Cops give Cateau 24 hours

POLICE have given Peter Cateau, former client representative in the Ministry of Works and Transport in the Piarco Airport Development Project, 24 hours to surrender to them. Cateau will be charged with abuse of public office in the Piarco Airport Project.  He was due to turn himself  in to officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)  at 10 am yesterday and then appear in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’s Court to answer the charges against him. However, Cateau failed to make an appearance.

It is alleged that between January 1, 1995 and December 1, 2001, Cateau conspired to obtain contracts and payments or settlements therein for a total face value of up to $1.6 billion.  Cateau was working on a World Bank assignment in the region when he learnt of the charges against him. He contacted Justice of the Peace Ackbar Khan last Tuesday and informed him that he wanted to surrender to the police. Cateau returned to Trinidad on Saturday. Khan told Newsday he relayed Cateau’s intentions to head of the ACB, Snr Supt Maurice Piggott.

Sources declined to say why Cateau did not surrender yesterday, but said he gave police the assurance he would turn himself in today at 9 am. Cateau was one of the more prominent witnesses during the Commission of Inquiry into the Piarco Project which began its sittings at the Caribbean Court of Justice building on Richmond Street, Port-of-Spain on August 23, 2002, and ended on July 1, 2003. Charges have been laid against other persons and companies connected to the Piarco Project. Sources said extradition proceedings will be initiated against five American businessmen connected to the project if they do not appear voluntarily to answer charges laid against them.