By Theron Boodram

BUILDING contractor Emile Elias yesterday accused former United National Congress (UNC) Minister of Works and Transport Sadiq Baksh of lying to the media and Parliament about the awarding of Piarco airport contracts to Northern Construction Limited (NCL).

Elias also complained bitterly to the Commission of Enquiry on the Piarco Terminal Building project about unethical procurement practices for the contracts and the unwillingness of those in charge to allow local design consultants a fair and equitable chance to participate in the project.

Elias further accused the UNC Government of "selecting him (Elias) for special treatment", meaning victimisation.

He went on to express the view that former Airport Authority (AA) chairman Amir Edoo acted in bad faith in awarding the airport contracts and further suggested that Edoo was in collusion with Birk-Hillman Consultants and Northern Construction Limited, the two companies who were awarded the majority of the contracts in the airport project.

Elias, a former president of the Contractors Association and a member of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) for the construction industry, also said that had Government adhered to the JCC's predictions or warning to cure the procurement process of contracts, "we" would not be in the situation we are in today.

Elias told the Commissioners that in a newspaper article published on August 18, 1997, Baksh had invited him to submit a proposal for one of the airport's contracts, but six weeks earlier Baksh had already gone to Cabinet and got its approval for the same contract to be awarded to Northern Construction, the Ishwar Galbaransingh firm.

Elias said at the time Baksh made the offer he was not aware of Cabinet's decision and in good faith, he submitted a proposal, offering to build the terminal for $103M, half the cost NCL had proposed. He even offered to donate $10M of that money to charity.

Elias told the Commission Baksh was "guilty of grave untruths".

"Not only has he lied to the media, but also to Parliament. I hope we will deal with that in time."

Elias recalled that before the newspaper article, Baksh had responded to one of his letters complaining about the unfair practices and rebuked him for allegedly suggesting that the contract was already awarded to NCL. Baksh said in his letter that such a suggestion was the "figment of somebody's imagination".

Elias said Baksh had lied. The contract had already been awarded to NCL, and Baksh had misled the entire nation. Therefore, he said, the suggestion by Baksh that he put in a proposal was not a bona fide offer. Elias, who spent the entire day testifying and will continue today, told the Commission about the AA changing the procurement practices for contracts in a way that made it difficult for some local contractors to land a contract.

He said initially the JCC and the agencies responsible for the contracts had agreed on certain criteria for pre-qualification of contracts but suddenly some of those criteria changed and made it difficult, if not impossible, for "us" to get a contract.

He also said contractors wishing to bid were given four hours to inspect documents that included as many as 200 drawings and hundreds of pages of data before making proposals. He said this was an entirely impossible condition to meet. He also said contractors were not allowed to even make copies of the drawings and documents at their own expense.