Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

MP for Diego Mar­tin West Dr Kei­th Row­ley has de­nied that Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Ude­cott) ex­ec­u­tive chair­man Calder Hart was so­licit­ed to pur­chase land in To­ba­go from Row­ley's wife, Sharon. The To­ba­go-born Row­ley said his wife was sought out and re­ceived con­tact from Hart, who ex­pressed an in­ter­est in her To­ba­go land. "Again, it is an at­tempt to slan­der me, that I was mar­ket­ing land to Calder Hart. I have nev­er been on my wife's project with Calder Hart–not once, far less twice, or any oth­er time," Row­ley said yes­ter­day. "I nev­er took Calder Hart to my wife's project. I nev­er took him to To­ba­go to buy my wife's land. We were go­ing to (vis­it a Ude­cott project in Cas­tara) and I stopped at my home and from my home this project is vis­i­ble in the dis­tance.

"It was Calder Hart on his own, who called my wife and in­quired about a per­son­al piece of land and she sent him the doc­u­ment and that was the end, as far as I am aware, of the con­tact." Row­ley was re­spond­ing to al­le­ga­tions from his PNM col­league, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid, that Hart was es­cort­ed by Row­ley to his wife's project in To­ba­go in an at­tempt to pawn off a piece of the land on Hart. He said this did not hap­pen "and even if that had hap­pened, I do not know how Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid would have known that un­less some­body like Calder Hart would have told him that," Row­ley said. "In­ter­est­ing­ly enough, Calder Hart has spent many hours be­fore the com­mis­sion of en­quiry. He has put in a num­ber of sub­mis­sions. He has had the coun­try to speak to for how many months? It has been al­most two years now. I did not hear Calder Hart say that. I heard it from Mustapha Ab­dul-Hamid in the Par­lia­ment." Row­ley al­so sought to give an ex­pla­na­tion about dri­ving around in To­ba­go in the same car as Hart.

"On one oc­ca­sion, Calder Hart and I–he as the head of Ude­cott and I as the min­is­ter (with the port­fo­lio for over­sight of Ude­cott)–there was a Ude­cott project in Cas­tara (and) we were on our way to Cas­tara. We were among pub­lic of­fi­cials on our way to Cas­tara to view that project," Row­ley said. "On one oc­ca­sion, when I had just be­come min­is­ter (around 2003), I stopped at my home in Ma­son Hall, which is on the way to Cas­tara. Calder Hart and I were trav­el­ling in the same ve­hi­cle. We spent about ten min­utes at my home be­cause I went to col­lect some­thing from my home." Row­ley ex­plained that his wife's land was vis­i­ble from their Ma­son Hall home and Hart made in­quiries about it. "He (Hart) was able to see in a dis­tance a project tak­ing place, which he in­quired about. I told him it was my wife's project. He said he like the lo­ca­tion and he would be in­ter­est­ed and then it was fin­ished," Row­ley said. "Some­time lat­er on, un­known to me, he com­mu­ni­cat­ed with my wife and asked her to send him a doc­u­ment with re­spect to the prop­er­ty, and that was the end of it."