Kamla to PM: Publish Uff Report

The report was yesterday presented to President George Maxwell Richards by Professor John Uff.

Persad-Bissessar slammed the Prime Minister for what she charged was, “the bringing of his office into disrepute by his conduct with regard to the Uff Inquiry.”

In a release, the Siparia MP said the recent investigations into former Udecott executive chairman, Calder Hart, and the Prime Minister’s open, vocal and steadfast support of Hart has raised questions among the public.

The nation, she said, has been waiting with bated breath for the Uff Report, ever since the revelations made during the public hearings unearthed evidence of what appears “to be corruption”.

She dubbed the Prime Minister’s promise in Senate yesterday of new health facilities, for which the Government would enter into a contract with Udecott, as “illogical, insensitive and inappropriate.”

In the face of the Report, the Prime Minister shows “open disregard and disdain by awarding hundreds of million of dollars in contracts to Udecott” without the benefit of the findings, she said.

She said the Prime Minister simply used the Senate to recycle old promises of new health facilities and questioned where he would be sourcing funds to finance these projects.

Persad-Bissessar concluded by calling on Manning to lay the findings of the Report in Parliament and “face the consequences.”

The Congress of the People (COP) yesterday issued a similar call to the Prime Minister to immediately make public the findings of the Report.

In a release, the COP said it was unfortunate that in Trinidad and Tobago the decision to make the findings public was left up to the Prime Minister, when in other countries the onus was on the Commission of Inquiry.

The COP recently disclosed documents which show a family link between Hart’s wife Sherrine and two former directors of Sunway Construction (Caribbean) Ltd which received a multi-million dollar contract from Udecott.