By ANDRE BAGOO Monday, December 7 2009

HEARINGS of the Uff Commission of Inquiry, which will see further submissions on the controversial Cleaver Heights housing project in Arima and on links between Udecott executive chairman Calder Hart and a company his board awarded $638 million in contracts to, are scheduled to resume today.

The inquiry chairman, Professor John Uff, is due to make an opening statement at the Winsure Building, Port-of-Spain, addressing key issues leading into the hearings, according to a draft schedule sent to all parties this month.

The fourth phase of hearings, which is expected to be the final phase leading up to the production of a report due for President George Maxwell Richards in February next year, had originally been scheduled to begin in September. However that month the legality of the inquiry was brought into question after it emerged that the proceedings were not published in the Gazette, a procedure that was essential under the Commissions of Inquiry Act.

But further, even while the State proceeded to Gazette the inquiry, lawyers acting on behalf of the Udecott board obtained a stay from High Court judge Justice Mira Dean-Armorer by consent ordering a freeze on the hearing of further evidence and even the “preparation” of a final report.

Amidst public uproar, the stay was eventually varied by consent at a private hearing in the High Court.

The fourth phase of hearing was added to the proceedings to deal with the Cleaver Heights project, which has seen Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Cabinet launch allegations against Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley. It was Rowley who, after being sacked from his post of trade and industry minister by Manning for still unclear reasons, first publicly brought into question the activities of Udecott. Thus far, despite alleging a $10 million discrepancy in the project (which later grew to an alleged $20 million), no evidence of wrongdoing has emerged in relation to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) project, which fell under Rowley when he was housing minister from 2003 to 2007. Former PNM treasurer Louis Andre Monteil, whose tenure as HDC chairman saw him oversee the Cleaver Heights project, as well as former HDC managing director Noel Garcia are scheduled to this week give further evidence in the proceedings in relation to Cleaver Heights. Provisionally scheduled to give evidence today, however, is Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert who, along with Planning and Development Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, has argued that the Cleaver Heights project should be further probed, not because of any discrepancies in the contract sum, but because of technical issues in relation to the quality of work done at the site under the current administration.

The fourth phase of hearing comes after the death of contractor Hafeez Karamath last month whose company Hafeez Karamath Limited is at the centre of the questionable payment of millions worth of advances on the $800 million Brian Lara stadium project at Tarouba.