Former Minister Dr Keith Rowley has asked the Commission of Enquiry to consider whether UDeCOTT’s conduct in failing to comply with the directives of the line Minister was lawful.

And if so, ’then a most serious legal vacuum subsists in respect of public sector governance and accountability which must be addressed with alacrity in order to ensure robust protection of the interests of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago,’ Rowley stated in a submission, dated July 31, to the Commission.

’The Commission must not shirk from making firm recommendations in this regard,’ the Diego Martin MP added.

The submission, titled ’Recommendations for enhanced corporate governance of State-owned Companies in Trinidad and Tobago’ bears the names of Rowley and his attorneys, Gilbert Peterson SC and Margaret Rose.

Rowley said the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium by all accounts is ’a procurement disaster and the poster-child for bad process’.

’The ongoing expenditure of public monies on this project has been nothing short of scandalous,’ he said, noting that the cost was now estimated to be over $700 million.

’The synopsis of the projects (done by UDeCOTT) demonstrates the cost of UDeCOTT’s rogue activity in failing to comply with procedural guidelines laid down by the Minister since 2003; guidelines which were given years prior to these contract awards’.

’...Had UDeCOTT been made to follow acceptable tendering procedures, the facility for waste and corruption would have been minimised or eliminated and untold hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars would not have been expended for little value or benefit,’ Rowley said.

Rowley referred to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Principles of Corporate Governance and in the context of these principles and the circumstances of UDeCOTT, he made several recommendations. One was that there must be transparency and disclosure for state-owned enterprises. He said the conduct of UDeCOTT in this regard has been seriously challenged by the Commission. There has been evidence of failure to respond to parliamentary committee requests, failure to report to relevant Ministers and Cabinet on the Real Spring Housing Development Project and even UDeCOTT’s conduct before the very Commission in unilaterally redacting information were all illustrative of a lack of commitment to a culture of openness, he said.

Another recommendation was that the Chair should be separated from the CEO. ’Mr Calder Hart has held the position of Executive Chairman for several years and there has been evidence of his having undertaken executive tasks even before he had been appointed to this dual position; hiring consultants directly and subsequently seeking the ratification of the board’, Rowley stated.

Rowley also said the question of undue political interference was most important. He said while the minister had a duty to monitor what was going on at a state-company, it was significant that the series of meetings between the Malaysian contractor Sunway and the Prime Minister resulted in a memorandum of understanding to the effect that the Government would facilitate that contracting firm on construction projects. He said this was cause for concern.