Rowley calls Manning's conduct "disgraceful"

Keith Rowley is not impressed with the prime minister's reaction to his call for an apology on the Cleaver Heights Housing project calling Patrick Manning's conduct "disgraceful." And he accused his former boss of trying to bury the issue of his misleading of the Parliament by referring the matter to the commission of inquiry into the housing industry.

And he wondered where Manning is heading with this whole matter, which he said just needed a simple apology.

"At first it was just the Minister. Now he is roping in the board, the professional staff and all the people... who are being accused of taking part in a corrupt operation... when he says that the contractor was receiving all these prices above what they should have been... giving the impression that this must go to the commission of enquiry."

Rowley said Manning is just looking for a way out of his current predicament. "What he is trying to do is buy time," Rowley said, calling the inquiry "a smoke screen to hide behind".

Rowley offered an explanation about the project saying Manning "gave an instruction to the Ministry of Housing that as far as possible, we must shift from overhead lines to underground utilities. And this particular project, I know for a fact, was affected by that.

"And the HDC went back to the contractor and renegotiated to put the utilities underground. So if you go to Cleaver Heights you would not see T&TEC or TSTT poles... And that was a cost that was negotiated after the contract was awarded. In short it was a variation. So to come and say there should be no variation, is stupid".

Rowley said the letter which manning quoted on September 30 referred to the fact that the original contract price "excluded utilities, off-site waste water, electricity and utilities".

Rowley said Manning needs proper advice. "Whoever is advising the Prime Minister is taking him down a road which will cause him to disgrace his office. Because that person is trying to prosecute a case against NH and in so doing they have been misrepresenting the facts. And the Prime Minister is allowing himself to go down that road. It is scandalous."

And he took strong objection to Manning producing the same letter again and suggesting that Rowley was the one misleading Parliament.

Rowley says it's not uncommon for ministers to apologize in Parliament for making misleading and inaccurate statements. So there's no reason why Prime Minister Patrick Manning should not apologize.

Rowley pointed out several instance in his letter to House Speaker Barendra Sinanan, seeking to have Prime Minister Patrick Manning brought before the Privileges Committee for allegedly imputing improper motive against Rowley on September 30.

And he said not every statement which turned out to be untrue would amount to contempt of Parliament.

Among the instances he noted:

• Then Minister Ken Valley apologised for an incorrect statement during debate (January 16, 2007)
• Prime Minister Manning apologised for giving incorrect information to the House in a ministerial statement (August 29, 2007)
• Minister Rennie Dumas apologised for same (July 7, 2008)
• Minister Hazel Manning apologised for same (July 4, 2008)