Thursday July 29th, 2010
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Udecott board must go
Published: 10 Mar 2010
To say I am deeply disappointed over the refusal of board members of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T to follow their former chairman, Calder Hart, and resign is the understatement of 2010.
It is with a profound sense of anguish and disbelief that in the face of all that has transpired with this state-owned special purpose company and particularly Hart, up to Monday three of the five-member team had told the media they saw no reason to resign. One can be charitable and excuse their inexplicable stance on the quite correct ground that they personally did nothing wrong, and therefore it is unfair to ask them to voluntary quit their positions.
However, their reluctance to go in peace can also be interpreted as one in which these honourable gentlemen are completely misreading the mood of the population, which is one of extreme anger over the sorry mess that T&T has been engulfed over the past few years. And that is the making of politicians and others entrusted with running vital sectors of the country. We have been thrown into a tailspin with so many negative issues, each playing out at the same time and which have left us wondering when and how it would all end. I don’t know attorney Anthony Cherry and Wendell Dottin, Udecott board members, but I have a fair idea of the kind of person business magnate Dr Krishna Bahadoorsingh is. I have grown to respect him as a forthright, principled gentleman ever since his stint as an Independent senator some years ago. At the time of writing Bahadoorsingh, a deputy chairman of Udecott, was reportedly out of the country and expected to return home on Monday.
This would have given him enough time to assess his tenure at Udecott and arrive at a decision, one which I am sure would be in keeping with his high principles and moral correctness. I don’t think he is one who would stubbornly and for selfish reasons hold on to an office which at this time is being looked at with askance by the people. Being the well cultured individual—this is not to say the others are not, but as I said I don’t know about them—he would not want to be seen as flying in the face of the people who, thank God, are finally saying those entrusted with high public office would no longer be allowed to do with us what they damn well please. So I would expect that by this time at least Dr Bahadoorsingh would have done the decent thing. Then there is the fifth member, Michael Annisette, president of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union; president of the National Trade Union Centre, and an Independent senator.
Instead of continuing his strident defence of Hart (up to Monday he was there batting for him), as he has been doing since day one, Annisette should set the example and be the first to send in his resignation. After all, he was up and down the place in the media scolding anybody who dared criticise, even in the slightest manner, his beloved Hart and Udecott. On reflection, Anisette, out of a sense of misplaced loyalty, and as an act of contrition for severely chastising those who quite properly went after Hart, must resign and leave with some degree of dignity. But the main character in this sorrowful epic, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, has a major role to play in this unfolding drama. Simply put, if those fellows still refuse to chuck in the job, he has the moral and political responsibility to thank them for their service and send them packing. In 1993, Manning set the precedent for dealing with erring state bodies when he asked the entire board of the Airports Authority to resign over unsubstantiated claims of irregularities in the awarding of a contract to Pegasus for the refurbishing of the Piarco International Airport.
Unlike this current scenario, there was absolutely no credible justification in the dismissal of the board but Manning felt he was doing the right thing in asking its members to go. Manning followed up his Piarco action when the police charged two of his Cabinet ministers over corruption allegations. One of them, Eric Williams, who no doubt saw his political career coming to a screeching halt, was, thank God, freed by the court. The other, Franklin Khan is still before the court. So Manning cannot now be seen as back-pedalling on his zero tolerance for perceived misconduct in public office, even though no one is accusing or has accused the remaining Udecott board members of such. Simultaneously with firing them, Manning must have the police conduct a criminal investigation into most, if not all, Udecott projects because, unlike the Piarco instance, billions of dollars are at stake here. And when the final chapter is written on this whole sordid saga, Manning himself has to account to the people for his wholehearted support of Hart, when others were sending clear signals to him that all was not well with Udecott.
NEXT WEEK: Basdeo Panday —T&T’s public enemy No 1
Clevon, yuh doctor friend
Clevon, yuh doctor friend say he staying right dey bro...dont be disappointed....get mad like Machel...
Clevon, How are you doing? I
Clevon,
How are you doing? I have not written to you since I predicted that Obama would win the US election. Here is my other prediction. Kamla will be the next Prime Minister of T & T. Whenever an election is called. The one thing that she has going for her is honesty. I am a psychologist, and one can note that, for the first time in many years, there is ONE honest politician in T & T. In every nook and corner of T & T and on the lips of most trinis, in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, people are talking about Kamla. Many are hoping that she would put us out of distress and wrestle T & T out of the tyranny of a corrupt PNM. We really, and truly cannot, and should not, take any more. The latest UDECOTT fiasco involves billions of our lost money. Think about it for a while. This is only the tip of the iceberg. One could only surmise that it could run into a trillion, easily, if one looks at all the different boards, and board members. This tiefing must stop, now, otherwise we are dead. At present most of our young people have NONE, or a highly compromised future in T & T.
