In an unprecedented move, the Joint Consultative Council has written to the Commission of Enquiry into the Construction Sector, requesting that Sherrine Lee Hart, the wife of Calder Hart, be summoned to answer questions about whether her husband has a personal stake in a private company alleged to have gotten a lucrative contract from Udecott via nepotistic means.

Equally unprecedented is the request in the same letter for the Chief Immigration Officer to also be summoned to clarify whether there is in fact a close connection between the contractors from Malaysia and Hart.

If the Commissioners in the Uff Enquiry accede to the request, controversial, unanswered questions about whether the Udecott Chairman was in fact involved in a questionable deal may finally be answered, and long alleged corruption allegations levied against Hart may also be either proven or debunked.

The JCC, a body comprising the heads of nine institutions, including the Manufacturers Association, Contractors Association, Institute of Architects and Association of Professional Engineers, sent the five-page letter to the Commission’s Secretary, Judith Gonzalez, late Friday afternoon.

It is signed by JCC President, Winston Riley, and the other heads of the bodies have also affixed their signatures to it, making it an official document of the ongoing probe, and one which, from next week, will be made a public document via the Commission’s website.

In the letter, Riley and his JCC associates stated that ’serious questions’ have arisen in light of the evidence of Carl Khan, given via a sworn statement to the Commission on May 18 and May 19, 2009.

Khan purports in his evidence to be the ex-husband of Hart’s current wife, Sherrine Lee Hart, and notes that as of 31 December, 1997, she was also called Lee Soh Wah and So Wah Lee Khan.

He says that two individuals, who go by the names of Lee Hup Ming or Allan Lee Hup Ming and Ng Chin Poh or David Ng Chin Poh are her brother and brother-in-law respectively.

These persons, the JCC’s letter notes, are at the crux of the allegations of corruption that Prime Minister Patrick Manning used last year to launch the enquiry in the first place. They are the two directors of the Malaysian firm CH Development and Construction Ltd, which was given a contract by Udecott in 2005, under Hart’s stewardship as Executive Chairman, to construct the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower in downtown Port of Spain at a price of $0.3 billion. CH Development is now called Sunway Construction Caribbean Ltd.

The JCC’s letter notes that in previous testimony to the Commission, TSTT confirmed that the fax number 624-8239 listed on CH Development’s official letterhead in the Ministry of Legal Towers project was in fact registered to Calder Hart as his private fax number at his home in #6 De Lima Road, Cascade, when the contract between Udecott and CH Development was signed.

The JCC’s letter also traces an intricate trail between Hart’s private fax number and CH Development’s official fax number, noting that Udecott’s letter of award to CH Development for the Ministry of Legal Tower project was given on April 2005. This letter of award, the fax trail reveals, was sent from an Udecott fax machine, then to Hart’s private fax, then to a Sunway Construction fax number.

The fax trail shows, too, that on April 29, 2005, the letter of award was faxed to Hart’s personal fax number just after 10 a.m. From there, it was then faxed to Sunway’s fax number-632-6825-shortly before noon, signed by one ’Poon Kon Hoon’ (phonetic) on behalf of CH Development and then faxed back to Udecott’s offices just before noon.

The JCC’s letter also notes that there is a marked procedural discrepancy in Udecott’s award of this contract to CH Development, which centres on the fact that CH Development was incorporated as a company only in 2004, and therefore, could not have qualified for the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower project since it did not have the VAT, NIB or PAYE certificates, nor the requisite five years experience and financial strength as a company.

The JCC letter further points out that despite evidence linking Calder Hart as a relative to the CH Development directors, and the fax number linking the company to his own private residence, Hart has denied in his testimony to the Commission that he has any relations whatsoever to the CH Development deal.

The letter notes that ’serious questions’ arise as to ’whether Calder Hart had a financial interest in or connection with CH Development and Construction Ltd, now Sunway Construction Caribbean Limited, the company which was awarded a contract by Udecott to construct the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower for the sum of $368,902,830.00.’

The JCC’s letter also notes that questions further arise as to whether ’Hart had a relationship with the person or persons behind such a company and the nature of such a relationship, and also whether the tender process was manipulated or influenced by Hart so as to bring about the award of the contract to CH Development Ltd.’

The JCC is asking the Commissioners to ensure that when hearing resumes on September 7 that ’all relevant evidence be brought before the Commission so as to enable it to fully investigate and enquire into the circumstances surrounding the award of the contract’ in question, and that the Commissioners must ’deem it worthy’ to ’compel’ the Chief Immigration Officer to produce to the Commission all documentation and records signed by Ng Chin Poh and Lee Hup Ming relating to their visits to T&T for the period 2003 to date, and including all documentation containing information of their respective intended addresses while in the country.

The JCC is also calling on the Commissioners to ’summon Sherrine Lee Hart to answer questions as to whether she is in any way related to Ng Chin Poh and Lee Hup Ming.’

Sources close to the matter said, however, that Sherrine Lee Hart reportedly left the country some two months ago.

Hart has not answered repeated telephone messages requesting his clarification and comment.

The Commission of Enquiry, in the meantime, has been dealing with the resignation of Israel Khan as Commissioner. Khan resigned saying that it could bee seen that he held an ’unconscious bias’ against Hart, citing a scathing 10-page letter to the Udecott Chairman and his attorneys, in which, among other things, he questioned if Hart had ’cocoa in the sun.’

The Commission has stated however, that it will continue sitting with the remaining three commissioners, and will resume hearing as scheduled from September 7.