Rift in Piarco airport inquiry

ONE day before the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport development project is due to hand over its report to President George Maxwell Richards, reliable sources suggest that a rift has developed among the four Commissioners, who are unable to agree on certain matters.

Sources said a report will be handed to President Richards tomorrow as scheduled, but it was more than likely there will also be a minority report. The four Commissioners are Chairman, retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard, Victor Hart, retired Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Projects Manager; Marie Ange Knights, Chartered Accountant and former Assistant Auditor General and Keith Sirju, Chartered Engineer and Lecturer in the Structural Analysis and Design, UWI. The fifth Commissioner appointed by President Arthur NR Robinson was Peter Bynoe, a former Chief Architect, who withdrew from the Inquiry on May 21, 2003 after he fell ill. Bynoe died on Monday from cancer. Efforts to contact Chairman Bernard yesterday were unsuccessful. However earlier in the week he told Newsday that the report would be presented on time. He said they were working day and night to have it completed. He also said the Commission had not asked for a further extension from the President, and gave no indication of any disagreement among the members of the Commission.

Lead attorney for the Commission, Theodore Guerra, also confirmed yesterday that the report would be ready in time for tomorrow’s deadline. It was unclear as to what issues the four Commissioners were divided on and no one would confirm or deny that the Commissioners were having difficulty in agreeing unanimously on the findings. However Newsday was told that last minute discussions were held on several days this week in an attempt to gain unanimity. The source suggested that some of the findings would be signed by all four Commissioners, indicating that there was agreement on most of the issues. But on other matters, “there might be minority report.” The inquiry which began on August 23, 2002 ended on July 4, 2003 after 170 days of sitting. Sixty-six persons gave evidence. It was one of the longest and most controversial of inquiries held in Trinidad and Tobago.

On several occasions the Law Association wrote to Chairman Bernard claiming he was biased and unfair based on his comments at the sittings. Those letters were copied to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Geoffrey Henderson, who himself wrote the Commission advising it to be careful. The key people involved in the airport project, former Minister of Works and Transport, Sadiq Baksh, former Finance Minister, Brian Kuei Tung, contractor Northern Construction Limited (NCL), which got most of the contracts on the project and NCL’s Managing Director Ish Galbaransingh, together with former Airports Authority Chairman, Tyrone Gopee, all refused to participate in the proceedings, claiming it was biased. Up to the end of April the Inquiry had cost taxpayers over $5 million.