Richard Lord

Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning is promis­ing a probe in­to the col­lapse of the Uff Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the Con­struc­tion Sec­tor.

This fol­lows fail­ure of the Gov­ern­ment to pub­lish in the Gazette no­ti­fi­ca­tion of the in­quiry.

Man­ning was ques­tioned on the de­vel­op­ment af­ter yes­ter­day's pre­sen­ta­tion of the 2009/2010 bud­get by Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The com­mis­sion, which was due to re­sume hear­ings in the Win­sure Build­ing on Rich­mond Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, has been sus­pend­ed be­cause of the omis­sion.

Man­ning ex­pressed se­ri­ous con­cerns about the de­vel­op­ment.

"I have or­dered an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter, and I would like to un­der­stand how this thing has come about. "I just don't un­der­stand it, and that's what I am await­ing." Mean­while, Gov­ern­ment did not heed a call by Diego Mar­tin West MP, Dr Kei­th Row­ley, to ta­ble and ap­prove a Val­i­da­tion Bill in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day to save the work of the com­mis­sion. Row­ley made the call on Sun­day.