By Clint Chan Tack Monday, August 10 2009

THE THREE local members of the Commission of Inquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) and the construction industry are expected to go to London to ensure that the commission’s final report meets its November deadline.

Well-placed sources said yesterday this was a possibility as the commission prepares to begin its final round of hearings at the Winsure Building in Port-of-Spain on September 7.

The final phase of the inquiry is scheduled to be completed in three weeks and will deal with the controversial Cleaver Heights housing project. Once the hearings end, the commission will begin to draft its final report.

Newsday was told that its three local members — Israel Khan SC, Desmond Thornhill and Kenneth Sirju — may go to London to meet with chairman Professor John Uff to ensure that the commission’s final report is ready for submission to President George Maxwell Richards by November.

Uff, a British citizen, is expected to return home to London shortly after the final round of hearings are completed. Sources added that the State will bear the necessary costs for the local commissioners to go to London if it becomes necessary.

The Cleaver Heights project was first made public when Prime Minister Patrick Manning claimed that $10 million was missing from the project. During the 2009 Budget debate in Parliament last September, Manning asked former housing minister Dr Keith Rowley, “Where the money gone?” Rowley has dismissed Manning’s claims. The last phase of the inquiry may coincide with the presentation of the 2010 Budget in Parliament.

Planning, Housing and Environment Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde and NH International Caribbean (NHIC) chairman Emile Elias may appear before the commission next month to deal with the Cleaver Heights project. NHIC was the project’s contractor.