Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley is calling on Government to move expeditiously to bring a Validation Act to Parliament, possibly today, ’to secure the life and legality’ of the Commission of Enquiry into UDeCOTT and the construction sector.

Rowley noted that if reports that the legality of the commission was now in question were true, then this development ’threatens to bring the proceedings of the Commission of Enquiry - an enquiry which is virtually complete after a huge amount of financial outlay by the State and the participants in the Commission - to a halt’.

Yesterday, the media reported that the entire enquiry has had no legal standing because of the failure of the State to publish it in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette, as required under the Commission of Enquiry Act of 1982.

Rowley said Government must act to save the work done and the tens of millions of dollars expended in this enquiry. He noted that the money spent did not just include the $3 million paid to the commissioners, but also the millions paid by the State sector - UDeCOTT and its army of lawyers; NIDPEC; HDC; the Attorney General and the battery of lawyers which they all hired, as well as the sums paid by the private sector, organisations such as the Joint Consultative Council. Rowley also hired attorneys at his own cost.

’If through oversight, incompetence or sinister development, the enquiry is now threatened in this way, the Government must act through the Parliament and bring legislation to rectify this problem.

’Out of an abundance of caution and given the fact that we have seen persistent and resolute attempts to challenge the Commission of Enquiry with allegations of bias, what Government should do is come to Parliament and pass a Validation Act, validating all acts of the commission from its inception,’ Rowley said yesterday.

’If the commission is allowed to become defunct, there are persons who can take the position that all that was said about them at its hearings is slander and libel. Remember statements would have been put before the commission on the basis that there was the protection under the Commission of Enquiry Act.

’If that protection is not available, a lot of people, including the media, would be exposed to slander and libel charges by persons who refuse to accept the veracity of statements made before the commission. And therefore, Government must move with urgency to pass the Validation Act to protect the participants, the expenditure and the commission.’

He said fortunately, Parliament was meeting today and Government could present the Validation Act for debate immediately after the Budget is presented. Or, he said, Government could adjourn to come back tomorrow and make the Validation Act the subject of a ’guillotine debate’ in the House of Representatives (a debate which has a time limit), then call the Senate to a meeting for a similar debate so that the bill can be sent to President George Maxwell Richards, who ’one would expect would act with alacrity’ in giving his assent.

Rowley added that he was sure that Parliamentarians, representing the people’s interest, would agree to this move to rectify the problem.

’To do otherwise would be to bring all kinds of undesirable consequences, not to mention that this country would become the laughing stock of the world,’ he said.

Because the Commission of Enquiry was never gazetted as required by the Commission of Enquiry Act, the enquiry is not legal and its future has been be thrown in doubt.

Yesterday, Rowley asked who was taking responsible for this.

’Because somebody has to be responsible. Huge sums of public monies have been spent on this enquiry and this development is totally unwarranted.’