Uff report recommends probe of Calder Hart, UDeCOTT

The Newsday newspaper in Trinidad reported Sunday that the report of the Commission of Inquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector has recommended a police investigation of former UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart and the UDeCOTT board.

The paper said that recommendation is specific to the award by UDeCOTT of a $368 million contract for the Ministry of Legal Affairs tower and another, valued at $885 million, for Brian Lara stadium project at Tarouba.

Newsday said its report is based on what it says is "a scanned copy of Uff’s 512-page report, bearing Uff’s signature and the signatures of commissioner Desmond Thornhill and commission secretary Judith Gonzalez." It said it received the document by email.

Newsday said the Report recommends:

• a full investigation by law enforcement authorities of the award of the $368 million Ministry of Legal Affairs construction contract to CH Development Limited
• a full police investigation into the award of five contract packages at the Brian Lara stadium project to contractor Hafeez Karamath Limited (HKL) and the issuing of tens of millions of advance payments to that contractor without vouched accounts
• a full forensic audit of all sums advanced to HKL for materials and an investigation into the planning and administration of the Brian Lara project, including measures taken by UDeCOTT management to review and approve the design of the steel superstructure
• an audit of the conduct of all of UDeCOTT’s senior staff and directors for the period 2004 to 2009 as to their “involvement in errors and omissions” concerning the Brian Lara project
• an investigation into the circumstances in which 9 hectares of lands owned by the National Union of Government and Federated Workers, which had been sold to the NUGFW at subsidised rates, was purchased by UDeCOTT, at a profit for NUGFW. (The sale occurred while director Senator Michael Annisette was both a UDeCOTT board member and shareholder in the NUGFW holding company that sold the land)
• an investigation into what steps were taken by UDeCOTT’s managers to control and reduce delay at the $3.2 billion Government Campus Plaza project in downtown Port-of-Spain
• a review and redefinition of the roles of UDeCOTT and related state agencies.

The paper said the report notes deep-rooted systemic failures within UDeCOTT in its handling of billion-dollar state projects and deepens concerns over the failure of the State to heed calls to review the role of the state enterprise company.

It said the document describes the Brian Lara project as scandalous, as being “out of control” and “a major failure of management on the part of UDeCOTT”.

It also described "the inability of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to provide adequate oversight of UDeCOTT" and calls for a clarification of the issue of whether Government ministers can direct UDeCOTT.

The report also clears former housing minister Dr Keith Rowley of any wrongdoing in relation to the Cleaver Heights Housing project in Arima over a $10 million contract discrepancy first raised by Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

The report states that the $10 million discrepancy originated at the National Housing Authority, now known as the Housing Development Corporation, and finds that there was an attempt to "manipulate the figures" which "might have resulted in the incorrect figure being paid out."

Read the complete NEWSDAY story on the Uff Report
Also read: The 91 recommendations of the Uff report