By Denise Balgobin Sunday, May 4 2008

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Dr Keith Rowley ...

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Corruption in public life is like the poor, always with us. Or so it would seem whether the administration is PNM, NAR or UNC. And, in fact, the perception goes back to colonial days with memories of the Caura Dam scandal still fresh in the minds of some citizens old enough to remember. As a topic of public concern, however, few issues attract attention the way the word “corruption” does.

Remember Johnny O’Halloran and how the PNM government continued to ignore public concerns about him?

When the PNM assumed political power in 1956, it was on the mantra of being a government that would practice “morality in public life”. The promise then was that the previous decades of corruption would be no more. That didn’t happen.

O’Halloran, a high-ranking Minister and public official, went on to wheel and deal his way into millions of dollars from foreign firms wanting to secure local contracts.

Most prominent of these projects was the Caroni Racing Complex project, in which O’Halloran, as the head of the Trinidad Racing Authority, had ample opportunity to line his pockets.

Tonnes of steel and concrete, worth close to $100 million of taxpayers’ money were sunk into the Caroni swamp, as foundation materials for a project that was never completed. The San Antonio, Texas construction firm, Sam P Wallace, was selected by O’Halloran and former Minister of Finance and PNM party chairman Francis Prevatt. In 1983, O’Halloran was named and charged as being the recipient of a TT $3.6 million bribe from the firm.

Even before that, as PNM Minister of Industry and Commerce in 1956, O’Halloran was reported to have received kickbacks for a TT $43 million sewerage scheme.

Details of dealings with respect to many of these contracts were kept secret, but were later investigated by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of questionable payments.

The unstoppable “Johnny O” went on to become the Chairman of the Chaguaramas Development Authority, and rented out state lands to companies without proper procedure. But in those days, he was considered virtually untouchable under the PNM, whose political leader Eric Williams, was his bosom buddy. Indeed, O’Halloran was Williams’ closest confidante and was not only one of two witnesses at Dr Williams’ secret marriage to Mayleen Mooksang, but was the executor of Dr Williams’ last will and testament.

In fact, so insured from public condemnation was O’Halloran, that even after he fled the country before he could be charged, he wrote the government demanding payment of his pension!

Further indication of O’Halloran’s influence was that it was only after he fled that a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In July 1980, the DC-9 scandal broke. This centred around a questionable deal for the purchase of four new DC-9 aircraft to state-owned BWIA from the US-based McDonnel Douglas Corporation, a company that flourished in pay-offs to officials from mainly developing countries. A TT $1.3 million bribe was reportedly paid for securing this deal.

Also figuring prominently in this deal was Francis Prevatt, who was also protected by the government of the day. When the US company admitted paying bribes, the government accused McDonnel Douglas Corporation of being “grossly libellous” against a sovereign state and demanded an apology. Ironically, this statement was made on behalf of the government by none other than today’s Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who at that time was the PNM’s Minister of Information.

But O’Halloran’s and Prevatt’s schemes would soon be blown to bits. Upon taking over as Prime Minister, George Chambers shut down the racing complex project and O’Halloran resigned his governmental postings.

Despite several senior state officials travelling here, there and everywhere in search of him, he could not be found and it was reported that he had acquired Panamanian citizenship.

Never being brought to TT courts, O’Halloran died in Canada in 1985 after a prolonged illness. His dealings were investigated under the subsequent NAR regime and his assets were frozen in 1989 by a Toronto court.

Today, following Dr Keith Rowley’s allegations and his call for an Inquiry, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) is in the limelight. The $200 million state-of-the-art University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) project at Wallerfield, managed by Udecott, is said to have reached crisis stage with the Chinese contracting firm, China Jiang Su, failing to deliver at the designated February 2008 time. There have also been overruns, a shortage of labour and equipment problems.

UTT is only one of 50 state projects being executed by Udecott, a limited liability project management company which falls under the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment. The money is estimated at more than $10 billion.

Public perception is that the organisation is a law unto itself. Requests for an inquiry which have come from the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute, have not been heeded. Udecott, it is said, does not follow procurement procedures set out in a 2004 Parliament White Paper, advancing as a reason that the White Paper is not yet law.

Interestingly enough, China Jiang Su also has the contracts for two other mega-million-dollar State projects, including the UTT’s $1.2 billion signature building at O’Meara and the Marabella Junior Secondary School.

Udecott was also responsible for the tendering process for the new $100 million Customs and Excise Building, now under construction in downtown PoS.

The allegations against Udecott indicate that it was spending all this money without Cabinet oversight. Ironically, the allegations have not come from the UNC opposition, but from within the heart of the PNM in the person of a Cabinet member, Dr Keith Rowley, who up to Wednesday April 23, was the Minister of Trade and Industry. For his pains, Dr Rowley was relieved of his Cabinet post by Prime Minister Patrick Manning on the grounds that Rowley displayed “wajang” and “hooligan” behaviour at a sub-cabinet committee meeting where the Udecott issue was raised.

Instead of focusing attention on the issue raised by Dr Rowley, which is who is monitoring Udecott, the focus was on Dr Rowley’s alleged behaviour.

A clear case, if there ever was one, of “shooting the messenger”.

But then, that is nothing new in our history with respect to tackling the issue of corruption.

For the last five to six years, attention has been focussed on the UNC period, many of whose senior people are now before the court with respect to the Piarco Airport, the construction of which cost $1.5 billion, when it was originally budgeted for $500 million.

In the aftermath, a number of foreign officials have already been found guilty in US courts of collusion with TT Government officials to defraud the taxpayers of this country.

Piarco has not yet been concluded but already allegations are in the public domain and calls are being made for an Inquiry into the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), the state enterprise that is currently spending $10 billion on several mega projects. So whereas the Piarco investigations are still before the courts, we seem poised to becoming involved in another Inquiry over the spending of state funds.

It does not appear that after all the years anything has changed.