Piarco Airport corruption case - drags on

Testimony was taken down in long-hand and read over to witnesses who signed the documents on each occasion before leaving the court. Although the court note-taker was entrusted with the task of taking notes, the defence went ahead from very early in the proceedings to hire CAT reporters, at their expense, to record evidence.

It proved useful as the female CAT reporters were able to fill in the gaps on numerous occasions when the court note-taker could not keep up. Yesterday, Frank Solomon SC

one of the defence attorneys —asked for the court’s audio digital system to be used to speed up the preliminary inquiry.

Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Carla Brown-Antoine said she had no problem with the use of the system to speed up proceedings. But she had concerns about using the audio digital system to record evidence of chartered accountant Gerard Anthony Borely, who returned to the witness stand yesterday.

Brown-Antoine pointed out that Borely gave evidence at the inquiry on previous occasions and his evidence was taken down in long-hand.

She was concerned that two different types of notes will be recorded from the same witness at the inquiry.

Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court, said the amendment to the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Inquiry) Act, dated September 15, 2005, gave the magistrate the power to use the audio digital system to record the evidence.

But Brown-Antoine noted a section which stated that the audio digital system cannot be used in the middle of a preliminary inquiry.

That ended any speculation that the court could have switched to the new system nearing the end of the three-year-old inquiry.

As a result, Mc Nicolls had no choice but to continue with his notetaker taking the evidence in longhand and reading it back to the witness. The audio digital system was used in the trial of Basdeo Panday which ended on Monday.

Borely continued his evidence. Borely lives at South Bridge in Christ Church, Barbados and is a chartered accountant and the Chief Financial Officer of the First

Caribbean International Bank in Barbados. He has been working with the bank for the past three years. He worked with the bank’s predecessor, CIBC West Indies Holdings Limited for four years.

Prior to that, Borely was employed with Ernst and Young Partners in Trinidad for nine years. He started with Ernst and Young in 1990 as an audit trainee.

Eight persons and three companies are charged with a total of 21 offences relating to the new Piarco Airport Terminal development project.

They are former government ministers Brian Kuei Tung and Russel Huggins; CEO of Northern Construction Ltd (NCL) Ish Galbaransingh; CEO of Maritime General Insurance Company John Henry Smith; Maritime Group of Companies chairman Steve

Ferguson; company secretary Barbara Gomes; businesswoman Renee Pierre, and Fidelity Insurance and Leasing Company Ltd. Hearing continues tomorrow.