Dhansook lied

Dansam Dhansook virtually admitted to the Integrity Commission that he had lied when he alleged that he had paid bribes to Cabinet Ministers Franklin Khan and Eric Williams. He admitted this in a letter he wrote to the Integrity Commission some time in December 2004 in which he agreed to attend the December 17 meeting with the Commission. In his letter to Albert Alkins, Registrar of the Integrity Commission Dhansook wrote that he would be bringing along to the December 17 meeting the Statutory Declaration he had sworn to in July 2004. In that declaration Dhansook withdrew all the bribery allegations he had made against Khan and Williams. Dhansook also told Alkins that he would bring a supporting letter clearly stating that “the contents of the Statutory Declaration are true in every particular.” The bribery allegations had been sent by handwritten letter early in 2004 to Prime Minister Patrick Manning by Dhansook.

Sources said last week that Dhansook, in an apparent fit of pique at the loss of a contract, had written the bribery allegations to the Prime Minister. Sources also said that Dhansook appeared to have second thoughts and attempted to retrieve the letter from Manning, but was told by Manning that it had already been sent to the Attorney General for investigations. After the story broke Khan and Williams proclaimed their innocence. They produced a copy of the Statutory Declaration which Dhansook had sworn to on July 6, 2004 withdrawing the allegations he had made. Dhansook then tried to deny the truth of the declaration claiming that he was under duress and had been forced to swear to it. The Statutory Declaration had been prepared by the firm of Clive Phelps and Company on Dhansook’s instructions. It contained the warning that anything that was not true would make the signatory liable to a fine and prison sentence.

Another of Dhansook’s responses to the surfacing of the Statutory Declaration was to claim that Phelps was not his attorney, apparently forgetting that he had asked Phelps to meet him at the Integrity Commission’s office. Dhansook tried to make it appear that Phelps had just “showed up” at the Integrity Commission on December 17.  Legal sources scoffed at this suggestion, pointing out that it was highly unlikely that a senior lawyer of repute such as Phelps who has been Chairman of the Legal Disciplinary Committee for years would just “show up” unless asked to do so by a client. Sunday Newsday learnt that Dhansook had asked Phelps to meet him at the Integrity Commission’s office at a particular time on December 17, 2004. Dhansook, Phelps and a junior attorney sat together talking in the waiting room until invited to the Commission’s meeting room where they were joined by Acting Commissioner of Police Wellington Virgil.

According to sources Phelps made oral submissions on behalf of Dhansook. Dhansook’s appearance at the Integrity Commission’s office followed a letter sent to him by Alkins dated December 8 calling on  Dhansook to cooperate with the investigations into the bribery allegations he had made against Khan and Williams. That letter from Alkins was couched in tough language, Alkins making it clear that ACP Virgil had been appointed to investigate the allegations and chided Dhansook for his failure to show up at five appointments set up with Virgil, despite his assurances that he  would meet with Virgil. Alkins urged Dhansook to meet with Virgil and warned that even if Dhansook was no longer interested in pursuing the matter, the Integrity Commission was proceeding with it and wished for his cooperation.

Alkins requested Dhansook to attend the December 17 meeting and meet with Virgil. Dhansook attended the meeting as requested with Phelps as his attorney. Since the start of the story, Dhansook has apparently changed his position more than once. In the fallout, Khan has resigned as Minister of Works and Eric Williams, who is Minister of Energy has refused to do so sticking to the position that Dhansook’s allegations are all untrue. When Dhansook sent his letter to Manning with the bribery allegations, he enclosed copies of cheques showing payments to Khan. Khan said that far from being bribes the cheques represented repayments of a loan which he had made to Dhansook in 2002. Last Sunday, Sunday Newsday published copies of two cheques made payable to Dhansook and his wife Ramrowtee, totalling $588,000. The cheques were endorsed by Dhansook and his wife and deposited in their Scotiabank account in Rio Claro. Dhansook is one of two PNM Councillors in the Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation. Prior to that, Dhansook was a UNC member.