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Dr Carson Charles on NIDCO's new direction: No more money falling from the sky
By By Renuka Singh
Story Updated: Aug 24, 2010 at 10:40 PM ECT
As the new head of the National Infrastructure Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Nidco) Dr Carson Charles says he inherited an organisation that struggled with poor fiscal management and a mindset that "money was falling from the sky".
Not only was the company under scrutiny, but so too were several of the lofty projects under its purview, including the Rapid Rail project.
Charles, a trained engineer, found himself in the unenviable position of having to perform under pressure and turn things around quickly.
"The People's Partnership is in a somewhat unfair position. People's expectations are high and we are judged against high standards. Because of the last administration, people are also less tolerant of failure," he said in a telephone interview with the Business Express last Friday.
But after more than 20 years in politics, Charles is no stranger to working under pressure.
He brings experience to any position he is placed in and has a unique view of his role in politics.
"Engineering to me was just too barren. Engineers complained about the infrastructure and the implementations, but we couldn't change anything. I am not one to just sit by and complain. I wanted to do something," he said.
That need to effect change led Charles to look at the world of politics.
Though Charles entered the often unforgiving political arena when he was just 30 years old, his natural ability to perform under pressure helped him rise quickly through the ranks and more often than not, he found himself in the role of leader.
"Local politics has now evolved and grown to the point where a female prime minister is something that the country can accept," he said, adding that when he first joined the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) in 1985, the country was getting ready for change.
"People vote against something they don't like. They were so disappointed by the same thing over and over by the previous administration and looked for something new," he said.
That overall frustration, which he said, re-emerged just before the May 24 general election that put the coalition into power.
"Once more this was another step in the evolution and maturing of the voting public," he said.
Describing his new post at Nidco as a "call to duty", Charles said the company was "going in the wrong direction".
"The overall mindset here was that money was falling from the sky," he said, adding that the prevailing culture was inbred by the last administration.
"There was just a lot of waste," he said.
Nidco was charged by the previous administration, to handle the billion dollar Rapid Rail project, which Charles said would be officially closed and shelved by the end of this week.
This shutdown of the idea comes after more than half a billion dollars was spent on the first research phase of the illustrious project.
"Even the data coming back from the research and study phase is so specific to the Rapid Rail project that I doubt it could be used for any other project," he said.
Charles said when he took over Nidco recently he found that many of the ideas and projects were instituted without proper planning or feasibility studies.
"It's almost as if projects were just done because they looked good in other countries, or because they were someone's personal idea that was imposed on the country," he said.
"It is fortunate there is a change in administration," he said, adding that he did not see the need to call on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout this time.
"I don't get the sense it's that bad this time," he said.
Charles was a member of the NAR which applied to the IMF to help alleviate the country's cash flow problem back in the late 80s.
He said right now Nidco, which falls under the Ministry of Works and Transport, is looking at other ways to alleviate the transport issues currently plaguing the country.
He said they may look to a tram system within the urban areas as one of the methods to reduce the amount of congestion on the nation's roads.
"Nidco is the main engine to effecting change in the country," he said, but added that poor fiscal management and allocations created problems in the company.
"They seem to have had a 'the money will come from somewhere' attitude. They did not budget for the heavily subsidised water taxi, but it's almost like they thought the money would materialise from somewhere," he said.
Charles said the water taxis received a $10 million allocation but that was just a drop in the bucket.
The service needs almost $37 million to stay afloat, Charles said, adding that the challenge is now to find that money from somewhere.
