UDeCOTT acts like a "little cabinet": Israel Khan

Israel Khan crossed swords with UDeCOTT at Tuesday's hearing of the Uff enquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT, suggesting that the organization acts “like a little Cabinet outside of the Cabinet”.

The commissioner's remarks brought a retort from UDeCOTT's executive chairman Calder Hart who insisted that his company follows directives from the real Cabinet.

The matter came up during a round table session at enquiry at which Khan expressed concern to Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert over the way UDeCOTT appears to operate.

He said, “Minister, what I am concerned about is that UDeCOTT really is not a private limited company, it is a sort of a State enterprise guaranteed by the Government of operating funds" and not accountable to Parliament.

“When you look at it it’s like a little Cabinet operating outside of the Cabinet. I do not know whether that is the correct interpretation. That is the impression I am getting,” Khan said.

“UDeCOTT can engage in commercial activities and discussions with an outside Government, they can do things on their own with billions of dollars without any security...They can buy and sell ammunition–something is wrong with that...Personally as a citizen, I am concerned about the powers of UDeCOTT,” the commissioner said.

“I am concerned about that and the Cabinet of this country should be concerned about it. I have a problem with the powers of UDeCOTT as a citizen and as a commissioner also,” Khan said.

Hart defended UDeCOTT saying that it "relies on its mandate from specific Cabinet directives" noting that it has "some flexibility" to determine how things are done.

“It does not determine what is done, that is essentially as a result of Cabinet directives,” Hart said.

Khan was not pleased with that explanation and warned that the current arrangement left citizens vulnerable to “an unscrupulous corporation sole.”

Imbert was defending Government’s decision to not implement recommendations of the White Paper on Public Procurement. He told the commission, in his view, the paper’s proposals would take away the powers of Cabinet.

Imbert noted that the paper proposes an independent regulator for the award of state contracts. But he said this body would stymie Government’s developmental plans and create a bureaucracy that would “have far too much power, even more power than Government.”