Wednesday, October 28 2009

Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley’s question to Finance Minister, Karen Nunez-Tesheira, down for answer in the House of Representatives on Friday, with respect to salaries and perks paid to Calder Hart as Chairman of five State companies may elicit information in which the Uff Commission of Inquiry into the Construction Sector has expressed interest.

The issue of Hart’s salaries and perks as Chairman of the relevant companies — Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Udecott), Home Mortgage Bank, National Insurance Board, National Insurance Property Development Company and TT Mortgage Finance Company — was raised earlier this year, when the Commission’s Chairman, Professor John Uff, indicated that the Commission was interested “in the complete financial package for employers and particularly directors of Udecott, including all benefits and perks that go with the various offices that they hold.” Uff would add: “We are interested in the package of remuneration, including things like bonuses and other benefits that go with the office.”

The question posed by Rowley triggers yet other questions. For example, although when the PNM appointed Calder Hart to the Chairmanship of the five crucial State companies it may have viewed him as a super technocrat, nonetheless, were there not others in Trinidad and Tobago not capable of sharing his work load? What special qualifications does Hart have, above everyone else, which single him out to head all of these important Government enterprises which over the years have employed thousands of persons, an appreciable number of them Chinese workers on contract, and spent billions of dollars?

Admittedly, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the country did have an in house super technocrat. In the intervening period, however, did Government’s educational and skills planning programmes along with the public and private sector exposure at the top not provide it with an appropriately qualified cadre of persons who would have been capable of directing the companies? Or was it that Government considered Hart, a Canadian, to possess qualifications and qualities for leadership far superior to those had by Trinidad and Tobago nationals?

Meanwhile, Dr Rowley has requested that Minister Nunez-Tesheira disclose the allowances — housing, transport, overseas travel, entertainment and medical allowances/facilities — along with the monthly salaries he receives as Chairman of the five companies. The Finance Minister has been asked to state how much in bonuses Hart has received for each Chairmanship post from 2006 to 2009. For the record, Rowley, as Planning and Development Minister in 2006, was line Minister for Udecott that year. However, was Dr Rowley’s asking of the Minister of Finance to disclose the housing allowance which Hart is inferred as receiving, along with other stated allowances, an oversight?

Additionally, Rowley would like the Minister of Finance to state when the post of Executive Chairman was introduced; whether Hart was reconfirmed in the post; the date of the renewal of his contract and whether there were any changes in the terms and conditions of the new contract as it (the contract) relates to the earlier written agreement. The questions posed by Dr Rowley have already generated heightened interest following their publication in the lead story in yesterday’s issue of Newsday.

What has given added significance to the question is that Dr Rowley, as indicated earlier, is a former PNM Government Minister and is still a member of the ruling Party. Rowley, has become the first member of the PNM to file, on his own, a question in Parliament for oral answer by a PNM Government Minister. All eyes will be on Nunez-Tesheira on Friday.