Maharaj wants IC probe ferry procurement
Former transport minister Devant Maharaj wants the Integrity Commission to investigate the procurement process used in the purchase of a ferry for the sea bridge by a Cabinet appointed inter-ministerial committee.
He is also seeking answers as to when the Government made a decision to purchase a vessel “without any transparent process,” which he said “clearly violated the Central Tenders Board Act.
Detailing the sequence of events in a letter to chairman of the Integrity Commission Justice Melville Baird dated January 16, 2018, Maharaj noted that from the public statements made by the Government “the purchase of the boat was made before January 7, 2018, but after November 2017.”
Given that the Cabinet sub-committee was constituted on November 30 to oversee the procurement of the vessel for the sea-bridge, he said, “It is reasonable to assume that the location, examination and purchase of the vessel was completed in the month of December.”
But having closely analysed the “factual matrix of this transaction, I am of the firm belief that this matter warrants the attention of the commission and further warrants the invocation of the investigative function of the commission.”
He said an investigation by the commission should not only be triggered by a complaint from a member of the public, but by the “duty to the public to act on its own volition where the facts of any transaction causes the commission to be of the view that a matter warrants investigation.”
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