There are conflicting stories surrounding the payment of over two million dollars for work on two community centres in east Port-of-Spain that never got off the ground. McEachrane’s Rental and Transport Services was paid three cheques totalling over $2.7 million from February to May 2010, for work on the Bon Air Gardens Community Centre and the Marcano Quarry Community Centre, in Laventille, but no work was ever done.
The owner of the company, Victor McEachrane, was awarded both contracts under former minister of Community Development Marlene McDonald. His name is also listed as a director of another organisation, the Calabar Foundation, which also received another $375,000 cheque in May 2010. The company, however, was only legally registered three months later in August 2010, and that cheque was cashed by September 2010.
Calabar Foundation also has two other directors, Michael Carew who has been described as McDonald’s common-law husband of 20 years and his brother, Lennox Carew. McEachrane, in a telephone interview with the Sunday Guardian, confirmed that he and McDonald have been friends since their time together at university.
While McEachrane has defended the payments as “mobilisations fees” and stated that he signed the contracts “some time in May,” the former technical director of the Self-Help programme under the Ministry of Community Development, Etienne Mendez, said that up until he resigned on September 2, 2010, the two contracts were not awarded. Mendez was responsible for the construction of community centres from 2007 to 2010 under McDonald.
Mendez, in a telephone interview yesterday, said it was unclear how a contractor could have been paid for the projects without a formal award in place. “We did identify sites for those two community centres, but no contracts were awarded up until I demitted that post in September,” Mendez said. He said no company should be paid a “mobilisation fee” unless it was awarded a project.
Who checks the cheques?
The cheques contain two signatures of the then permanent secretary Angela Jack and deputy PS Hermia Tyson-Cuffie. Jack, in a telephone interview on Wednesday, added another element to the unfolding story when she claimed that she had no recollection of those cheques. “I left the ministry in August 2010 and I cannot recall those cheques. It was years ago. I suggest you contact the ministry and ask them for the invoices that led to the payment,” Jack said.
The current PS at that ministry, Victor Jones, was unable to assist. Jones, the Sunday Guardian was informed, is in the position for one month up until January 2015 and could not locate the relevant documents. But head of the Public Service, Reynold Cooper, shed some light on how cheques to contractors are paid.
“Yes, the PS is the accounting officer for the ministry but they work closely with the minister and cannot issue a cheque without the minister’s say-so,” Cooper said. “The PS takes instructions from the minister,” Cooper added.
McEachrane: I am innocent
Despite Mendez’s claim that no mobilisation fees could be paid unless a contract was formally awarded, the owner of McEachrane’s Rental and Transport Services, Victor McEachrane, was paid $2.3 million and another $400,000 towards the mobilisation for construction on the Bon Air Community Centre and another $50,000 towards mobilisation for the Marcano Quarry Community Centre.
The question is, where has the money gone? McEachrane has denied any wrongdoing in the matter and maintains that he was paid that money to mobilise workers and pay security for the two projects. McEachrane was also the contractor behind the Sea Lots Community Centre, which was delivered days before the 2010 election.
Yesterday, McEachrane said though the two projects were tendered, no company wanted the jobs because of where they were located. He said the $2.3 million payment represented a percentage of the actual cost of the contract. “The money I was paid did not end up in my pocket. After taxes, that $2.3 million was only about $2 million and that was to mobilise workers for the community centres,” McEachrane said. He claimed that after the 2010 election, the People’s Partnership stalled the two projects.
McDonald was the minister from 2007 to May 2010. “I cannot answer any questions on Calabar Foundation or why it got a cheque before it was registered,” McEachrane said. “I was only asked to be a director on a charity foundation but I never had anything to do with that,” he said.