Category: UDECOTT
“His Excellency, PNM Leader for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Executive {Insert past despot’s name} Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the Panday Empire in the Caribbean in General and Trinidad & Tobago in Particular", said the Clerk of the House on introducing Trinidad's Executive President {Insert past despot’s name}. What's strange about him though is that new Mugabe-ish / Hitler-esque moustache as well as the pink balisier adorned ascot around his neck. Icy scenes as his 40 MPs pound the desks and bow in reverence to usher him into the hallowed chamber.
Massive motifs in his likeness plaster the country's streets obsequiously foot noted with special purpose company UDeCOTT's logo beneath. Just one of their latest projects to beatify the country. The largest though, saved for the grounds of the pastor's church in Guanapo.
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In my previous blog I quoted Adlai Stevenson, an American politician of the JFK era as saying “Corruption in public office is treason”. With all that is in the public domain and after due process of law UDECOTT could be known as the Treason headquarters of Trinidad and Tobago. And if UDECOTT is the headquarters then Petrotrin might very well be running a close second.
With an expanding debt of over $18 billion, a $12 billion lawsuit against it and project overruns in the hundreds of millions of dollars a forensic audit at Petrotrin is not only laudable but absolutely essential. Coming out of any audit, once justified a commission of enquiry into its operations and administration should duly follow. Whilst it must be noted that project overruns don’t necessarily translate into corruption; global trends, unforeseen challenges as well as incompetence are the main culprits. Whichever it is it must be ascertained so as to sustain the viability of the entity.
In welcoming the appointment of Mrs. Carolyn Seepersad Bachan as Energy Minister one of the major challenges she faces is state behemoth Petrotrin. As a major contributor to the state’s coffers Petrotrin has recently come under an ever-increasing scrutiny that has brought it to this point.
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According to press reports, the Hon. PM - that's Prime Minister Patrick Manning - claimed he had been pondering general election dates since last year, and that he called a snap election because it was becoming difficult to govern in the current climate of dissent. In fact, the Lower House was due to debate the Opposition's motion of no confidence in the PM on 09 Apr 2010. Like the proverbial thief, at midnight on 08 Apr 2010 to be precise, he advised the President to dissolve Parliament. As if that wasn't strange enough, in an unprecedented break with tradition, he withheld the date of the general election - which by law was due within three months of Parliament's dissolution - and instead announced the election date of 24 May 2010 via press release one week later, on 16 Apr 2010.
Amidst the confusion, commentators initially pondered about the real reasons for Mr Manning's request for a new mandate two and a half years after he got his last one by 26 seats to 15. One article asked the question: did the PM move to pre-empt the debate of no confidence?
After being told recently of a rumour that Mr Manning received reliable information that the no confidence motion would have been carried on 09 Apr 2010, I wish to review his actions against two scenarios: (1) that the rumour is true, and (2) that the rumour is false.
(1) The Hon. PM called a snap election because he would've lost the no confidence debate {Read more}
According to members of the new political coalition in T&T, Mr Calder Hart is expected to return to the country on Monday 3rd May 2010 to be formally charged with perjury. The COP's Vernon de Lima is reported to have said:
"We understand that an application will thereafter be made to gag discussion on issues relating to Calder Hart. That means to say that a judge of the High Court will be approached by application that an order be made that nobody in Trinidad and Tobago, including any politician, any newspaper, media, can say anything about Mr Hart, having regard to the fact that he is under criminal charge ...That application will be made ex parte - that is without the judge hearing the input of anybody else but Mr Hart’s attorney."
So there is fear that, if the ex parte gag order is granted, from 03 May 2010, no-one will be able to write or mention Mr Calder Hart in the media without risking legal sanctions. If this were true, perhaps the realms of eastern royalty and magic can provide a suitable workaround.
The country of Thailand has implemented lèse majesté laws since 1908. Lèse majesté is the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. There is current turmoil amongst the business class of Thailand relating to their fear of a destabilising royal succession - the current, widely beloved King of Thailand is 82 years old and his prospective successors aren't all popular - but the lèse majesté laws discourage frank talk about it. According to the Economist's leader on 20 Mar 2010, "As father fades, his children fight": {Read more}
The hard-working T&T Parliament administrative staff haven't yet received an electronic copy of the findings of the Uff Commission into the Construction Sector, complete with appendices, but they have scanned the main body of the report inclusive of the annexes. The PDF file is 13.2 MB and not yet posted on www.ttparliament.org, but I have requested and obtained the scanned electronic copy from the Communications Co-ordinator on behalf of the Clerk of the Senate.
It is available for download from here for your perusal, in case, like me, you prefer to view the full report rather than the snippets published in the daily newspapers. Afterall, it is likely to be one of the most significant campaign and post-election national issues, so citizens should be able to challenge any interpretations of the findings they hear over the next few months.
It is 512 pages long and would take me some time to digest. My own viewpoint will follow in the coming weeks. I must register my thanks for the Hon. Attorney General for breaking with tradition and laying the report in the Senate within days of receiving it, and to the Clerk of the Senate for authorising its release to citizens like me. I hope this forms the precedent for future commissions of enquiry.
In the meantime, feel free to form your own view and, if you so desire, share it with us via this website or on KnowTnT.com's facebook page.
Firstly, I thought that the Hyatt Corporation was contracted to manage the hotel, including delivery of all services within the hotel. If that's so, why should the liquor licence be awarded to the (soon to be ex-)CEO of UDeCoTT? Why was it not awarded to a representative of the Hyatt? Is UDeCoTT running the bars and restaurants at the Hyatt?
