Landate — the integrity test for TT’s leaders

THREE WEEKS ago, Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh revealed what the UNC believed was solid evidence of corruption within the ranks of the PNM Government when he uttered the word “Landate” for the first time in public. However as the Landate saga unfolded, different dimensions of this story have come to the fore and these may have perhaps caused the population (already jaded by the PNM and UNC repeatedly playing the corruption card against each other) to lose sight of the core issue which Trinidad and Tobago must learn from Landate, if it is to become the “beacon of integrity” which Prime Minister Patrick Manning often boasts about.

The involvement or perceived involvement of government ministers (irrespective of the political party in power), in situations which could create a conflict of interest and bring their office into disrepute. On Friday October 14 in the House of Representatives, Singh produced what he believed was the “smoking gun” of Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley siphoning labour and materials from the Scarborough Regional Hospital Project in Signal Hill and using them on a private sector housing development project, in Mason Hall called Landate. Singh based his allegations on the fact that the hospital’s main contractor, NH International (whose chairman Emile Elias has admitted to being a friend of Rowley’s) is a subcontractor on the Landate project.

While admitting that his family was Landate’s owner, Dr Rowley explained that Warner Construction was the main contractor on Landate and his relationship was with Warner and not NH International (which was subcontracted by Warner). The Minister said he was innocent of all the charges against him. An equally adamant Elias dismissed Singh’s charges, indicating that NH International had three projects in Tobago — the $134 million Scarborough Hospital Project; a $54 million contract with Tobago Plantations and a $2 million sub-contract with Warner to do civil works on Landate. He said all the materials for NH’s three Tobago projects were sourced in Trinidad, packed in trucks and shipped to Tobago. Elias said all the materials belonged to NH and men and materials were interchanged between the three projects. Allan Warner, chairman of Warner Construction, has said everything was “open and above board” on Landate.

In the latest twist to the Landate saga, allegations have surfaced about the project being built on prime agricultural lands and owners of neighbouring properties being upset that they could not develop their own lands because of it. However, when Sunday Newsday went to Tobago last week to investigate these allegations, it became apparent that this was a case of flash rather than substance. On Wednesday, Agricultural Development Bank officials said two agricultural plots were sold in Tobago in 2003 but could not say where those plots were located. They added that the main agricultural activity in the sister isle at this time was fishing. Officials at the Tobago House of Assembly’s (THA) Town and Country Planning Division also had no information about Landate’s acreage being prime agricultural lands. Even Warner could shed no light on these claims. “I am just the contractor,” he said.

On Thursday, Sunday Newsday journeyed from Scarborough to Mason Hall to explore Landate. After 30 minutes of travelling along the Northside Road into the hilly terrain of Mason Hall, the sprawling project soon became visible. Unlike the new Scarborough Hospital site (where men and equipment were observed to be moving around on site at a relentless pace on Wednesday) there were no security guards at Landate and access was relatively easy (if you are fit enough to handle the rugged terrain into and out of the project). Sunday Newsday encountered a group of NH employees hard at work on the main access road into Landate. One of the senior workers said he has been working at Landate since September 2003 and when the NH crew first arrived the only thing there was forest. “I did not see anything like agriculture here. All I saw was a big set of bay leaf trees,” he stated. The NH worker said the main function of NH’s 20-man crew (one foreman, three operators, three labourers and a 13-man concreting crew, to do drainage works) is to construct Landate’s access roads.  He disclosed that NH’s involvement in Landate will end in two weeks time, once the estimated 900 metres of access road are completed. Warner said his company’s involvement in Landate was supposed to end on October 31 but because of several delays, Warner Construction will now complete its activities at Landate on November 30.

Asked if Rowley has ever visited the site, the worker recalled the Housing Minister visiting Landate last month but he (Rowley) did not interact with  NH workers, save a friendly wave or a smile. He added that Dr Rowley’s brother visits the site on a more frequent basis. The worker also said NH International’s contracts manager John Connan comes to Tobago twice a week, visits the site once and then reports back to Elias about the status of work. According to the worker, Elias has never visited Landate since NH became involved in the project. He said Mason Hall residents have never objected to his crew’s presence and they continue to work according to their schedule. “NH sent us to do a job not Dr Rowley,” the worker added. Some of the residents who spoke to Sunday Newsday, dismissed the claims that Landate was being built on prime agricultural lands. They said the 22 plots of land which comprise Landate belong to Rowley’s family. They said an agreement was reached between the Rowleys and a neighbouring Mason Hall family — the Balfours — to construct an access road through the Balfours’ land to get to Landate. They reiterated their support for Rowley, their belief that he will be vindicated and that he was being targetted politicaly.

The belief that political bull’s-eyes have been painted on Rowley’s back and by extension the PNM’s, seems to have found fertile ground in the minds of most Tobagonians.  Political sources on the island told Sunday Newsday that the prevailing view is that “the PNM did not win the (2001) THA elections but the NAR lost them.” The sources claim that there has been a flurry of behind-the-scenes political activity in recent weeks and talk of a possible UNC/NAR/DAC alliance to fight the PNM in the upcoming THA elections which could take place either in December or January 2005. According to one source, top UNC officials were in Tobago recently to hold strategy planning sessions for the upcoming polls and they believe that corruption allegations against frontline PNM ministers such as Rowley will hurt the ruling party’s chances to retain control of the THA. Another source claimed that corruption allegations may soon be made against other Government ministers and one of the UNC officials involved in these strategy sessions is linked to one corruption scandal which rocked the former regime. THA Chief Secretary Orville London said the allegations against Rowley were political in nature and Tobagonians had a better perspective on them. London was confident that  “the truth will come out” on this matter.

After a series of political flip-flopping last week, Prime Minister Manning announced that a commission of inquiry would investigate all contracts awarded to NH International and Warner Construction since the PNM returned to power in 2001. Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Attorney-General John Jeremie announced that retired Justice Annestine Sealey would be the chairman of this commission of inquiry. Other commissioners are Chandraban Sharma and Eustace Holson. In addition, the Integrity Commission will investigate whether there was any wrongdoing on Rowley’s part in this matter. However, even while the population awaits the verdict of both the proposed Commission of Inquiry and the Integrity Commission on the Landate affair, some Tobagonians believe this issue must be used to show the nation’s leaders, particularly government ministers, that they must be true to their oath of office and not compromise themselves in anyway.

One taxi-driver said Tobagonians know that NH International is working on the Scarborough Hospital Project and if they see the company’s trucks entering Rowley’s project, they could reach certain conclusions which may or may not be true. Dr Rowley was Planning Minister at the time when NH International received the contract for the Scarborough Hospital and was appointed as Housing Minister in a November 7, 2003 Cabinet reshuffle. He said this was a problem which has affected successive governments in TT and the UNC  could not lecture anyone on this subject because some of its MPs were guilty of the same kinds of acts of which they are now accusing Dr Rowley.

Now that the Commission of Inquiry has been appointed, the nation can hopefully expect the entire Landate affair to be fully ventilated and the facts made clear. However, whether one regards Landate as a case of corruption, conflict of interest or political conspiracy, one thing is clear. This controversy could be the acid test for public officials in both the Manning Administration and all future governments to follow. Failure to learn from the lessons of Landate, some political observers argue, could keep future governments locked in a vicious, never-ending “we time”cycle.