Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:14 hours 43 min ago
Commissioner ‘inappropriate’ for Cleaver Heights probe...
Sirju steps aside
Published: 2 Sep 2009
Kenneth Sirju
Commissioner Kenneth Sirju will have no involvement in deliberations of the Commission of Enquiry into the Construction Sector in all matters relating to the Cleaver Heights Housing project in Arima. This is according to a statement issued yesterday by commission secretary Judith Gonzalez. The Guardian reported last week that Sirju’s company, KS&P was involved in the Cleaver Heights project. And the Commission in confirming this yesterday said, “It has also emerged that in July 2009, an employee of NHIC contacted an employee of KS&P Ltd to request inspection of certain retaining walls on the Cleaver Heights Development Project.” The Commission added that the inspection was carried out on July 28, 2009, and a letter setting out the findings relating to the retaining walls was sent on August 6, 2009.”
According to the Gonzalez, Sirju was “unaware of these matters and had no personal involvement in the work carried out by KS&P for NHIC.” Gonzalez said that “neither Sirju nor KS&P had at any time had any involvement in the contractual issues concerning Cleaver Heights Development Project or any of the issues concerning Cleaver Heights set out in the extended terms and reference dated December 10, 2008.” Notwithstanding this, Gonzalez said commission chairman John Uff was of the opinion that it would now be inappropriate for Sirju to have any involvement in the Commission of Enquiry so far as it concerned the Cleaver Heights Development Project.” “Sirju has accordingly decided that he should recuse himself from the Commission of Enquiry with regard to the Cleaver Heights Development Project.”
Gonzalez said this decision “removes any further obstacle to the continuation and completion of the work of the Commission of Enquiry.” Resumption of hearings of the enquiry is set for Monday. The commission secretary said the report concerning the original terms of reference will be prepared by commissioners Sirju and Desmond Thornhill, and Chairman Uff, while the report regarding he extended terms of reference will be compiled by Uff and Thornhill. The Commission said after receiving claims of an alleged professional relationship between Sirju and NH International (Caribbean) Ltd, it wrote to parties on August 26, requesting comments on the allegation.
Mr. Sirju Steps Aside:- And
Mr. Sirju Steps Aside:-
And another one bites the dust. Let the games continue.
Who will be next?
While this Commission is sitting, carrying out very stressful work, and some may even say manual labour, and attempting to get to the truth, ensuring that no errors are made, our Hon. Prime Minister is out and about singing the praises of Mr. Caulder Hart from every rooftop. This is unconscientionable behaviour coming from our P.M. He should have had the intelligence and common sense to refrain from making comments that would reflect on the performance of Mr. Hart and UDeCOTT as they are the subject of this Inquiry.
We are a very small country, with a very small population, and to find someone in business practice who has not run into another business person is almost impossible. But I assume that the Hart's team are looking under every rug, nook and cranny, to find something to shut down this Inquiry, so that we may never know the truth.
Prof. Uff, an international expert in his field sure got himself in a pickle accepting this job. But we can still rely upon him to exercise first-class professionalism as he brings this Inquiry to a closure.
What happens after this is anyone's guess. What a country we live in!
...another red herring
...another red herring caught in nets cast by desperate UDECOTT lawyers....
After this one I think that
After this one I think that Mr Hart's attorneys will call for the removal of Commissioner Uff. They have succeeded in undermining this commission that has put in so much hard work.
Anyhow, is we the taxpayers to ketch...
http://dsaltsman.blogspot.com/
Calder Hart appears to be
Calder Hart appears to be the 3rd most powerful man in "Sweet T&T" and the PM continues to sing his praises . The John Uff Commission , which in my opinion , was constituted to take down Dr. Keith Rowley , and so far , no wrong doing has been attributed to him ; seems to have Calder Hart & UDECOTT in plenty trouble and Hart would now like the inquiry to come to a halt by way of frustrating the Commissioners .
ATW - Barbados .
Whilst it is true that T&T
Whilst it is true that T&T is a small country with the likelihood that businessmen would be known to each other and the pool of professional and well linked people are small, there is need to go outside the box in order to change things. That kind of change does not come when it is the same people doing the same things day in day out. The reason why there are not opportunities in T&T is because NOBODY want to go outside their learned pool to get an opinion that may run contrary to what they have in mind. This easily runs the risk of 'conflict of interest' as is the case of Mr. Sirju. The selection of people are also very casual as was the case of the Integrity Commission, it was the case of 'let's pick people that we know' as opposed to 'lets get the best possible people to do the job'. In fairness, there is no way Mr. Sirju could not have had a taint of 'conflict of interest' thus making his professional input suspect even if he uses his best professional judgement.