Seenath Jairam, SC, the lead attorney for the Commission of Enquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) and the construction sector, says it was both secretary Judith Gonzalez and himself who discovered that it had not been gazetted as required by law.

In an interview with the Express yesterday, Jairam said that he had been seeking information on the quorum required for the Commission and other legal issues when he and Gonzalez made the startling discovery.

’Anticipating some kind of challenge from one or other of the parties we made enquiries and discovered this thing had not been gazetted and this was only on Friday,’ Jairam said.

He said he consulted with his junior attorneys late into Friday night to confirm the debacle and confirmed he had called the Enquiry’s chairman, Prof John Uff, QC, on Saturday to inform him of the development.

Without disclosing any details of his conversation with Uff, Jairam said that he had recognised by Friday night, that the passage of a Validation Act would solve the non-gazetting issue and hopes this would be done soon.

Legal sources told the Express yesterday that the Commission’s counsel had the responsibility to ensure the Commission was gazetted since they were its legal advisers. Jairam dismissed any such claims.

’Yesterday I was prepared to accept some blame for damage control but having given the matter some careful thought, I had no power to appoint anybody. It is not any counsel who appoints the Commission. So I would say on founding principle the responsibility must rest with those responsible for making the appointments to ensure they are valid and effective,’ Jairam said.

He said he was not blaming President George Maxwell Richards, Prime Minister Patrick Manning but civil servants in their respective offices.

He further said that the fault may also lie with civil servants in the offices of the Solicitor General or the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and added the counsel was only mandated to give legal advice to the Commission from time to time as deemed necessary.

Meanwhile, former Commissioner Senior Counsel Israel Khan says the blame for the non-gazetting of the Commission of Enquiry rests on the shoulders of former attorney general Bridgid Annisette-George.

Khan, who had resigned from his seat on the Commission last month, said in a telephone interview that Annisette-George was the Attorney General when it was appointed last September and, as such, had oversight over the Ministry that had the direct responsibility of ensuring the Commission was published in the Trinidad and Tobago Gazette as required by law.

Khan said, however, that ’all is not lost’ as he supported Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley’s call for the Government to introduce a Validation Bill to the Parliament which, once passed, would give retroactive effect to the Commission under the Commission of Enquiry Act.