No questions please on White Rocks

The answer I guess, is yes. It is no longer a requisite for government to turn to private companies, local and foreign, and invite them to tender. There seems to be a problem with offering opportunities to everyone and anyone. We learn through choreographed press conferences and quietly arranged briefings that the project will revitalise the White Rocks area. But nothing is mentioned of how this company was approached and who was the middleman, and moreso who the local sub-contractor will be.

Perhaps no one has noticed, but I have. Many local property owners are up in arms. Not all, but all those who cannot compete with the news that there will be over 300 residential units on the market thanks to the sports village being planned. I can understand their preoccupation. What is even more worrying is the way the government takes everyone for granted and ignores the principle governing the issuing of such important projects. I cannot help noticing the new way of doing politics. And I cannot help noticing the drowsy Opposition that has yet to wake up to this scandalous giveaway.

Captaining this project is Clyde Puli, who will be projecting the great advantages of a sports village. Good news indeed. But what interests us is what we don’t see. Who will be the contractor – local – who will be making a killing from this project? One need not look hard. Just in the same way as Mott MacDonald’s implication in a forensic audit linking it to a Lesotho bribery scandal came to the surface, one can easily imagine who the local contractor is.

And finally, the cherry on the cake. Who are the PR consultants of this project? Lighthouse, MPS, JPA, BPC, Visual Trends or ANG? No, it is Where’s Everybody! And was a public tender issued for bidders to propose projects on some development brief? An impertinent question I guess. But the answer I believe is, um… no.