"Little pig, little pig, let me in! Little pig, little pig, let me in! Or I’ll huff n I’ll puff and blow your house down!"These words crossed my mind when I read the damning and astonishing report of the Uff Commission.
Manning appointed this Commission with a huff and a puff, promising to clear his government’s name once and for all.
In May 2008, he announced the appointment of the Commission. He tried to control it by announcing Gordon Deane as the Chairman but the public outcry saw the government back peddle on this and appoint Professor John Uff.
He didn’t really want to let anyone inside his prized UDeCOTT house.
The government has finally heeded the call by the opposition to fire the Board of UDeCOTT. The PM should have also fired Housing Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde before announcing his own resignation over this fiasco.
Dick-Forde was UDeCOTT’s line minister with overall responsibility and she stoutly defended her company. She scolded us, telling us that we should be ashamed of the way we had treated PNM’s #1 friend, Calder Hart.
She dismissed the public frustration as "a campaign of injustice and unfair attacks on UDeCOTT" and was upset that some people referred to it as a "rogue elephant".
Questioned on UDeCOTT’s decision to award a $300 million contract to Sunway to furnish the Ministry of Legal Affairs Towers although it was currently the subject of a commission of enquiry, Dick-Forde followed Manning’s lead.
She said UDeCOTT had showed that “it went through processes in awarding that contract. I have no problems with it (the award of the contract).”
Feeling the heat, she added “And for the record, I do not believe that a line minister should enter into matters that were tendered and a process that went through and a board would have over sighted that procedure.
"This notion of ministers going and revoking things is very untidy and there is no basis in proper governance of institutions for that kind of behaviour."
If only she did her job and revoked the wrongdoing! Mr Manning was equally defensive and proudly identified UDeCOTT as his government’s flagship.
In Parliament (May 23rd, 2008), he said: "What the Government is trying to do—and it is not UDeCott—is to change the established order in the construction sector through the special purpose state enterprise of UDeCott.
"That is what we are trying to do. So, in terms of the policy that UDeCOTT is pursuing, it is a Government policy, and what the Government is trying to do is to change the established order."
The change was one that facilitated squander mania and political corruption on a scale that we have never witnessed before in our political history!
The government negligently and arrogantly ignored all the warning signs, allowing Calder Hart free rein as UDeCOTT became an unruly horse that bolted from the PNM stable with no one chasing behind.
Manning fiddled while T&T burned. For this, he will pay the ultimate price of political disgrace.
The PNM cannot be trusted to investigate this massive and complicated web of corruption. UDeCOTT was inextricably intertwined with the PNM.
The Anti-Corruption bureau still reports to the Attorney General and the government will chose a politically compliant Commissioner of Police who can help sweep this under the carpet.
Our police service does not have the skills, expertise and training to properly investigate this matter.
External help and a package of special legislation is required to expedite this matter so that it does not follow the route taken by the airport corruption matters which, even now, slowly meanders through the labyrinth of our criminal justice system with no end in sight.
This matter should be handled by an elite team comprising independent auditors, forensic financial experts, specialist leading fraud lawyers with a special court and a special prosecutor.
Our police service does not have the resources to handle this one. Any serious investigation will lead to system overload and divert our best officers from the fight against crime on the ground. This will be an even greater tragedy.
Kamla is on record as proposing the establishment of a special court to deal with criminal trials involving allegations of political corruption against public officials.
There is precedent for this is in the way the Dole Chadee prosecution was conducted. The need for an independent investigation into this fiasco is yet another reason why this government should be removed from office as soon as possible.
The right hand cannot investigate the left hand. History has proven that the PNM cannot be trusted to investigate itself. It's time for change.
Read more of Anand's work at FREEDOM CHAMBERS. Anand's columns also appear in the Sunday Guardian
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