Inquiry ends, report before August 31

AFTER 170 days of public sittings, the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport development project ended yesterday.

The Commission began public sittings on August 23, last year. The Chairman of the Commission, retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard, made the announcement in a 10-minute “thank you speech” during the 20-minute sitting at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Port-of-Spain. When the sitting began, lead counsel for the Commission Theodore Guerra SC said he would not be leading any further evidence. Former NIPDEC General Manager Noel Garcia, present to be re-examined by Guerra, was relieved. Also present yesterday were attorneys for NIPDEC Christopher Hamel-Smith and Jonathon Walker. Hamel-Smith noted that the system put in place which allowed him to challenge evidence worked smoothly and fairly for which he thanked the Commission.

In response, Bernard said the kind sentiments were a consolation to the Commission that it had observed all tenets of fairness. Bernard said now that the public sittings have ended, the Commissioners will proceed to consider the evidence and compile their findings and make recommendations to the President, George Maxwell Richards. The deadline for the submission of the report is August 31. Originally the Commission’s deadline was December last year. Pointing out that it had been a “long and arduous exercise,” Bernard thanked all the attorneys who participated in the inquiry as well as the witnesses who gave evidence. Sixty-six persons gave evidence. He also thanked the electronic and print media for doing the country “great service” in its “very good reporting,” notwithstanding the “occasional and seldom” times he had to criticise certain stories.

The Commission’s staff and the parliamentary reporters who prepared transcripts for the Commission also came in for high praise, as did the police. Bernard said the Inquiry had been a pleasant experience for the Commissioners, who encountered “some storms, but the storms were imperfect, they did not last for long.” Bernard further noted that such situations which occurred at the Inquiry when persons lost their cool were all part of the process. He said some persons who appeared were his friends, and although some were bitter, “rightly or wrongly,” he knew they were still friends and in due course “we will be teasing each other.” The other Commissioners are Marie Ange Knights, Victor Hart, Keith Sirju and Peter Bynoe. Bynoe fell ill in late May and has not attended the sittings since that time. Other attorneys for the Commission were Margaret Rose and Clive and Justin Phelps.