PM Manning says Rowley was not fired over UDeCOTT

Prime Minister Patrick Manning told the House of Representatives Monday he fired Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley for his behaviour, not because he was critical of UDeCOTT, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago.

When he fired Rowley he used the term, "wajang".
"It is behaviour. People must learn how to behave. That’s the problem," Manning said.

Manning made the statement in response to a claim by Tabaquite MP Ramesh Maharaj, who had said the prime minister fired Rowley and former Arouca South MP Camille Robinson-Regis because of their criticisms of UDeCOTT.

The exchange came during debate in the House on a bill to validate the work of the Uff Commission of Enquiry. Manning said he wants to stay clear of "the ole talk" on the matter.

"If there is a Commission of Enquiry, the attitude of the Government is to let the commission do its work and when the commission makes its findings, the Government will take whatever action it considers appropriate.

That is the position of the Government," Manning said. And he insisted on correcting "the mischief of the member for Tabaquite and that is that the Government was taking a particular position, vis-a-vis Udecott."

The prime minister said, "What the Government was saying was that on the basis of no evidence at all, individuals in this Parliament were calling for this enquiry when there was no basis for it."

He said once the government determined that there was a basis for an inquiry he agreed to establish the probe, noting that his government has been consistent on the matter.

Manning had used Parliament as a platform to cast aspersions on Rowley, asking him to explain a $10 million discrepancy in the government's Cleaver Heights housing project, which was handled under Rowley's watch when he was housing minister.

In his contribution to the debate, Rowley demanded that the Uff commission fully examine the controversial project so that he could get his "good name back from the Prime Minister...The PNM is on trial."

Rowley noted that it was one of his lawyers who discovered that the government had failed to gazette the inquiry as required by law. It was because of that omission that the validation bill was before the House.

The former cabinet minister said he wants the inquiry to be saved so it could complete its work and in particular, examine the details of the Cleaver Heights project.

He also wants to know how the personal fax number of UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart ended up on the rubber stamp of the contractor who first won the $368 million contract for the Ministry of Legal Affairs Building-CH Development.