WASA to pay $100 million by wednesday!?!?!

[*$kїđž!™]

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/WAS ... 40061.html

WASA ordered to pay $100m
Court of Arbitration rules in favour of Israeli firm

By Asha Javeed asha.javeed@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Apr 27, 2013 at 9:46 PM ECT
Story Updated: Apr 27, 2013 at 9:46 PM ECT
The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has until Wednesday to pay about $100 million to Israeli company Merhav Mekorot Development Trinidad and Tobago Limited (MMD) after it was defeated in an almost two-year-long arbitration on April 17.

The judgement was handed down by Richard Fernyhough QC on behalf of the International Court of Arbitration in London, England. He ruled that WASA has to pay the consortium US$15,771,468 no later than 14 days after the judgement was delivered and dismissed all of WASA’s claims and counterclaims on the matter.

The payout is exclusive of the legal costs the water company incurred during the dispute, having hired Start Isaacs QC and Seenath Jairam SC to handle the matter.

MMD was a special purpose company, incorporated for the sole purpose of executing an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for WASA.

It is owned by Merhav Limited and Mekorot Development and Enterprise Limited (MDE), which are both incorporated in Israel.

The EPC contract was signed on April 12, 2010, but was never implemented. The arbitration arose from disputes between both parties over the signature, completion and putting into effect of an agreement made between the parties.

The EPC deal, which was valued at US$100 million, was brought to national attention by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar when she was opposition leader, three days before the May 2010 general election.

Persad-Bissessar had queried why the deal was being done so close to a national election and urged then Prime Minister Patrick Manning to halt it.

To finance the arrangement, the Government had proposed floating a $1.3 billion bond with Citicorp.

After the People’s Partnership Government assumed power after May 24, WASA’s then chief executive Andrew Smith resigned and was replaced by now Environment and Water Resources Minister, Ganga Singh.

Singh opted not to pursue the EPC deal negotiated with MMD, which triggered the arbitration.

In his 79-page judgement, Fernyhough observed that WASA had had a relationship with MDE since 2009 when it worked alongside the company during the drought of that year.

Subsequently, MDE and WASA signed a memorandum of understanding where “it was agreed that MDE would be entitled to form a consortium with Merhav for the execution and implementation of water projects in Trinidad and Tobago”.

After it had received a “Letter of Undertaking”, the company was given two months--March-April 2010--to complete specified interim works.
“It is important to record that these works (which, at the hearing, were described as the “IPSP Works”) were carried out and completed satisfactorily and Merhav was paid in full for them,” noted Fernyhough.

In his judgement, Fernyhough detailed a timeline from which the former WASA board, chaired by Shafeek Sultan-Khan, awarded the EPC to MMD in April 2010 and how the election and change of Government affected the contract from being implemented.

Fernyhough noted that after a new board of governors was eventually appointed in December 2010, WASA was no longer interested in pursing the agreement with MMD. The water company subsequently sent a letter to MMD saying that the EPC “was not binding in any way”.

“On the facts as I see them, had the project gone ahead, WASA would have kept its expenditure to the minimum figure of US$100 million (as provided in Annex 2). This is because, after the change of government, for whatever reason (and this was never explained or even explored in evidence) the new administration was not at all keen on the terms of the EPC contract. That is why it, in effect, repudiated it from the outset. But, against this background, had the contract not been repudiated but gone forward, I think it is likely that WASA would have limited the spend to the contractual minimum of US$100 million,” the judgement noted.

“Having read the contemporaneous documentation put before me, in the period March 2010-March 2011, I am quite satisfied that, during this period, MMD did everything in its power to attempt to revive the moribund EPC contract and, when it failed, to attempt to persuade WASA to award different, and possibly, smaller contracts to MMD with the same overall objective, vis to improve the water supply in Trinidad and Tobago,” the judgement stated.

In March 2011, WASA issued a $1.3 billion Government-guranteed bond which was underwritten by Citicorp Merchant Bank, which was a similar facility which the former administration had hoped to utilise to capitalize on the MMD project.

