By Andre Bagoo Sunday, May 10 2009 Newsday
UDECOTT executive chairman Calder Hart has offered his account of how his personal fax number appeared on the letterhead of a Malaysian firm which was awarded a $368 million Udecott contract by the Udecott board.
In a statement filed on Friday in the Uff Commission of Inquiry, Hart says he has conducted an investigation as to how correspondence from the firm of CH Development (later called Sunway) managed to quote his personal fax number as its own.
“In an attempt to discover how my fax number came to be used on CH’s letterhead,” Hart said in the statement dated May 8, which was obtained by Sunday Newsday, “I have made enquiries from Sunway who have said that the number was printed erroneously on their computer-generated letterhead and offered their apologies for having done the same as this had been done without my consent, authorisation or knowledge.
“For my part I reassert that neither I nor any member of my family has, or ever had any share or interest in Sunway or in any of its subsidiary companies,” he writes in the 18-page statement which attempts to answer the queries made of him throughout the course of the first two phases of inquiry hearings. The third phase begins tomorrow.
In the very next paragraph of his statement, Hart also goes on to deal with allegations that Udecott is not performing up to par. He does this by relying on statements made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning on April 9 at the opening of the International Waterfront complex.
“On several occasions throughout this enquiry allegations have been made to the effect that Udecott (usually as a consequence of my guidance) performs in a manner which frustrates or denies governmental oversight and abuses the mandate and trust which the Government has reposed in it,” he writes. “A full response to any suggestion that the Government may be dissatisfied with Udecott’s performance was delivered by the Honourable Prime Minister on the opening of the Waterfront Project.
“The Honourable Prime Minister took the opportunity to publicly declare the satisfaction of the Government with respect to the performance of Udecott,” he adds, attaching what appears to be an unsigned copy of the Prime Minister’s speech delivered on the occasion. Manning had been photographed toasting with Hart at the event. “It is hoped that the declaration of confidence will serve to put to rest any suggestion of dissatisfaction on the part of the Government in the role and performance of Udecott in the faithful implementation of Government’s policies in the area of urban development,” Hart adds.
Responding to claims that Udecott violated its own tender rules to award Sunway the $368 million contract for the Ministry of Legal Affairs (MLA) Tower in downtown Port-of-Spain, Hart argues that the rules that applied to that project were not the same rules that applied to others. He notes that the rules that applied to the Customs and Excise Building project, for instance, were not the same rules that applied for the MLA Tower.
He further argues that while Udecott rules called for contractors to be in existence for five years in order to be prequalified for a project, that requirement was not a necessary condition of prequalification.
