BY ANDRE BAGOO Friday, May 9 2008

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Cabinet dream team: Trade Minister Dr Lenny Saith (from left), Minister of Works Colm Imbert, Planning Minister Dr Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde and Ministe...

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday shot down calls for probes into the activities of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), saying such calls were “whimsical” and “fanciful”, and made light of increasing claims that the corporation is operating without adequate oversight.

Speaking at a special question and answer session at Whitehall yesterday, Colm Imbert, the Works and Transport Minister, said in his view there was no basis for either a commission of inquiry into Udecott or a forensic audit of its affairs by the Auditor General.

“Why should there be a commission of inquiry into Udecott? And why should there be a forensic audit into Udecott? Usually that sort of thing (a probe) occurs when...on the face of it (there) appears to be something wrong or somebody produces something that will cause an inquiry or forensic audit to be made,” said Imbert

“But in this particular instance what bothers me is that the statements are being made in a vacuum. For example what exactly would a commission of inquiry be intended to achieve? What would the forensic audit be intended to unearth? These are very serious requests that are being made but they must be based on something. It can’t be a whimsical, fanciful cry...it has to be for a purpose and for a reason and based on something.”

In the wake of calls for a Udecott investigation by several bodies, including the Joint Consultative Council (JCC), the Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FITUN), the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI), and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the Cabinet yesterday took the decision to suspend the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing and to replace it with a question and answer session featuring Lenny Saith, the new Trade Minister, Imbert, Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, the Minister of Planning and Development, and Mariano Browne, the Minister in the Ministry of Finance.

While Dick-Forde is the line Minister for Udecott, the majority of questions were fielded by her seniors, Imbert and Saith. In fact, besides revealing that Udecott was now “in dialogue” with the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) over its failure to disclose plans for a hotel in its application for a certificate of environmental clearance (CEC), Dick-Forde did not say much.

On the issue of an inquiry, Saith said, “I am sure that the Government is going to address that and in due course make a statement.” He could offer nothing further than this.

Saith did say however that the JCC had twice written the Prime Minister over its concerns about the problems in the construction sector and had, additionally, as a member of the Construction Oversight Committee, raised similar concerns. But it would appear that nothing has come out of this. Not only were the ministers non-committal in dealing with calls for an inquiry, but they also downplayed the significance of the failure of Udecott to disclose its plans for a hotel to the EMA.

“This thing is really a trivial matter,” Imbert said, noting that the impact of a hotel on the site, in his view, would be marginal.

The Works Minister also said the JCC had an agenda in calling for an inquiry. But in immediate reaction, Winston Riley, the president of the JCC, said Imbert’s comments were irrelevant to the issue at hand.

“What else you expect him to say? His comments are irrelevant. We are not the only person calling for an inquiry. The general public is also calling for one. We are not alone,” he said.