The 20-year, zero-coupon bond stated that it was to fund a One-Year Action Agenda of the Ministry of Public Utilities which includes infrastructure development water projects.

After the Cabinet re-shuffle of June 2012, Singh was moved from WASA and given his own Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. WASA was moved from Public Utilities to that Ministry.

In March 2013, Singh boasted that WASA had collected $836 million in revenue for 2012, which was an increase of $209 million over 2011.
WASA recently signed a $3.8 billion Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loan which will be used to implement a five-year programme, with the construction of two new wastewater treatment plants in Malabar and San Fernando.



guess water rates will be going up soon....

[nervewrecker]

Where have I heard that company name and wastewater recently?

Anyways, why pp scrap all pnm wastewater plans for? They like the idea of us drinking what goes down the toilet?

[black start]

imagine if they had to pay for all the roads that they fork up...that 100 mil would be a minute sum....

[*$kїđž!™]

imagine if they had to pay for all the roads that they fork up...that 100 mil would be a minute sum....

they do this to show the public that they are working to deliver water to the people...

[black start]

they do it about a week after the road is freshly paved. All they show the public is that some of the management ain't too bright.....

[shaneelal]

If tax payers should have to pay that, some people should get fired.

[kaylex]

We the public always have to pay fo0r mis steps by any government... Contracts are legally binding documents.. If we follow proper procurement and regulations regarding bidding this will never have happened... In any event.. the breaking of a contract .. involves payment out or in to the public purse.. the decision to break a contract falls entirely under the purview of the office of AG who is a supposed expert on legal matters... and guide the government ...
I guess the office got it wrong..
but we the tax paying public loose money that could be used to help fix our health sector.. even public utilities to provide water to some rural communities..

we loose all the time.. tax paying public i.e.

[rfari]

Way sah. Anand cancel the project because of a bad feel and didnt expect this to happen? Opvs all over again

[UML]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers


sad when u have to pay for something you never even get.

[rfari]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

[kaylex]

Trinidad and Tobago must be really cant develop>>we pausing state machinery for election.. then mashin up everything cause the next party do it.. CRAzY!!!

[UML]

that mashing up other ppl programmes is a backward step. all govts do it (PNM aint no angel when it comes to this). same as pnm in public sector not doing the work of the PP. trinis too backward and will never be a developed nation because of this. if is a good idea is a good idea..the ppl benefit from it. we doh care who put it once we get to use it.

continue with the programme but add ur twist to it if u want to say is ur party implement it...in the end it will be ur party implement it...implementation is the main ting not who come up with the idea.

[dougla_boy]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

Dunno why the fcuk u does answer he sheit for yuh know.......pack ah forking sheit I hadda read dis early morning yes.......




Sent from my sweet potato using TriniTuner mobile app

[UML]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

lay charges?

when last someone get charged for fraud/corruption?

colm imbert have $200,000 in he house hiding and no body question where it come from and u talking bout laying charges.....with a DPP like we have here we cyah charge nobody...look how Calder Hart going to get away as Manning and Pena...we done hearing talk bout closed session for CH

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

Dunno why the fcuk u does answer he sheit for yuh know.......pack ah forking sheit I hadda read dis early morning yes.......




Sent from my sweet potato using TriniTuner mobile app

ok is jack fault den

[firstchoicett]

100 million and no work done ... Just a void contract .. Company know how to make money.

[Chimera]

they do it about a week after the road is freshly paved. All they show the public is that some of the management ain't too bright.....

they actually have to do it because the paving equipment damages the old underground water lines
so after the road pave, they realize it have lines to fix.

but a few month ago some minister say he fedup of that and say wasa and whoever paving need to work together for wasa to run new , deeper lines right before they pave and thats what you see them doing, wasa digging up the road before and running new pipelines, then they pave it.

[BOOMboom]

when will we stop paying for PNM's mistakes from the past. $M's taxpyrs $$ flushed again.

