Calder Hart responds to Moonilal. House was for UDeCOTT manager

A luxury villat at Coral Seashells in Bon Accord, Tobago

The Express newspaper reported Monday that it received an e-mail from an address purportedly belonging to former Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) chairman Calder Hart. The paper published the full text, which is reproduced below:

Subject: Response to allegations made on Thursday by Minister R Moonilal.

It is important to set the record straight regarding UDeCOTT's purchase of the executive home in Tobago. The home was purchased by UDeCOTT for use as a residence by the manager of the joint Nipdec/UDeCOTT operations office there.

At no time did I, or any UDeCOTT executive under my supervision use the home while I was chairman. It was not purchased as a vacation home.

I question the highly politicised manner in which this information was provided to the public. The home is hardly a secret to people in both organisations and in fact, it was a senior development manager from Nipdec who was first appointed to the post and was required to relocate his family there.