For­mer hous­ing min­is­ter and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment Camille Robin­son-Reg­is has raised con­cerns over the pro­posed award of $3.4 bil­lion in pub­lic hous­ing con­tracts to 11 con­trac­tors, ques­tion­ing the trans­paren­cy and le­gal­i­ty of the process.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, Robin­son-Reg­is said the awards had raised se­ri­ous con­cerns about trans­paren­cy, le­gal­i­ty and the Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing homes in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

She said what should have been “a straight­for­ward, com­pet­i­tive and trans­par­ent pro­cure­ment process ap­pears hid­den be­hind se­cre­cy,” cit­ing what she de­scribed as ques­tion­able pre­qual­i­fi­ca­tion cri­te­ria, the ex­clu­sion of ex­pe­ri­enced lo­cal builders and pos­si­ble breach­es of the Pub­lic Pro­cure­ment and Dis­pos­al of Pub­lic Prop­er­ty Act.