No jet for ManningBy Andre Bagoo Wednesday, March 19 2008
THE BID by the Prime Minister Patrick Manning-led Government to acquire an executive jet yesterday crash landed as Caribbean Airlines (CA) announced that it will not go forward with a proposed multi-million dollar luxury jet acquisition with Bombardier.
But there was no sign yesterday that this will be the last Trinidad and Tobago will hear of a jet for the Government as Marianno Browne, the Minister in the Ministry of Finance, and CA defended the faltered deal’s viability and signalled the possibility that if another jet becomes available the Government will support CA in its plans to offer an executive jet service.
“CA...will not be proceeding with the purchase of an executive jet at the present time,” read a release faxed to the media yesterday afternoon.
“It has not proven possible to reach an agreement to the full satisfaction of the involved parties within the defined time frame. As a result the parties have mutually agreed to withdraw from negotiations and Bombardier has released the aircraft for sale to another customer.”
CA has also “instructed Bombardier to return the refundable deposit of US$500,000 (TT$3.1 million) being held pending finalisation of the purchase agreement.”
The airline will also return all funds advanced by the Government.
But even as all signs pointed to the possible abating of the jet controversy, more uncertainty and conflicting figures surrounding the deal emerged.
Exactly how much money had been advanced to CA in the first place remained unclear, even as Browne yesterday evening addressed the Senate at the Red House in order to “clear the air” on the deal.
Speaking during the motion on the adjournment after Wade Mark, the Senate Minority Leader, condemned the Government for the jet deal, Browne revealed, for the first time, that the advance to CA had been US$54million (TT$340 million).
At last Thursday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Browne had said the figure advanced was US$52 million (TT$327million). The day before, Arthur Lok Jack, the CA head, said in a written statement that the figure was US$63 million (TT$400 million). And Colm Imbert, the Minister of Works and Transport, as well as Phillip Saunders, the CA CEO, had indicated the same figure. Asked by Newsday exactly how much money was paid, Browne could only say it was between US$52 million to US$54 million. He was adamant that “the money” will be returned to the Government.
But why, then, did the deal between Bombardier and CA falter? Lok Jack had last Wednesday said both parties were in disagreement over the insertion of an anti-corruption clause. Browne said the problem was “the wording” of Clause 15 of the proposed purchase contract, but he would not say whether or not that clause was, in fact, an anti-corruption clause. The CA press release makes no explicit mention of an anti-corruption clause, which lawyers and Browne yesterday described as a “a standard device” in contracts.
Lawyers yesterday further questioned the need for such a clause in the first place, noting that the common-law invalidates contracts entered into corruptly.
Yesterday the Opposition UNC A said many questions were left unanswered, notwithstanding the collapse of the deal.
“There is more to the transaction than meets the eye,” Basdeo Panday, the Opposition Leader, said in a press release. “The Government and CA have been very secretive and shady in their dealings in this matter. They have not been forthright, transparent and accountable.
“The Government has been forced to back down from this lavish purchase because they could not convince the public that the deal was clean, the purchase necessary and that it was justified given the prevailing social conditions.”
Referring to a story in the Sunday Newsday, Mark last night in the Senate questioned whether the jet venture was really for government travel.
“The people of this country do not want any private jet for the Prime Minister...The Treasury does not belong to Marianno Browne, to the Prime Minister, or to the Minister of Works and Transport. The Treasury belongs to the people of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Browne fired back that the Government had been “wrongly condemned” over the jet issue.
“There’s none so blind as those who will not see nor those who will not hear,” he said.
