-Minister Todd tells National Assembly

NOTING that taxpayers’ money went to waste, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Todd said on Tuesday that the APNU+AFC government was very much aware that the contract it signed for the establishment of an embassy in Brazil was “fundamentally flawed.”

He was at the time participating in the 2023 budget debate and was specifically addressing the $525 million that was allocated for completion of the construction works.

The flawed contract was signed by the APNU+AFC administration and the sod was turned on July 1, 2017, to mark the construction of a permanent building.

At that time, the government officials were tight-lipped about the project, but local media outlets were able to confirm that the final cost for construction was set at US$4.3 million.

Minister Todd had previously said that the project that the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) government inherited had mounting inconsistencies and raised eyebrows about transparency and accountability of the people’s money.

He had said that the PPP/C government had to do a lot of investigations since the project could not stand up to scrutiny, especially surrounding the contract and the design submitted.

The contract for the construction was previously done through a partnership between a local firm and another construction firm in Brazil.

The PPP/C government had scrapped the contract for the construction, but at the start of 2022 had re-committed to completing construction of the embassy.

The project total is listed in the 2023 budget as $978.9 million, which will be fully financed by central government. Prior to 2021, $36.2 million was allocated to the project with another $407.3 million allocated in 2021 and $10.4 million in 2022.

While providing an update to the House on Tuesday, Minister Todd said that the previous government wasted taxpayers’ money on the project. He pulled out a report from his ministry that purported to show that 64 per cent of the project has been completed to date.

“This was a contract that was fundamentally flawed knowingly, and there are members on the other side who are sitting members of the Opposition, who presided over a contract knowing that they could not have delivered on it,” he said.

He told the House about a “light chat” he had with former APNU+AFC Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Karen Cummings, who reportedly said to him, “I was not involved, I inherited.”

According to Minister Todd, this meant that Dr Cummings acknowledged that the APNU+AFC “cannot run anything, much less dealing with our foreign relations.”

“We, on this side, clearly show that we can manage this country’s affairs and provide policy development to the people of this country,” Minister Todd said.