’I expected it,’ Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday, after he was unceremoniously dismissed from the Cabinet.

The sacking came after a 12 p.m. meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning at Whitehall, Port of Spain, at which the two men disagreed.

Rowley said the disagreement came over the role of UDeCOTT, which is chaired by Calder Hart, and the institution’s apparent access to public funds without proper oversight.

But at that Whitehall meeting, Manning told Rowley that it was not his views on UDeCOTT, but his reported ’unacceptable and reprehensible’ behaviour at a Finance and General Purposes (F&GP) Committee meeting last week Monday that was the source of the problem.

With no resolution over their differences of opinion, Manning asked Rowley to resign, ’to go quietly’, adding that if he did, he (Manning) would say nothing.

But Rowley refused, saying: ’The Prime Minister determines the Cabinet. And if you are unhappy with anyone in the Cabinet, it is for you to take action.’

He also told the Prime Minister that although he did his job to the best of his ability, he had not ’fallen in love with office and was prepared to go anytime’. Manning then replied that in those circumstances, he would inform President George Maxwell Richards to revoke his (Rowley’s) appointment as Trade and Industry Minister. The two men then shook hands and Rowley left Whitehall.

The PNM’s strongest debater then called the Parliament to inform its staff that they should remove his name plate from the frontbench, but was told that such instructions had to come from the Leader of Government Business, Colm Imbert.

’I still know where I have to sit,’ Rowley told them, and at 1.30 p.m., he took his seat on the backbench at yesterday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

During the sitting, several United National Congress Alliance (UNC-A) members enquired of Rowley why he was ’domiciled’ on the backbench.

’I have been fired,’ he replied curtly, refusing to say more and focusing his attention instead on a Newsweek magazine which he was reading. Manning, seated at the opposite end, gave no hint of imbroglio.

But a terse release from the Prime Minister’s office, issued at 5.03 p.m., confirmed that Rowley had been relieved of his ministerial portfolio and that Dr Lenny Saith had been appointed new Minister of Trade and Industry.

Speaking to the Express during the teabreak, Rowley said: ’I have been fired for objecting to UDeCOTT’s access to and expenditure of public monies in a manner which does not meet proper procurement practices.

’Given the position I took with the UNC, and it was never political, it was always about principle. I believe that if something is wrong under the UNC, it is doubly wrong under the PNM because we should know much better.’

He added, ’For objecting to what was going on at the Princess Elizabeth grounds (where the Performing Arts Centre is being constructed), I was fired.’

Rowley revealed that last week Monday at the F&GP Committee meeting, he raised strong objections following a presentation by UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart, in which he revealed that a 60-room hotel was being built at the Centre for the Performing Arts.

Manning was not present at this meeting, which was chaired by Saith.

While the Cabinet knew that several rooms were being constructed, members were shocked to learn the rooms numbered 60, and that it was to become a hotel.

Rowley asked that Hart be excused after the presentation. Following Hart’s departure, Rowley made his objections known.

He told the Express yesterday that his objections were made ’firmly within the confines of the Cabinet and that under the Westminster system, where members are jointly and severally bound, any objection by a Minister has to take place within the confines of the Cabinet and its sub-committees’.

Rowley said he used no obscene language, did not bang on his desk, nor did he shout or attack anyone. He said he merely questioned the large sums which UDeCOTT was expending without proper oversight. He added that as a Minister who understood the modus operandi of UDeCOTT, he felt ’duty-bound to intervene’.

’As a former minister of planning and as a former minister of housing who had to deal with UDeCOTT, I am currently in court defending myself from certain allegations involving UDeCOTT and those allegations were part of a conspiracy by persons in UDeCOTT, in the Integrity Commission and in the Cabinet. And I see this development as a continuation of that,’ he said.

Within the PNM, there was shock and dismay over the dismissal of Rowley. Some members of F&GP said it was inconceivable that Rowley’s dismissal could be linked to events at the meeting in question. Many of his political colleagues were also reluctant to comment directly on the issue.

With 26 of the 41 seats, giving him an 11-seat parliamentary majority, the Prime Minister is in no danger of losing control of the Government and could therefore take such actions with impunity. However, the political fallout in the party is expected to be considerable, as Rowley is the most dynamic MP.

At Rowley’s constituency office last night, his Executive and worried constituents gathered to hear, directly from him, what had transpired. Since challenging Manning in 1996, there has always been a perception that there were tensions between the two men.