I noticed that you intend to write about Panday in your next column. It does not seem like a good idea. You should give him some friendly advice that he should seek a good psychologist to get through his grief and mourning. He had his time, and we have to move on. Note what he is doing to the UNC, in parliament. He wants pity, sympathy and mercy, and the UNC people to beg him for his help. The new UNC will survive without his help. I hope that he goes out on good terms and stop being a pompous…………He was given his chance, and we will not forget he took our money. If he is given another chance , like the UDECOTT boys, he would have taken more. Most people’s behaviors in the past are good predictors of how they will behave in the future. Panday and Ramnath should join the UDECOTT board, and go into hiding.
Although Uff promised that a report will be out by Easter, there is only a slim chance this will happen. This is because a high number of legal obstacles will be put in place by the PNM. It is strange how no one has put the pieces, and the links, together. Hart, linked to Manning, linked to Pena, linked to UDECOTT and the Malaysian company. Give Rowley some credit. He came clean. Manning knew the truth, all along, and he fired Rowley for being right, and possibly too nosy. Hart needed to tell him that the missing $10 million went up to the Lordess on the hills of Gunapo. I tend to agree with you that there may be only one board member who is above board.
It also seems that anyone who is appointed to serve as a minister, or get into a position of trust, and handling huge sums of our money, should undergo rigid psychological testing. This is done in many industries. It would definitely put a hold on bobbol, corruption, bribery and all the tiefing in T & T. Keep up the good writing and the keen insights into life in T & T.
Cleavon...read
Cleavon...read this..
Corruption in T&T is not grey; in fact, it is extremely colorful, as kaleidoscopic as T&T's renowned carnival. Corruption thrives in this small country with its bountiful energy resources. T&T's environment allows nepotism, "constitutional dictatorship" and political interference that violate the constitutional separation of powers, not only among the executive, legislative and judiciary branches, but also among the private sector and the media.
Clevon, How are you doing? I
Clevon,
How are you doing? I have not written to you since I predicted that Obama would win the US election. Here is my other prediction. Kamla will be the next Prime Minister of T & T. Whenever an election is called. The one thing that she has going for her is honesty. I am a psychologist, and one can note that, for the first time in many years, there is ONE honest politician in T & T. In every nook and corner of T & T and on the lips of most trinis, in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, people are talking about Kamla. Many are hoping that she would put us out of distress and wrestle T & T out of the tyranny of a corrupt PNM. We really, and truly cannot, and should not, take any more. The latest UDECOTT fiasco involves billions of our lost money. Think about it for a while. This is only the tip of the iceberg. One could only surmise that it could run into a trillion, easily, if one looks at all the different boards, and board members. This tiefing must stop, now, otherwise we are dead. At present most of our young people have NONE, or a highly compromised future in T & T.
I noticed that you intend to write about Panday in your next column. It does not seem like a good idea. You should give him some friendly advice that he should seek a good psychologist to get through his grief and mourning. He had his time, and we have to move on. Note what he is doing to the UNC, in parliament. He wants pity, sympathy and mercy, and the UNC people to beg him for his help. The new UNC will survive without his help. I hope that he goes out on good terms and stop being a pompous…………He was given his chance, and we will not forget he took our money. If he is given another chance , like the UDECOTT boys, he would have taken more. Most people’s behaviors in the past are good predictors of how they will behave in the future. Panday and Ramnath should join the UDECOTT board, and go into hiding.
Although Uff promised that a report will be out by Easter, there is only a slim chance this will happen. This is because a high number of legal obstacles will be put in place by the PNM. It is strange how no one has put the pieces, and the links, together. Hart, linked to Manning, linked to Pena, linked to UDECOTT and the Malaysian company. Give Rowley some credit. He came clean. Manning knew the truth, all along, and he fired Rowley for being right, and possibly too nosy. Hart needed to tell him that the missing $10 million went up to the Lordess on the hills of Gunapo. I tend to agree with you that there may be only one board member who is above board.
It also seems that anyone who is appointed to serve as a minister, or get into a position of trust, and handling huge sums of our money, should undergo rigid psychological testing. This is done in many industries. It would definitely put a hold on bobbol, corruption, bribery and all the tiefing in T & T. Keep up the good writing and the keen insights into life in T & T.