A report in the Newsday newspaper in Trinidad says the Uff Commission of Inquiry has decided to summon Sherrine Hart to clarify claims of a link between her and a Malaysian company which was awarded a $368 million contract by her husband, UDeCOTT executive chairman, Calder Hart. Newsday said the commissioners have decided to issue a Salmon letter in relation to allegations made by Carl Khan, the ex-husband of Sherrine Hart, calling on Hart to respond to Khan’s allegations.
This is what Khan alleged in testimony to the commission: "I recognised Lee Hup Ming (also called Allan Lee Hop Ming) and Ng Chin Poh (also called David Ng Chin Poh) as brother and brother-in-law respectively of Mrs Hart.
"I know this as a fact from my marriage to Mrs Hart, during which time they resided in Malaysia and we had several conversations with them via Internet phone, where we would see and converse with them at the same time.
"During the time of our marriage, however, they had never been to Trinidad and I had never been to Malaysia."
The Hart family connection was first raised by former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj.
Read the Trinidad Express story: Khan: I was married to Hart's wife
The Tabaquite MP named Lee Hup Ming and Mg Chin Poh as the directors and shareholders of CH and raised questions about how CH Development, with no track record in the construction business, could have pre-qualified for a $368-million contract with UDeCOTT, especially since its bid was $60 million higher than the lowest bidder.
CH Development was three weeks old when UDeCOTT awarded it the contract for the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower at the Government Campus Plaza in downtown Port-of-Spain.
Newsday said the commissioners decided to summon Hart before UDeCOTT launched a challenge the inquiry.
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The Joint Consultative Council (JCC) wrote the commission last month asking for Hart to be summoned "to answer questions as to whether she is related to Mr Ng Chin Poh and Mr Lee Hup Ming," Newsday reported.
The paper said Khan has sworn a third statutory declaration "in which he presented further untested evidence of links between Mrs Hart and the two former Sunway directors, including a love letter said by him to have been penned by Mrs Hart which featured a return address he said was used by Allan Lee Hup Ming."
Newsday said Attorney General John Jeremie has promised that he will proceed with his pledge to table a validation bill to legitimize the Uff inquiry.
It said Jeremie sent it a hand written note stating: "UDeCOTT can’t act in defiance of the Government in respect of either the gazetting of the commission, or the Validation Bill which will be laid shortly, or for that matter, in any respect.”
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