Opposition Senator and former speaker Wade Mark is giving the People’s National Movement (PNM) an ultimatum—either appoint a new Joint Select Committee (JSC) to set guidelines to restore work on the controversial Red House or explain in a debate in the House of Representatives why Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley aborted the existing tender of the historical building and appointed himself chairman of the Red House restoration committee.
Mark sounded the warning on Friday stating that Rowley’s move to abort the existing Red House tender and appoint Finance Minister Colm Imbert, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis on a committee was “unilateral, arbitrary and whimsical.”
He said the Opposition remained strong on the independence and autonomy of the Parliament; however, there seemed to be a hidden agenda behind the tender being scrapped, which they would unearth.
“What I found strange is that Housing Minister and Urban Development Minister Marlene McDonald under whose purview Udecott falls had not been named as a committee member by Rowley. Why does Rowley have a sudden interest in this project?” Mark asked.
“We will get to the bottom of this in due course.”
The formation of the committee came days after chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T Noel Garcia in an article in the Sunday Guardian had estimated the cost of the Red House project at $340 to $400 million, to be completed in 2018.
In 2010, a JSC on Parliamentary Accommodation was established under the chairmanship of former minister Stephen Cadiz, of which Rowley was a member, to consider guiding policies relating to the restoration of the Red House.
Last week, Mark called on the PNM to immediately establish a new JSC for the project.
He said if the Government failed to push for a motion to establish a JSC the Opposition would do it.
Bearing in mind the urgency of the issue, Mark said, the motion could come before the House in March.
He said: “The Government needs one day’s notice for the motion, while if the motion is granted to an Opposition member it would take 12 days before it comes before the House.”