Arrests soon from Piarco Inquiry

ARRESTS arising out of recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Airport Development Project are imminent. However, several key persons involved in the project have reportedly fled the country and one of them has allegedly migrated to Costa Rica, where he is alleged to have paid US$1 million to secure citizenship. Newsday was reliably informed that over a dozen persons are to be criminally charged in the matter, while dozens more are to be charged arising out of other corrupt deals made under the former UNC administration. Several of those to be prosecuted reportedly have offshore bank accounts in the US and UK.

Sources told Newsday the Government has been promised full cooperation with the investigations from the US and UK governments, once “it is not used for political purposes, but to simply bring those involved in wrong doings to justice.” Over the last few months the police have been quietly forging ahead with the investigations. Senior Supt Wellington Virgil of the Fraud Squad and Senior Supt Maurice Piggot of the Anti-Corruption Bureau returned last week from the United Kingdom where they had gone to pursue certain leads. Several persons who testified during the inquiry, which ended in early July last year, have been called into the Anti-Corruption Bureau on Richmond Street to give further information to the police. The police have asked several other witnesses to meet with them this week. At the post-Cabinet press conference on January 2, Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Attorney General John Jeremie, indicated that investigations into allegations of corruption under the UNC regime were proceeding apace.
Manning assured then that Government would seek assistance from the US to bring those culpable to justice.

Jeremie said: “The investigations are ongoing. All of the matters are within the purview of the DPP and the relevant police personnel. I am updated but I prefer not to speak publicly about these pending investigations.” He added: “Progress is being made but corruption is something that takes a long time to unearth and especially when you have more than one jurisdiction involved. I would not like to say that the investigations are targetted at or concern members of the former administration. The investigation concerns corruption, and white collar crimes are continuing.” The AG expressed satisfaction with the pace of the investigations saying the “authorities will do the right thing in the right time.” “I like to see justice done as quickly as possible and I am convinced that the wheels of justice, while they might seem to be turning slowly, are turning efficiently.” Among the findings of the Inquiry, led by former Chief Justice Clinton Bernard, was that the project was a “rip off” of taxpayers’ money. The Commissioners were critical of several key players in the project, including two former Cabinet ministers, three companies and three businessmen. Government decided not to make the report public because of the implications it might have on criminal prosecutions.