00:00Voluntary Assembly Member Saddam Hussein sought clarification from National Security Minister
00:05Fitzgerald Hines during the Standing Finance Committee's examination of the 2025 budget
00:10on Friday about an allocation for the Coast Guard.
00:14With respect to line item 52, integrated support services for the naval assets of the Trinidad
00:20and Tobago Coast Guard, $100 million allocated, $75 million spent.
00:26In relation to the context of the Prime Minister giving us a statement yesterday that one particular
00:31vessel had to be decommissioned, can the Minister give us an update as to the state of the repairs
00:36of the remaining vessels?
00:39Minister Hines recalled what Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said during the budget debate
00:43in the House of Representatives on Thursday about the decision by the UNC-led People's
00:48Partnership Administration to scrap the acquisition of three large offshore patrol vessels which
00:55were acquired during a previous PNM administration.
00:59A vessel known as CG-60, so labelled by the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard, which was
01:07purchased I think around 2012 following a visit by the then Prime Minister of the People's
01:17Partnership to China, purchased that vessel for $32 million US dollars.
01:24And this is what the Prime Minister reminded us yesterday, that that vessel is now dysfunctional.
01:32It was never fit for purpose.
01:34Minister Hines said the hull of that vessel is questionable. As he also said, a foreign
01:39law enforcement agency has questions of its own about the Daman vessels purchased for
01:46the Coast Guard in 2014 during the People's Partnership Administration.
01:52And Madam Chair, the Dutch police would have contacted the government to indicate that
01:57even in that transaction for the purpose of purchase of those vessels, there was some
02:02discovery of corruption. A finder's fee was paid to somebody of $200 million and they
02:09were able to seize $100 million. And that investigation is still underway. Bubble, corruption
02:17in its purchase by the then government.
02:21Minister Hines said the government has just contracted with Daman to recertify and make
02:26serviceable again all of those vessels. MP Hossain, on behalf of the opposition, returned
02:32the Standing Finance Committee's attention to the vessels purchased for the Coast Guard
02:37by the present PNM administration.
02:40These are two of the hostile vessels that were purchased by this government. And they
02:44were commissioned in 2021. That I am now being informed that the hull on the vessels were
02:50in fact affected. These vessels have been out of commission since February this year.
02:57They have purchased these vessels for almost $1 billion.
03:01Minister Hines identified the source of his response as the information provided to him
03:05by the experts who operated those vessels in the Coast Guard.
03:08There is no question, no issue around the hull of those vessels. Those vessels, like
03:14other vessels, require service, as I have just explained, in respect of the Daman vessels.
03:20And they are now undergoing some level of maintenance and service. We have refreshed
03:26a contract with Hostile for their maintenance. And we expect both those vessels to be back
03:32in the water in support of the people of Trinidad and Tobago by the end of this month.
03:37The National Security Minister said the two hostile vessels were made to work more than
03:42they ordinarily would by the Coast Guard in the absence of the Daman vessels.
03:47Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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