[1UZFE]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

yeah but fari u do remember that one of the worrying aspects of the contract was the timing of it. In that it was so close to elections and was somewhat sketchy in details that it would have been prudent to investigate it. It would seem that some elements on the prior board or by extension in the previous goverment tried to get a piece ah paper b4 the election was called. It just turned around on the PP who will get shaft for it.

[nismoid]

That's US $100m, if tax payers should have to pay that, some people should get fired.

read it again
"He ruled that WASA has to pay the consortium US$15,771,468 no later than 14 days after the judgement was delivered"
that roughly equates to TTD$100M

[VexXx Dogg]

heads gonna roll in wasa?
who were the decision makers who screwed this up and cost the TAXPAYERS 100M TT?

[shaneelal]

That's US $100m, if tax payers should have to pay that, some people should get fired.

read it again
"He ruled that WASA has to pay the consortium US$15,771,468 no later than 14 days after the judgement was delivered"
that roughly equates to TTD$100M

Right, my mistake, project was valued at US$100 million. The legal costs for WASA are probably in the millions for this case.

[equipped2ripp]

This $100m is just a drop in the bucket for WASA and their debts.

[firstchoicett]

heads gonna roll in wasa?
who were the decision makers who screwed this up and cost the TAXPAYERS 100M TT?

that could of been back pay .

[rocknrolla]

is that why we cant get water whole weekend?

[rfari]

PNM AGAIN!!!

wouldnt the country be in election mode?

why would they sign big contracts as they did with all their other PNM partners before elections?

somebody mussee had to get a cut in it before the get kick out of office.

everybody pocket full except the tax payers

You dont think it would have been prudent to investigate the deal? You know, question those involved and lay charges if there was any wrongdoing?
Instead of rushing to end the contract and then tripping on urself?

yeah but fari u do remember that one of the worrying aspects of the contract was the timing of it. In that it was so close to elections and was somewhat sketchy in details that it would have been prudent to investigate it. It would seem that some elements on the prior board or by extension in the previous goverment tried to get a piece ah paper b4 the election was called. It just turned around on the PP who will get shaft for it.

Correct! This was a very suspect deal cut as you said. However, there is a procedure that should be followed. Firstly, an investigation should have been carried out into this deal. From all indications this wasnt done and the legal reps went before the arbitration committee without even a prayer. Possibly the evidence that was put forward was insubstantial and inconclusive to begin with and the contract was halted out of pure badmind. Now look at what it has cost us. I guess thats what happens when u give yourself silk and buy your way thru law school. *shrugs*

[rfari]

This $100m is just a drop in the bucket for WASA and their debts.

Yeah. So is small thing man

[nervewrecker]

Just had to check it back, a quick google reveals I have been on Mekorots page before. Defiantly research into wastewater.

Tanty kams scrap all wastewater projects when they win election. I find it was a good move forward by the PNM, why was all this scrapped? We surrounded by water and have abundant freshwater reserves yet still water scarce and our surface water resources in a state. We getting assistance from a company specialized in this and they turn them back.
Not denying what pathos did before the election as pretty stupid but why not go through with it? Look what it costing tax payers.

[5onDfloor]

another blunder by this PP govt...they cancel everything out of spite when they got into office.

obviously they had no legal reason to cancel but did it anyway...just to say that probably save the country million$ back then but look what happened now.

[kurpal_v2]

heads gonna roll in wasa?
who were the decision makers who screwed this up and cost the TAXPAYERS 100M TT?

Heads gonna roll



Men going to work normal normal this morning.

[kaylex]

heads gonna roll in wasa?
who were the decision makers who screwed this up and cost the TAXPAYERS 100M TT?

Heads gonna roll



Men going to work normal normal this morning.

Tell dis man nah... WASA... and Union go hand in hand...
Secondly, the then CEO I believe it to be Grimes... already get moved... so who gonna get blame?????
have no one to blame..