Fran­cis Joseph

A "se­cret" re­port on the fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion of the Hin­du Cred­it Union (HCU) can be hand­ed over to the board of di­rec­tors. This re­port was pre­pared by au­di­tors Ernst and Young in 2008, af­ter the Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tives, Clarence Mitchell, moved in, fol­low­ing a col­lapse of the cred­it union. But the re­port was kept con­fi­den­tial in the wind­ing-up case be­fore Jus­tice Nolan Bereaux in the Port-of-Spain High Court. In the ap­peal be­fore the Min­is­ter of Labour, HCU com­plained that it could not ar­gue its case prop­er­ly, with­out know­ing what was in that re­port.

So HCU brought a "case stat­ed" pe­ti­tion to the High Court. Yes­ter­day, Jus­tice Vasheist Kokaram, pre­sid­ing in the Port-of-Spain High Court, said he had pe­rused the re­port and found noth­ing in it which could prej­u­dice a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The "case stat­ed" pe­ti­tion in­volved the Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tives, HCU and the An­ti-Cor­rup­tion In­ves­ti­ga­tions Bu­reau (ACIB), all of whom re­tained se­nior coun­sel to ar­gue the mat­ter. Kokaram said it was two years since the wind­ing-up or­der and the in­volve­ment of the ACIB.

He rec­om­mend­ed that the ACIB and the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) should get on with the mat­ter be­cause it was de­lay­ing the mat­ter, in which there are 150,000 mem­bers wait­ing for fi­nal­i­ty. The judge al­so ruled that it was wrong for the Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tives to wind up HCU with­out giv­ing the board of di­rec­tors an op­por­tu­ni­ty to be heard. The Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tives ap­point­ed R Ram­per­sad and Co as liq­uida­tors for the HCU.