Suspicious deals, ‘potential felonies uncovered’

The Minister for the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) Trevor Prescod today revealed millions of dollars of financial irregularities coming to office in May 2018, ranging from the “suspicious” to “potential felonies”.

But the Minister did not indicate whether the wrongdoing had been reported to the police or if any other action had been taken to make any official accountable, even as the Government introduced an extra levy to pay for garbage and sewage management.

“Contracts were given at grossly inflated prices and we changed that,” Prescod told Parliament as it met on the Estimates.

“If a government can pay $2 million a month to an enterprise for service, and a new Government can come back, re-negotiate it and we see a reduction of the total amount by 50 per cent, I have reason to be suspicious.

“The mess at the Sanitation Service Authority was such we are still trying to unearth it, and some of these things have the potential to emerge as felonies.

“We came and found a department owing $27,497,130.63 to the National Insurance Scheme, $10,679,075.34 in Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to the Barbados Revenue Authority, $34 million to the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre and other suppliers, and over $3 million to other small businesses with whom it had worked.”

Prescod, the Minister of Environment and National Beautification, said the Garbage and Sewage Contribution had been introduced to bring much-needed funds into the Sanitation Service Authority, and outlined the process used to purchase the newest set of garbage trucks which came into the island last December.

He said: “The matter was taken to the board of the SSA and the board approved it and from there it passed to me and the trucks were on their way, within a shorter period of time than usual because there was direct negotiation owing to the urgency of the matter.”

In response to a request from Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley to explain how the new trucks were financed and identify the agents who brought them in, SSA Acting General Manager Janice Jones told the House: “The overall value of the ten trucks was $2,300,000.

“There was an initial deposit of $1 million, which we paid, and the Ministry of Finance paid the balance after we advised that we only had enough money for the deposit and asked whether the Ministry would be able to meet it.

“Those vehicles are fully paid for and were imported by FSBT, a company registered in Barbados.”

Prescod also spoke on the National Clean-up Campaign, revealing that in selecting its workers, the National Conservation Commission did not favour any constituency over another.

He said: “The Prime Minister had only made a  certain amount of dollars available to me, and while some of my fellow MPs got upset with me in relation to the jobs and there were many negatives about how the jobs were given out, I did not select anyone from my community.

“I told them to go to my personal assistant and speak to her, register at the National Conservation Commission, and I believe you will stand a chance – some did not respond favourably, some MPs got more than others, but based on the maximum amount I was supposed to give out, those who believed equity should prevail divided the numbers fairly.

“I trusted the staff at the NCC for the selection of the workers and we employed 300 people.”

He continued: “The programme was initially supposed to last six weeks, and I was not allowed to go over budget.

“When the money was exhausted I made a mercy plea to the Prime Minister, she discussed it with me, and I asked her whether they could come in week on week off if the money had depleted, and that was agreed to.

“The money I managed to get will take them to the end of March, and the Prime Minister said once she looks back at the figures she will continue the process, so these people should be able to work till the end of the year.”