Keith Rowley ended two days of testimony at the Uff Commission Thursday without unveiling any evidence of corruption. That's the conclusion of members of the enquiry probing the construction sector and UDeCOTT. And UDeCOTT's lawyers tried to connect Rowley to possible influence peddling involving his friend, Emile Elias.It was commission member Israel Khan who raised the matter of UDeCOTT's role, pointing out to the former cabinet minister that in two days of testimony he had failed to present any evidence of corruption against the organization.
Khan and other commissioners intervened during cross-examnination by UDeCOTT’s attorney Andrew Goddard and Frank Solomon, attorney for UDeCOTT’s executive chairman Calder Hart.
Rowley had complained of an alleged flawed process by which UDeCOTT was attempting to award a contract to Hafeez Karamath Ltd. for the construction of the Customs and Excise Building in 2003.
NH (International) Caribbean Ltd (NHIC), which is headed by Rowley's friend, Emile Elias, won the contract. Rowley pointed out in earlier testimony that he tried to riase the issue with his boss, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who ignored him and his concerns.
Khan asked Rowley a direct question seeking to find out whether the former minister was claiming that the UDeCOTT boss had been conspiring to make a corrupt award.
“I meant that the potential was there,” Rowley responded. Khan pressed the point on whether Rowley had any evidence of corruption but Rowley had none. “I have made no allegation of corruption against any individual," Rowley told the commissioner.
Khan, who was incisive in his line of questioning, asked Rowley if he was saying that if UDeCOTT had awarded a contract to Hafeez Karamath to construct the Customs and Excise Building, there would have been corruption.
Rowley insisted that there was potential for corruption in such an award, and again explained that he was not inferring corruption. He said his interest was to protect UDeCOTT and the Government. He insisted that the process for the award of the contract was wrong and stressed that if the process is wrong "the outcome could be corruption.”
Rowley said, “I cannot offer evidence of what hasn’t been done. The process was on the way and what I sought to do is to stop it before it got to that point.”
Hart's lawyer raised the issue of Rowley's friendship with Elias, pointing out that Elias had made a contribution to Rowley's failed bid to win the leadership of the People's National Movement (PNM) from Manning in 1996.
Rowley admitted that Elias was one of several people who contributed to the campaign but told the commissioners he did not know how much Elias donated because he was not privy to accounting matters.
In response to a direct question from commission chairman John Uff, Rowley said it was not widely known that Elias had put funds into his campaign. Rowley said Elias was a "good friend" but dismissed insinuations that it was because of that connection Elias won the $100 million contract for the Customs and Excise building. At the time Rowley was Planning and Development minister.
He dismissed the suggestion saying, "I was not advocating on behalf of any contractor," explaining that he was "dealing with the process" of the tender and "not the contractor".
Both companies had tied as the lowest bidders. When Karamath's company lost its bid the contract went to NHIC.
Elias' company was involved in two other major government projects that have become highly controversial and Manning has tried to connect Rowley to both. NH was the contractor for the Tobago hospital which had to be abandoned after massive cost overruns and allegations of corruption that fingered Rowley and his wife. They were cleared of any wrongdoing.
The other project is the Cleaver Heights housing development project awarded while Rowley was housing minister. Manning went to Parliament on at least two occasions to demand explanations for missing money.
In one instance he spoke of $10 million and on another, $20 million. Both Rowley and Elias have produced evidence that they show that there was no missing money and pointed out that Manning knew that when he went to the Parliament to raise concerns about the matter.
The state-owned Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has informed the Commission there is no missing money from the Cleaver Heights Housing project as stated in Parliament by Manning.
In a written submission to the enquiry, the HDC said the apparent million-dollar discrepancies is because of two errors contained in a letter of award drawn up by the HDC and addressed to the project contractor, NH International Limited.
It said the initial contract sum was wrongly stated as $143 million when it should have been $133 million.
“The letter of award to NH dated May 3, 2005 contained two errors resulting in the contract sum being stated as $143 million as opposed to $133 million,” the HDC submission stated. “This latter figure is a repeat of an error contained in the Note to the Board dated April 11, 2005...The letter of award overstated the contract sum by $10 million.”
The document stated that, “the errors contained in the letter of award were repeated in subsequent documents including valuation reports and the errors were not detected by HDC personnel, until late 2008.”
It also said approved cost variations amounts added more than $22 million to the contract.
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