Canadian investigator probing UDeCOTT projects

Canadian forensic investigator Bob Lindquist in in Trinidad for a probe into the misappropriation of billions of dollars from the State-owned Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT).

He is scheduled to begin his task Wednesday and deliver a report to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan in two weeks.

Lindquist conducted a similar exercise for the previous Manning PNM administration in 2009 following the Uff Commission of Inquiry, which recommended further investigations into contracts that UDeCOTT awarded. Former Prime Minister Patrick Manning did not make that report public.

Lindquist has already met with Ramlogan, Queen’s Counsel Allan Newman and Richard Freeman, a former legal officer at UDeCOTT.

A newsday report Wednesday said the focus of the current investigation will be:

• the Brian Lara Stadium
• the South Academy of the Performing Arts
• the North Academy of the Performing Arts
• the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower

Cost overruns on the four projects have reached more than one billion dollars. In the case of the unfinished cricket stadium at Tarouba, the cost has reached nearly $1 billion and government estimates that it could take between $100 million and $200 million to complete it.

The government also has serious concerns about the South Academy of Performing Arts where there are reported to be serious flaws in the structure and breaches of approval rules of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA).

There are similar problems with the North Academy. The Shanghai Construction built both.

Newsday quoted an unnamed source as saying that Lindquist will trying to find evidence of "misconduct, abuse of power, fraud, and deceit, allegedly committed by those high-ranking management officials at UDeCOTT prior to the May 24 General Election."

The report said state lawyers are considering civil action against Manning for his defence of former UDeCOTT executive chairman, Calder Hart, who was personally involved in the award of contracts for the projects under investigation.

The case against Manning may be linked to the construction of a church at the Heights of Guanapo in Arima for his spiritual adviser, Juliana Pena.