Manning speaks: no involvement in Guanapo church

Patrick Manning issued a signed statement Monday in which he insisted that no State funds were used in the controversial church in the Heights of Guanapo, Arima.

But the former Prime Minister avoided any reference to charges made by architect Stephen Mendes that Manning was involved in the project.

Mendes said in a sworn document last week that the term "PM" in a letter he wrote on May 2, 2006, to UDeCOTT executive chairman Calder Hart, meant "Prime Minister" and not "Project Manager" as Manning suggested.

It was Kamla Persad-Bissessar who first revealed Manning's connection to the church and produced the incriminating letter from Mendes. She was opposition leader at the time and she stated emphatically that Manning had to answer to the nation.

She subsequently reported the matter to the Integrity Commission and passed the files on manning and the church to the acting commissioner of police and the director of public prosecutions. So far none of the agencies has acted against Manning.

Persad-Bissessar pointed an accusing finger at Manning on May 15, just days before the general election. The next day Manning went of national television and tried to water down the matter by suggesting that he was not the person that Mendes referred to in the letter to Hart.

"I am advised that in the construction industry, 'PM' also means project manager eh. So that is one possibility," he said.

But on Sunday Mendes made it clear that there was no project manager and the reference he made in the letter was to Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Mendes stated that he met Manning on two occasions at Whitehall at Hart’s request, to discuss the designs for the church. Mendes was also the architect on the UDeCOTT managed Government Campus project.

During the TV interview Manning also tried to distance Hart and UDeCOTT from the church project. "Is it an involvement of UDeCOTT or is it an involvement of Mr Hart ... in his private capacity?" he asked when a journalist raised the question.

But persad-Bissessar was clear that the correspondence from Mendes to Hart was directed to the UDeCOTT boss at the UDeCOTT office and in Hart's capacity as executive chairman.

Manning tried again on Monday to put distance between himself and the church.

"The arrangements between the church and the contractor are matters between the two parties. I again repeat that no instructions were given at any time by me to UDeCOTT in this matter, as any investigation being undertaken would reveal," he said.

Manning admitted as he had done previously that he visited the site once "in broad daylight, when I held the post of prime minister, accompanied by the usual security detail."

But he insisted that "no special preference was given to the church, the Lighthouse of our Lord Jesus Christ".

And he again pointed out that the Government leased the land to the church in keeping with the state practice of helping other denominational bodies.