$24.5 million! That’s what the Las Alturas Commission of Enquiry (CoE) has so far cost, yet the former PP administration which had the requirement to go after the contractor for the failed towers project “flatly and deliberately” refused to, says Prime Minister Keith Rowley.
He said the document did not identify any individual for criminal conduct in the project.
“With respect to criminal liability, no sufficient (insufficient) evidence was led before the commission to indicate criminal liability, the report said.
“I also find it curious the board and management who hired the contractors to build the Las Alturas Towers and those responsible for the HDC board took no action and allowed the legal opportunity to expire,” Rowley added yesterday when he revealed the executive summary of the CoE report.
He said the CoE was an absolute and colossal waste of time and money.” The report will be laid in Parliament today.
He added: “The summary makes no mention of me, makes no mention of Al-Rawi, (who was an HDC board member at the time).”
Rowley maintained that when it was commissioned under the former PP Government it was intended to be a witch-hunt against him and then Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi.
The Prime Minister said the CoE “was doomed to fail, to produce nothing useful, fatten lawyers.”
He also stressed the only option available to the Government (in 2011) was to seek refunds from the contractor, China Jiangsu International Corporation, within the four-year period ending September 2015.
He said the Prime Minister’s office had to pay the $24.5 million CoE cost and in addition, Udecott and the Housing Development Corporation would have paid another large “number of millions to lawyers to appear and participate in this charade,”
Most importantly, he said, was if there was a failure, the contractors had liability and under the terms of the contract and the HDC and Government had had an avenue and a duty to hold the contractor liable for what wasn’t delivered and any shortcomings.
But he said the same government which caused the CoE to be done, “studiously refused to go after the contractors.”
Rowley said the PNM in Opposition had urged the PP to go after the contractors and it was the duty of the then Government and board to do so but nothing was done.
He said he could not understand why the opportunity—involving the statute of limitations—was allowed to run out. He said the PP had a right to go after the contractor, which built the Debe Campus under that administration, but they refused to.
According to Rowley, the report said the directors of the HDC and Udecott boards and management failed to “ensure there was full and timely disclosure (about problems), not only to the line minister but the Minister of Finance.”
The report further stated that “from evidence it is clear that certain entities, by their action or inaction, created a situation which caused the Government to expend more money on the project than was anticipated.
Rowley said the towers were “built and failed when the government changed,” when PP’s Roodal Moonilal was Housing Minister.
On Moonilal’s recent comments about him being PNM housing minister, Rowley warned Moonilal to “stop calling” his name, adding Moonilal said “things hoping you don’t understand the truth.”
Rowley rebutted Moonilal’s concerns on the project about former HDC managing director (now Udecott chairman) Noel Garcia. He said the report didn’t identify anyone concerning criminal conduct.
Moonilal had called on Government to release the report, “in furtherance of its mantra of commitment to transparency and accountability.”
Moonilal said full disclosure was necessary since Rowley and Garcia were in national posts now.
“T&T must learn what guided the then-PNM to expend previous national resources on unstable land, an exhausted quarry, for which there were no construction approvals,” he said.
On why the PP hadn’t tried to recoup the costs from the contractors before the statute of limitations expired, Moonilal said:
“Dr Rowley is going against the CoE chairman’s statement that the towers were a tragedy and scandal. It was a failed project when we inherited it. Several technical reports had to be done before legal action could be taken. The timeline for legal action against parties ran out.
“And the PNM held back reports and did nothing until 2010 but the CoE can still find findings of fault for which civil action can be taken.
“Politically Dr Rowley is accountable as the minister. He’s trying to escape accountability and protect certain people.”
He asked: “He wants to hold me accountable? Not a brick was laid under my tenure. Is he saying we should have taken action against him?
“This project is his sordid legacy. He’s politically accountable for $80 million (towers cost). Under his housing stewardship, this occurred.