September 1, 1997 - A comprehensive review of expenditure by the Ministry of Communications, Works and Transport will soon be undertaken. The Ministry came under scrutiny after serious concerns, emanating from various sections of the population on the overall operations, performance and management of the Ministry.

Minister of Communications and Works, Sen. Calixte George during a press conference on Wednesday at the Government Information Service revealed that the major areas of concern are the Ministry's poor public image as well as the high level of discrimination in the award of contracts.

The areas of lack of faith in the tendering process; the growth of clientism and favouritism; poor execution and in some cases incomplete jobs remunerated at high rates; irregularities and illegalities arising from conduct of business with the public; high wastage of both material and human resource factors in the execution of programmes and projects; failure to adhere to policy and procedural guidelines particularly in respect of fiduciary matters and the ineffectiveness of control measures this rendering management impotent will also be dealt with.

The terms of reference for the comprehensive review include an assessment of the technical, financial and management practices of the ministry with a view to identifying major areas of weakness and making recommendations to address these.

A team of persons of varying expertise will be brought together to have a close look at the operations of the ministry. Members of that team are Costello Mitchel as chairman, Thomas Walcott, Pat Brown, Melania Daniel, Theresa Romulas, Claude Griffith and Reverend father. Patrick Straughn.