- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 25/Jun 04:14

Reconsider shutdown of contracts

THE EDITOR: I heard the contribution of the Minister of Legal Affairs in Parliament on June 18 on fees and rental contracts. While I appreciate the minister’s standpoint, I ask the government to consider whether value for money is being received from any of these contracts. Office rental contracts or projects already off the ground can be quickly evaluated to get a sense of their benefits to citizens and clients. Not all existing projects or undertakings are skewed or unbeneficial, even if some contracts have been awarded to people or organisations who are not the traditional service providers to the new government. If the projects have no benefits to citizens or are not needed or have some major obvious legal issue, then shutting them down is an option. Each contract or project must be assessed on its own merit for the benefits of citizens. Shutting down ongoing projects or terminating contracts may result in additional costs to the state. When doing so the value of works or services already completed have to be determined and paid-off, and breach of contracts can have penalties. On top of that, beneficiaries who are citizens will be the losers, not the big businesses that already have wealth. Projects would have been developed to fix issues, and if they are now shut down, then more taxpayers’ dollars will have to be found to restart and resolve the issues. The government has an opportunity to show innovation and tactfulness. Where projects are not totally in line with objectives or considered overpriced, they can be realigned or renegotiated. It should not be a total shutdown. For projects that have clear value for money, they should be allowed to continue and be completed. We citizens look forward to critical thinking and good reasoning and not to what occurred in the past. We expect humanity, humility and wisdom to go together with governmental decision-making. D THOMAS via e-mail The post Reconsider shutdown of contracts appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.