Secondly, the new licence was reportedly awarded this week to the same person when it is public knowledge that she is leaving the position at the end of this month. So when the licence needs to be renewed next year, what will happen if she's not around?
Are the buildings built by UDeCoTT owned by the government or by UDeCoTT? If the former, and it is right to award the licence to the owner of the premises, why isn't the licence awarded to the Minister of Finance or the Minister of Planning as the line ministers representing the owner?
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A senior police officer said that the liquor licence covers the storage of liquor. So in his view, all liquor at the hotel should have been confiscated until a new licence could be awarded. Instead we had the hotel giving away all alcoholic drinks this past weekend for free.
The Hon. Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, has been quoted today in the press as saying his government is continuing to create a 'new order' in the construction sector that gives citizens value for money. To quote the Hon. PM ('PM hammers contractors', Trinidad Express, Sat 13 Mar 2010):
'The Government believes that the country has not been getting, for the money spent, a proper return on that investment. We are not getting the projects on time and within cost. And it is not the agencies, it is the construction sector and the way they conduct their business that has led to this in very large measure... As a consequence, the Government is not going to stop until a new order is brought about in the construction sector. That is what we owe the people of Trinidad and Tobago... This country must get value for money and it matters not, how powerful those who are against us are. They spent money, they do all kinds of things I understand, including influencing journalists. They do all kinds of things in trying to get the point of view across that may or may not be correct. The Government subscribes to right and wrong and truth. And the Government is going to continue to pursue a course of action designed to ensure integrity in the construction sector.' {Read more}
The revelation in Trinidad and Tobago Newspapers that Calder Hart had was part of a criminal investigation as of September, 2009, casts some question as to whether the man holding the office of Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning, is indeed an honest man as his pastor alleges.
Why would I write that? There's a problem with the data. Both articles referencing the investigation (linked above) say that the Prime Minister was aware of the investigation that started in September of 2009. Yet in Patrick Manning's 45 documented defenses of Calder Hart, he defended Calder Hart after the investigation was underway:
Then, in Parliament on October 21, 2009, Manning defended Hart, casting him as a public official caught up in a battle between the Prime Minister and his detractors during debate on a bill to validate the proceedings of the Uff Commission of Inquiry.
Hitting out at what he called the “tyranny of the lynch mob” he said, “They want to get Calder Hart but let me tell you it is not Calder Hart. It is not Udecott. It is the Prime Minister and the Government that is what they are after!” While the ex-husband of Hart’s wife Sherrine, Carl Khan, had come forward five months earlier to corroborate Maharaj’s allegations, Manning said of those who took Khan’s allegations seriously, “They are not interested in the truth, they prefer to rely on the evidence of a jilted lover.” {Read more}
I just watched one of the most enlightening discussions on the concerns about UDeCOTT on C TV with Afra Raymond. I wish C TV posted clips of its First Up breakfast show online. Here were the key points from the interview.
All special purpose state bodies are supposed to publish annual financial accounts. UDeCOTT's last published accounts were for 2006.
When determining whether to proceed with commercial property projects, developers usually do a feasibility study to examine, for e.g., what's the expected return on investment and break-even rents. Raymond asked Calder Hart if this was done for any UDeCOTT projects and he replied it was done for only one commercial project - the International Waterfront Complex (IWC). Note: Raymond didn't expect such benchmarks to apply for projects involving public goods, e.g. NAPA, schools, health centres.
When asked what was the IWC's break-even rent, Hart replied approx. TT$20 per sqft. Break-even rent is calculated based on UDeCOTT's monthly bank loan repayments. Raymond indicated that this raised questions immediately since at the time the market rental for commercial properties in Port of Spain was TT$15 per sqft, i.e. if you placed a property on the market you could not expect more than TT$15 per sqft. In other words, the total earned from a fully-rented IWC would still be below the expected loan repayment figure - the gap would have to be funded from somewhere. So how could UDeCOTT say the project was feasible when the break-even rent was above the expected market rental rates?
Further, when Raymond asked what was the value attributed to the land on which the IWC was built, as used for its feasibility study, Hart replied: "Nil." That can't be right, and if it was included, then the break-even rent would be higher than TT$20 per sqft. {Read more}
Yes, yes, it's old news. Calder Hart left. And every headline is as punny as possible (including this one) because there was a twisted sense of humour that created and defended the Hart a total of 45 times. When I heard the news on Saturday, I had better things to do than write about something that I predicted: I told many people that it was O'Halloran all over again. Perhaps the problem is that Trinidad and Tobago doesn't have sufficient history for Trinbagonians to study, thus they don't, thus they repeat it.
And, of course, the PNM isn't held in great esteem now - and neither is the man occupying the Honourable Office of Prime Minister, Patrick Manning (note the placement of Honourable). So what now? Calder Hart resigned, left and... umm... everyone has something to say.
Other UDECOTT directors are so confused that they say 'Resign for what!' instead of 'Resign for What?'. Clearly they have no friends amongst what could be something resembling an opposition part. Winston Dookeran (COP) feels vindicated. And Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj wants to probe the criminality of Hart. Every rumshop has its share of puncheon induced people discussing the issue as intelligently as everyone else - sadly, perhaps more so - before they slalom home, breathalyzers be damned. {Read more}
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