At least one member of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) board says it appears to be a political act to replace all board members except for chairman Jearlean John. Anthony Cherry yesterday described the announcement by Attorney General John Jeremie to change the remaining four Udecott board members as "reckless" and "unfair." Cherry said he wished legal recourse was available for him to counter his removal from the Udecott board. "They asked me to help out and I agreed. If you get tarred and feathered for helping out, well so be it. But why burn me at the stake? I am just trying to help out," Cherry said during a telephone interview yesterday.
Cherry said the Government was "the boss" and "the boss has found it necessary to replace his staff." He said: "So they replace their staff. It is their prerogative. It is a pretty thankless job, isn't it?" He said that decisions to make changes to the Udecott board depended from the perspective they were taken from. "It may be necessary because from perhaps a political standpoint, it might be necessary but not from the point of view of our ability or incompetence or whether there is anything suspicious or anything like that," Cherry said.
"It is not necessary from the point of view that we are sort of a band of incompetents," he said. Cherry disputed the findings of the report of the Commission of Enquiry into Udecott and the Construction Sector that said since 2005 there was no disagreement from board members to the decisions Udecott's former executive chairman Calder Hart made. "It is a conclusion that is drawn by the commission, but I disagree with it. I do not know on what evidence he (the commissioner) has come to that conclusion," he said. "He is entitled to come to that conclusion but my answer to that is that I disagree."
