals—$65,000

[1-868]

Anil: Blame the Fire Chief

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Anil-Blame-the-Fire-Chief-212422561.html

Blame the Chief Fire Officer for the entire firetruck fiasco!

Sport Minister Anil Roberts said the fiasco occurred not with the former minister of National Security or the Cabinet which approved the funding but with the public servants.

Roberts said ex-minister Jack Warner first learned about the firetruck issue when a note was prepared for him to take to Cabinet, asking for its approval of the $10.1 million payment to retrieve a Fire Service water tender from a precipice in Blanchisseuse last November.

 The fee was subsequently reduced to $6.8 million.

 “The first sight of it the minister had was when the note was ready to go to Cabinet. Before that, there was no ministerial intervention.”

At yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Roberts said the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) had the ability to incur that kind of cost and then notify the minister and Cabinet.

He said the Cabinet was presen­ted with a fait accompli. He said the CFO asked a company to tell him how much it would cost to get the truck out.

 “At some time, the CFO approved and requested of the company to take out the truck. The company presented an invoice to the CFO. The CFO sent a memo for payment to the PS (permanent secretary) on November 27.

 “Notice, no Cabinet nor minister was involved.”

The CFO’s memo, which came with an invoice, said: “The payment to Sammy’s Multilift Services Limited in the sum of $10,189,115 remains outstanding.”

Roberts said he had perused the invoice and found its contents to be genuine.

He said there was covering approval for cases of emergencies for persons to spend money and then seek approval of Cabinet.

 “The work had been done, done, done,” Roberts said. “He did not have to call a minister and get the minister to say, ‘Hey, take out the truck.’ The minister was sleeping, talking politics....”

 He said the Cabinet then had to decide whether to pay the bill or renege and go to court.

 Roberts said that is the system that has existed since 1962.

 The Chief Fire Officer who was involved in this matter has since retired.

However, accounting officers yesterday disputed Roberts’ statement, saying the CFO did not have the authority to award a $10 million contract and without tender.

 Sources told the Express the very reason the contract ended up before the Cabinet for approval for funding was because the permanent secretary recognised that neither she nor the Chief Fire Officer had the legal authority to award a contract for more than $1 million without a tender.

At the post-Cabinet news conference, Roberts also said, similarly, that the recent Auditor General’s report, which found many irregula­rities, was not about ministers but public servants since ministers “did not write cheques, approve invoices, do the accounting”.

[Jah Gol]

While a full statement is awaited on Cabinet’s investigation into the fire truck “fiasco;” more precisely as the cabal in the Cabinet (those who led the chorus to pay the $6.8 million for retrieval of the firetruck from the precipice) searches for plausibility on this outrageous wrecking bill, it remains incredulous that the Cabinet, the highest executive decision-making body in the land, could have succumbed in the manner it is reported to have done to this shake-down.
 
There would be those who would argue that the Cabinet did not succumb but for whatever the reason bought into the rationale behind the payment. But maybe those who readily agreed to this injudicious expenditure knew more than the others who were forced on board the ship when it set sail.
 
Even more astonishing is the attempt by individual cabinet members to persuade the national population that payment of the bill was exclusively the responsibility of former national security minister Jack Warner; even more unbelievably that the responsibility lies with the chief fire officer.
 
The contours of the spin so far discerned suggest that the same tactic used in the firing of Herbert Volney, ie, he misled Cabinet, will be again applied. Only difference this time around, Warner has already left/been fired for another reason; there will, therefore, be no head on a silver platter for this obscene pillage of the Treasury.
 
Collective cabinet responsibility as fixed in the tradition of Westminster is based upon the need for ministers belonging to the Cabinet to fully discuss policies, programmes and other matters brought before the Executive before agreement is arrived at. Once that discussion is engaged and a conclusion reached by the whole, those who had previously disagreed must fall in line or leave the Cabinet if the matter continues to stick in the craw.
 
It defies 21st-century logic that a group of ministers, chaired by a Prime Minister, a brilliant senior counsel, and one containing another of the same ilk/silk and several persons of PhD and senior academic status and experience, could sit and agree to spend $6.8 million to retrieve a water tender without asking and getting logical responses to basic fundamental questions.
 
How much would it cost to replace this tender? What was the original value of the vehicle? Were there attempts to seek other bids to get the job done? An anonymously-quoted Cabinet minister is supposed to have said that they were led to believe that the water truck cost $50 million; so $6.8 million seemed reasonable. What director of a company would swallow that story without checking? Remember, this is a water truck, not one of those fancy appliances with hoses, ladders and the other accoutrements needed for fire fighting. 
 
Any board of directors, any cabinet must perform a role beyond being a rubber stamp for every project laid on the table. If the Cabinet is not the place for a rigorous discussion on policies, the expenditure of billions of dollars before final decisions are taken, then our system of governance is obsolete, open to gross inefficiency, corruption and much more.
 
Indeed, this Cabinet recently fired the board of Caribbean Airlines for inefficient use of the resources of the airline in circumstances far less aggravated than this one. Is it that the Cabinet has a special privilege to throw away (or worse) the resources of the country?
Further indictment on the Cabinet and the process of blind or forced adherence to whatever comes before it is the practice that has been adopted by succeeding cabinets, that being that policies and programmes have a second pass before a final decision is taken.
 
