Why hire another investigator?

Keith Rowley wants to know why the government has hired a Canadian forensic investigator to probe the Cleaver Heights Housing project in Arima when such a professional is already working with the Uff commission.

The former government minister finds something sinister about the matter and suggested that it leads to the inescapable conclusion that "this whole development is driven solely by an intention to prolong the slander which was generated in the Parliament and to create a diversion for what is being exposed at the Commission of Enquiry into UDeCOTT".

Rowley pointed out that at the commission's request, the Government agreed to pay forensic engineering firm Acuitas to assist in the investigation and that "one Mr Macafrey" is currently in the HDC.

"He is going to see how the Cleaver Heights Development Project got its life, how payments were conducted or payments were made, so if there is anything wrong, rather than the minister coming to Parliament and demoralising her staff, disgracing the Government and the country, all they had to do was wait until the Macafrey report, which is coming in earlier," Rowley told the Trinidad Express.

Housing Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde told the Senate Tuesday the government has hired Bob Lindquist to clear up the "inconsistencies and inaccuracies" surrounding the information provided by the HDC management on the issue.

But Rowley is convinced that it is is a red herring since a government-appointed forensic man is already on the job. "So this development is not for getting information. This has other objectives. It is meant to give the impression that they have a case to prosecute... it is for dramatic effect."

Rowley said he is already cooperating with the commission on matters relating to the Cleaver Heights project. "This cooperation on my part is at great emotional, physical and financial expense. But I am doing it out of a sense of duty in the discharge of my commitment to the people I represent," he told the paper.

"What has shocked me, however, is that the Government has conspicuously failed to use the constitutional provision of the Auditor General Department which is available for free to look into any concerns that Government may have about any Government department," he added.

Despite his obvious concerns about the motivation and expense he is welcoming Lindquist. "I am happy that Mr Lindquist would now be on the public payroll and I look forward to him being assigned, also to untangle the web which is now being exposed with respect to public business at UDeCOTT," Rowley said.

A government spokesman confirmed to the Trinidad Guardian that talks are underway with the Canadian investigator, who is coming out of retirement to handle the assignment. The paper reported that no date has been set for Lindquist’s arrival in the country.

Lindquist is well-known in Trinidad and Tobago and has done for different administration starting with the NAR in 1989 to investigate allegations of bribery by several former PNM ministers, including the late John O’Halloran.