TT MP questions $660,000 UTT "joy ride"

MP Vasant Bharath (blue golf shirt and jeans) recently helped his constituents in Spring Village replant crops that were destroyed to make way for a government housing development. The project was suspended after protests by residents.

St Augustine MP Vasant Bharath told the House of Representatives Friday two executives of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) were each paid TT$330,000 (US$52,411.12) for hotel and subsistence for what he called a 10-day "joy ride" to London, France and Germany.

"The airfares $75,000 were paid by UTT. But what is staggering was that for that ten-day period, both of these employees, Dr Doug Exol and Dave Bhajan - by cheque numbers 00221 and 00222 - were each paid for hotel and subsistence - US$52,411.12 or $TT330,000," Bharat said.

He also said a company called Diamond Systems and Supplies bought computers for the UTT for $12 million and investigations revealed that the majority of the computers were sold to the university at an inflated rate of over 300 per cent.

Bharath also disclosed that a company with "connections" enjoyed a profitable relationship with the UTT.

He said Advanced Dynamics Ltd was paid $667,000 for "services rendered" in addition to a monthly retainer of $35,000 for public relations between September 2004 and May 2005.

The MP said when the UTT vice-president of Finance questioned the payment of a $300,000 cheque to the company the corporate services secretary said: "Do you not know who Advanced Dynamics is? That is Barry McComie, the brother-in-law of Ken Julien." Professor Julien is president of UTT.

Bharath also went after UDeCOTT, noting that while the promised enquiry is still on hold people against whom allegations have been made are still spending large amount of money and making decisions on the award of contracts.

He noted that the same people have access to confidential files and documents that could be used to indict them.

"Is it not a recipe for further corruption, encouraged by State complicity?" he asked. Bharath said such policies reflect Government's "reckless spending, corrupt practices and flagrant disregard for the rule of law".