The logic of the process of having Cabinet members reflect on the policy, programme or decision for a second time suggests that ministers have time to research, rethink and/or reflect on the matter before an eventual decision is made.
 
 
That the payment, whether $10m or $6.8m, was refused a second time indicates that there were those who were not persuaded that the job and firetruck were worth the asking fee. What reasons did they offer for refusing the second time? Were there ministers who had sought-out and received answers to the logical questions posed above? Minister Anil Roberts stated in Parliament that notwithstanding the Cabinet’s refusal, the job was done and so left Cabinet with no choice but to pick up the bill.
 
Question: What did the strong and sagacious Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar do about a minister who so violated procedure? She surely fired a few other ministers for far less. The fact is that in all probability if there was not this rupture in the relations between Warner and the Prime Minister and a few members of the cabal, information on the firetruck matter would never have surfaced.
 
 
It seems clear that having found itself in a serious bind in relation to Warner’s intended candidacy for the ruling United National Congress in Chaguanas West, the leak in the information was sprung to remove the Warner threat. However, mouth open and tory jump out.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/columnist/2013-06-19/mouth-open-tory-jump-out

[Bourbon]

Moral of Story: Blame Rolls  downhill.


http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Anil-Blame-the-Fire-Chief-212422561.html

Anil: Blame the Fire Chief
By Ria Taitt Political Editor

Story Created: Jun 20, 2013 at 9:35 PM ECT

Story Updated: Jun 21, 2013 at 12:05 AM ECT

Blame the Chief Fire Officer for the entire firetruck fiasco!

Sport Minister Anil Roberts said the fiasco occurred not with the former minister of National Security or the Cabinet which approved the funding but with the public servants.

Roberts said ex-minister Jack Warner first learned about the firetruck issue when a note was prepared for him to take to Cabinet, asking for its approval of the $10.1 million payment to retrieve a Fire Service water tender from a precipice in Blanchisseuse last November.

 The fee was subsequently reduced to $6.8 million.

 “The first sight of it the minister had was when the note was ready to go to Cabinet. Before that, there was no ministerial intervention.”

At yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Roberts said the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) had the ability to incur that kind of cost and then notify the minister and Cabinet.

He said the Cabinet was presen­ted with a fait accompli. He said the CFO asked a company to tell him how much it would cost to get the truck out.

 “At some time, the CFO approved and requested of the company to take out the truck. The company presented an invoice to the CFO. The CFO sent a memo for payment to the PS (permanent secretary) on November 27.

 “Notice, no Cabinet nor minister was involved.”

The CFO’s memo, which came with an invoice, said: “The payment to Sammy’s Multilift Services Limited in the sum of $10,189,115 remains outstanding.”

Roberts said he had perused the invoice and found its contents to be genuine.

He said there was covering approval for cases of emergencies for persons to spend money and then seek approval of Cabinet.

 “The work had been done, done, done,” Roberts said. “He did not have to call a minister and get the minister to say, ‘Hey, take out the truck.’ The minister was sleeping, talking politics....”

 He said the Cabinet then had to decide whether to pay the bill or renege and go to court.

 Roberts said that is the system that has existed since 1962.

 The Chief Fire Officer who was involved in this matter has since retired.

However, accounting officers yesterday disputed Roberts’ statement, saying the CFO did not have the authority to award a $10 million contract and without tender.

Sources told the Express the very reason the contract ended up before the Cabinet for approval for funding was because the permanent secretary recognised that neither she nor the Chief Fire Officer had the legal authority to award a contract for more than $1 million without a tender.

At the post-Cabinet news conference, Roberts also said, similarly, that the recent Auditor General’s report, which found many irregula­rities, was not about ministers but public servants since ministers “did not write cheques, approve invoices, do the accounting”.

[Jah Gol]

Anil shoulda blame the OJTs working the Fire Services Accounts Department.

[weary1969]

Anil shoulda blame the OJTs working the Fire Services Accounts Department.

If u doubted that d circus is in town Anil actg Min of Communications should end all doubt.

[Jah Gol]

Anil shoulda blame the OJTs working the Fire Services Accounts Department.

If u doubted that d circus is in town Anil actg Min of Communications should end all doubt.

I watched the news report with him. He's like the Iraqi Minister of Information except he has the demeanor of a market vendor, and don't mean to decry market vendors.

Kamla's judgement in terms of the kind of people she appoints is woeful. I sometimes wonder if she exercises any care at all.

[weary1969]

Anil shoulda blame the OJTs working the Fire Services Accounts Department.

If u doubted that d circus is in town Anil actg Min of Communications should end all doubt.

I watched the news report with him. He's like the Iraqi Minister of Information except he has the demeanor of a market vendor, and don't mean to decry market vendors.

Kamla's judgement in terms of the kind of people she appoints is woeful. I sometimes wonder if she exercises any care at all.

Clueless people get vex when they refer 2 Kamla as clueless