Monday, September 14 2009

THE PROCEEDINGS of the Uff Commission of Inquiry are expected to be published in the Gazette today, Government sources said yesterday.

Public servants were over the weekend working overtime to ensure that the proceedings were published after Attorney General John Jeremie on Friday signed-off the forms to be published detailing the inquiry’s terms of reference.

On Friday, Attorney General John Jeremie announced that the proceedings would be gazetted with the full terms of reference. Additionally, an amendment to those terms — allowing the commissioners to use evidence already adduced in the proceedings thus far — will form part of the terms to be published. Additionally, the Government will also table a bill to validate the proceedings.

On Saturday Victor Hart, the president of the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute welcomed the Attorney General’s announcement.

“I welcome Attorney General John Jeremie’s statement,” Hart said in a statement. “I urge Attorney General Jeremie to give an undertaking to hold accountable the responsible person or persons,” he said.

Moves to remedy the defects in the proceedings came amidst reports that Udecott chairman Calder Hart is no longer in the country. Questions were raised last week after reports that Hart had left the country continued to circulate. Hart’s family, including his wife Sherrine Hart, have been said to have left the country months ago. Efforts to contact Hart and family members yesterday were unsuccessful.