Even though T&T is going through its worst economic downturn in three decades, the Government always has to be careful about not being penny wise and pound foolish.
This traditional British idiom is generally taken to refer to a situation in which someone exercises care about a small or trivial matter, while overlooking the impact that that decision could have on more important or consequential matters.
Everything about the current administration’s treatment of the so-called sea bridge between Tobago and Trinidad smacks of being penny wise and pound foolish.
The most egregious example of this is the handling by the previous Port Authority board of the issue of the maintenance of the country’s two fast ferries. According to an undisputed report in the T&T Guardian last week Thursday, the Canadian firm Bay Ferries was responsible for the maintenance of the T&T Spirit and the T&T Express from 2006 to October 2016, when the previous board refused to extend their contract based on the seemingly exorbitant annual fee of US$7 million a year.
Bay Ferries was replaced by Magellan Service Ltd, which was granted a ten-month contract to maintain the fast ferries in October 2016 valued at $2.4 million. The Port Authority’s arrangement with Magellan came to an end in March, which was the same month that the board headed by former minister Christine Sahadeo resigned and a new board chaired by former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance Alison Lewis was hired.
It cannot be a coincidence that since the end of the Magellan arrangement, the two fast ferries have been plagued by engine problems.
In that context, the Port Authority needs to tell the nation if there were any instances, during the period when the vessels were being maintained by Bay Ferries, when the fast ferries suffered major, unscheduled breakdowns as have occurred on several occasions this month.
It seems obvious that if Bay Ferries did a good job in maintaining the vessels, every effort should have been made to ensure that their services were retained, while perhaps insisting that a percentage of their service fee be made contingent on the Canadian company passing on their knowledge to locals. As a longer-term proposal, the Government should mandate that University of Trinidad and Tobago establish a programme in ship engine maintenance as a matter of urgency.
It is quite frankly a disgrace that the Port Authority—the statutory authority that has been responsible for the inter-island passenger and cargo service for decades—has not been able to develop in-house ship-engine maintenance expertise in all of that time.
That lack of expertise placed T&T in the invidious position earlier this week when both fast ferries were down.
Several points can be made about the maintenance of the fast ferries.
The vessels, which both have a passenger/crew capacity of around 900 and enough space for about 200 vehicles, are extremely important to nationals who need to travel quickly and cheaply between Tobago and Trinidad.
The ability to drive cars on to the fast ferry in Port-of-Spain and drive off in Scarborough has been a significant incentive to Trinidadians wanting to spend a long weekend or their long vacation in Tobago. In doing so, the vessels have contributed to ensuring that Tobago’s tourism product does not die completely from lack of visitors.
As has become clear in the last three months, it is vitally important for both Tobago and Trinidad that the transportation of cargo and people between the islands should continue to be as convenient, reliable and cheap as it has been in the recent past.
The most egregious example of this is the handling by the previous Port Authority board of the issue of the maintenance of the country’s two fast ferries.
