Airport Inquiry — Week in Review

The Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco airport project has entered its second phase. That is the phase where persons who were implicated by the evidence of witnesses are summoned to appear to challenge the evidence by cross examination, direct evidence or by calling supporting witnesses. The inquiry has sat for 157 days.

Monday
Bernard tells witness:
I can do what I want

TEMPERS flared at the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project on Monday, resulting in former Security Manager at the Airports Authority (AA) Dennis John being reminded that failure to answer questions satisfactorily could draw a $2,000 fine. The warning from Commission Chairman Clinton Bernard followed John’s questioning of why Bernard was pointing his finger and threatening him. Bernard told John he could do anything he wanted. The exchange came after the Commission’s lead attorney, Theodore Guerra, SC, asked John to read a memo. John was looking at the last page of the memo and when told by Guerra he had to read from the front, he angrily replied: “You can’t tell me how to read”. On hearing the comment Bernard pointed his finger at John and warned him about the response, saying it was “out of place”. After John questioned why he was being “threatened”, Bernard forcefully reminded him that under Section 12 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, any witness who failed or refused without sufficient cause to satisfactorily answer questions put to him was liable to a $2,000 fine on summary conviction. John apologised for his comment but insisted that Bernard not point his fingers at him. “I can do anything I want, if you have an objection you can take it elsewhere,” Bernard told him. Bernard later said it was his habit to point his finger at people when speaking. John was recalled to give further evidence on the contract awarded by the AA to the Firearms Training Institute to service the firearms. He said the contract was “mysterious”. John confirmed that then Transition Manager at the AA, Brendan Carmody, sent him a memo dated March 13, 2000, about the contract to the Institute. That memo was also sent to AA Finance Manager Joshey Mahabir. In his letter, Carmody expressed concern about the contract. Carmody said that he had learnt that the Defence Force had initially serviced the firearms at no cost to the AA and they were willing to resume.

Tuesday
Maritime- Spider in web of corruption

MARITIME Life Ca-ribbean Limited (MLCL) was the spider at the heart of a web of corruption while former National Security Minister Russell Huggins, UNC financiers Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson were allegedly involved in a paper trail flowing into MLCL from several subsidiary companies. This was reaction from lead attorney for the Commission Theodore Guerra SC, to Deputy Registrar in the Registrar General’s Department, Francis Sandy’s testimony on Tuesday. Questioned by Guerra’s co-counsel Margaret Rose, Sandy revealed an elaborate trail of shares flowing out of MLCL into a series of smaller companies. He said a major shareholder in MLCL was BRI Investment Company of which Galbaransingh was both a director and shareholder. Sandy said BRI filed only one return in 1997 which, suggests that it is no longer operational under the Com-panies Act. Asked if he located BRI’s major shareholder, RC Investments Ltd, Sandy said he only found a company called R&C Investments. He then revealed Galbaransingh and Ferguson were directors of a company called International Castle Hol-dings Ltd in which Gal-baransingh and Dagwood Investments Ltd held 100,000 shares apiece. Questioned further, Sandy said Huggins was one of two directors at Dagwood and held no shares compared to the company’s only shareholder, Rocher Trust and Financial Services Ltd. He added that his checks of  Rocher revealed Huggins was also a director of that company. At this point, Guerra interjected: “In the centre of this spider web of companies is Maritime with its tentacles stretching out from the centre.”

Wednesday
Panday allowed BHC too much power

FORMER Prime Minister Basdeo Panday allowed Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) too much power on the Piarco Airport Project and ignored NIPDEC’s warnings that this was “dangerous for the success of the project”. This was the testimony of former NIP-DEC general manager Noel Garcia on Wednes-day. Under questioning from NIPDEC attorney Chris-topher Hamel-Smith, Garcia said NIPDEC chairman Edward Bayley told him in September 1997 about a Cabinet decision to transfer control of the project from the Airports Authority (AA) to NIPDEC and on March 31, 1998, an agreement to that effect was reached between NIPDEC and the former UNC government. However, Garcia said a previous contract signed between the AA and BHC, which gave the latter extensive powers on the project, remained intact. He said those powers included responsibilities for architectural design, engineering and being project managers on a fast-track method. Garcia said he was “outraged” because NIPDEC had extensive experience on such projects for the government and the concentration of all these functions in BHC’s hands was “highly unusual and inadvisable in the interest of the Government and the project”. According to Garcia, BHC claimed monies for work done on the CP6 package although no work was being done on that aspect of the project. Garcia said NIPDEC’s Board of Directors agreed with his recommendation that BHC’s powers be suspended, he wrote to Works Ministry Per-manent Secretary Justin Paul on the matter and even “raised it directly” with Panday. The former NIPDEC GM said no response was received from Government “urgent or otherwise”.

Thursday
Cateau: BHC
was overpaid

MINISTRY OF Works and Transport client representative on the Piarco Airport Development Project, Peter Cateau, said yesterday he was surprised and shocked that Joshey Mahabir, Finance Manager at the Airports Authority (AA), authorised the payment of US$626,296 to Birk Hill-man Consultants (BHC). The payment was for implementation of  institutional strengthening and support services. He also admitted that BHC was overpaid and it would be difficult to get back the excess money paid to them if they had already received all monies owed to them. Cateau, who was questioned on Thursday by the Commission’s lead attorney Theodore Guerra, SC, admitted he was the one to sign cheques for work on the project and BHC had gone behind his back to Mahabir to get paid for the work. He said Mahabir had no authority to pay any monies to BHC. He agreed with Guerra that either Mahabir or former AA Chairman Tyrone Gopee interfered with the ordinary operations of the contract. Cateau also admitted that the AA has since written him seeking to be reimbursed but to date he has not done so. He said the money paid to BHC was part of BHC’s original fees for its scope of work. Asked why BHC was paid twice and treated with kid gloves, Cateau said they did additional work and had to get more money. However, he agreed that BHC was overpaid. Asked why it had to take a Commission of Inquiry to bring out that fact, Cateau insisted that the final accounts of the project would have revealed that BHC was overpaid. He assured the Commission the matter would be corrected. Asked if he shared the view that tax payers dollars were wrongly paid to BHC and whether it would be recovered, Cateau said it would be difficult to get back the overpaid money.

Friday
Humphrey admits
airport cost too much

FORMER Housing Minister John Humphrey on Friday admitted that the Piarco Airport although very well designed has some faults and should not have cost as much as it did. It has been suggested that the cost of the airport is $1.6 billion. Humphrey also said he felt he had fulfilled his duties as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee until recently when a number of questions arose as to whether he was truly effective in his role. He said his doubts arose because of evidence he heard at the Inquiry. Humphrey was being re-examined by his attorney Sean Cazabon. When he was asked what he thought were the reasons for the cost overruns on the project, Humphrey said the major reason was that NIPDEC did not understand the fast track method which was being used. He said NIPDEC was allowed to use its own tendering process which bore no relation to the fast track method and did not put the personnel in place to deal with the project. He insisted that the Airports Authority (AA) was the competent authority to handle the project as was done initially and whoever had informed then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday to remove the project from the AA to NIPDEC “was ill-advised to do so”. Humphrey also said it was a mistake to fire the professional team which was on the project initially. He also suggested to the Commission that it recommend measure on how to proceed with similar projects in the future. He agreed with Chairman Clinton Bernard that in the future all major government projects should have local experts at the helm leading foreigners, rather than vice versa, as happened on the Piarco project. He denied he was trying to defend Birk Hillman Consultants (BHC) and pointed out that besides Northern Construction Limited (NCL), other contractors got substantial increases in their contracts compared to their original contract price.