Friday, April 25 2008

“I acted to prevent corruption,” said Diego Martin West MP and now former Government Minister Keith Rowley on Wednesday evening, explaining why he has been fired from the Cabinet of Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Dr Rowley was referring to a specific matter involving himself and the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) which is headed by Canadian Calder Hart. But the wider implication of his statement is that the present Government is either corrupt, or running the country’s affairs in such a manner that corruption will become endemic.

This central issue as to Udecott’s apparent freedom of action was brushed over by Mr Manning at a media briefing yesterday at which he gave his side of the story. According to the Prime Minister, Dr Rowley was fired because of “atrocious behaviour” at a meeting at which Mr Manning was not himself present.

But, having received a complaint, Mr Manning polled five Ministers, four of whom did not approve of Dr Rowley’s manner. Whether this was sufficient reason to fire an experienced Government Minister remains an open question, but Mr Manning’s attempt to link Dr Rowley’s supposed behaviour and the recent expulsion from Parliament of Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, saying you can’t reject such behaviour in Parliament and tolerate it in Cabinet, seems rather specious.

All this is relatively trivial beside the long-standing concern over the running of Udecott and the apparently untrammelled power wielded by its chairman, Mr Hart. This corporation is responsible for disbursing billions of taxpayers’ dollars on the Waterfront Project alone, which in itself has been seen as the prime example of the Manning regime’s spendthrift tendency. Moreover, despite these large sums, Udecott conducted its business for several years without an auditor, and it now appears that Cabinet itself has no real oversight over the activities of this Prime Ministerial pet. Indeed, Dr Rowley in referring to a Cabinet note about the construction of a hotel at the Princes Building grounds as part of the Performing Arts Academy, said, “Udecott business is being conducted in such a way that such a development can take place to the surprise of Cabinet members.” Mr Manning said that this construction had been approved but, even if this is so, Dr Rowley’s wider point remains valid.

Moreso in view of comments made by former Attorney General Karl Hudson-Phillips, QC, who in a paper on “Judicial Review and Public Procurement in TT,” referred to the special purpose companies (such as Udecott) created by the Executive through which to conduct its major procurement activities ostensibly with the goal of achieving greater commercial expediency, but which companies may not by law be subject to public law principles and discipline despite spending billions of dollars of taypayers money.

Adding credence to Dr Rowley’s position is his recent victory over the Integrity Commission, which had undertaken an investigation of him in respect to the Landate development without giving him a chance to defend himself. The Commissioners cleared Dr Rowley of any wrong-doing and apologised to him, but this latest development has raised fresh questions about how the Commission ended up doing such an investigation. Dr Rowley himself has hinted that the issue was manipulated by certain members of Cabinet.

And the final point in Dr Rowley’s favour is the PNM’s own history. From Karl Hudson-Phillips to ANR Robinson to Selwyn Richardson, all who have tried from within the PNM to battle authoritarianism and corruption have been banished to the political wilderness. But Dr Rowley himself, it seems, had not learned from that tradition, since he waited to be fired rather than resign.