from the Trinidad Express
GOVERNMENT has taken a decision to formally terminate the £150 million contract with BAE Systems to build and commission three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for use by the Coast Guard.
The deal entered into with VT Shipbuilding was signed by the previous People's National Movement (PNM) administration in April 2007, and was considered critical to the State's war on guns and drug running in our waters.
News that the State had pulled the plug on the purchases, however, came not from an official Government release, but through a statement BAE Systems issued to the United Kingdom stock exchange on Tuesday.
Reached in New York yesterday, special adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Gary Griffith, referred queries to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
VT Shipbuilding was acquired by BAE Systems in October 2009. Under the agreement, BAE Systems agreed to training and five years in-service support to the Coast Guard when the vessels were completed.
Training of some 65 Coast Guard officers on the (OPV) Port of Spain was stopped in mid-July, and sea trials on a second (OPV), the Scarborough, were also halted pending Government's decision. Training was subsequently resumed.
The Portsmouth, England-based company will now have to find buyers on the world market for the nearly completed custom built vessels.
Contacted yesterday, Captain Kirton Huggins, the director of the Coast Guard's Strategic Project Management Office at Stauble's Bay, Chaguaramas, told the Express he had "heard about it" (the decision to terminate the contract) but had not yet received any formal instructions on the matter.
Since coming into office on May 24, the People's Partnership Government signalled that it was considering cancelling the purchase, saying the country was not in a position to finance the acquisition.
The patrol vessels were a major part of former prime minister Patrick Manning's crime fighting plan to secure this country's borders and put a squeeze on the illegal drug trade.
Two months ago, Attorney General Ramlogan said the Government was in the process of reviewing the transaction. He said he was informed that the vessels were not delivered on time in breach of the contractual delivery date. Ramlogan said there were also technical problems which needed to be resolved to ensure the vessels were in accordance with the specifications and designs in the contract.
He said then: "There are legal, financial and security implications to this transaction that require critical and objective review by the Government, bearing in mind our competing expenditure priorities and the alternative use to which this money can be put in the fight against crime."
National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy, however, had indicated that he had hoped to convince a steering committee set up to review the deal to purchase the vessels, since he believed they would be needed in the current fight against crime.
GOVERNMENT has taken a decision to formally terminate the £150 million contract with BAE Systems to build and commission three offshore patrol vessels (OPV) for use by the Coast Guard.
The deal entered into with VT Shipbuilding was signed by the previous People's National Movement (PNM) administration in April 2007, and was considered critical to the State's war on guns and drug running in our waters.
News that the State had pulled the plug on the purchases, however, came not from an official Government release, but through a statement BAE Systems issued to the United Kingdom stock exchange on Tuesday.
Reached in New York yesterday, special adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Gary Griffith, referred queries to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
VT Shipbuilding was acquired by BAE Systems in October 2009. Under the agreement, BAE Systems agreed to training and five years in-service support to the Coast Guard when the vessels were completed.
Training of some 65 Coast Guard officers on the (OPV) Port of Spain was stopped in mid-July, and sea trials on a second (OPV), the Scarborough, were also halted pending Government's decision. Training was subsequently resumed.
The Portsmouth, England-based company will now have to find buyers on the world market for the nearly completed custom built vessels.
Contacted yesterday, Captain Kirton Huggins, the director of the Coast Guard's Strategic Project Management Office at Stauble's Bay, Chaguaramas, told the Express he had "heard about it" (the decision to terminate the contract) but had not yet received any formal instructions on the matter.
Since coming into office on May 24, the People's Partnership Government signalled that it was considering cancelling the purchase, saying the country was not in a position to finance the acquisition.
The patrol vessels were a major part of former prime minister Patrick Manning's crime fighting plan to secure this country's borders and put a squeeze on the illegal drug trade.
Two months ago, Attorney General Ramlogan said the Government was in the process of reviewing the transaction. He said he was informed that the vessels were not delivered on time in breach of the contractual delivery date. Ramlogan said there were also technical problems which needed to be resolved to ensure the vessels were in accordance with the specifications and designs in the contract.
He said then: "There are legal, financial and security implications to this transaction that require critical and objective review by the Government, bearing in mind our competing expenditure priorities and the alternative use to which this money can be put in the fight against crime."
National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy, however, had indicated that he had hoped to convince a steering committee set up to review the deal to purchase the vessels, since he believed they would be needed in the current fight against crime.
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