Clearing the air, at last

THE ARREST this week of eight persons on corruption charges relating to the $1.6 billion Piarco Development Project must now impart some credibility to the stories we published just over two months ago. It may or may not have been true that summonses had then been issued for 15 persons as we had reported, but the arrests of Monday and Tuesday now confirm that our story was not simply “a red herring” or a figment concocted on hearsay information. Our report, in fact, was based on data given to us by informed sources and it may well be that some technical detail or the need for double checking the charges resulted in a delay in actually issuing the summonses.

Anyone who has followed the disturbing drama of this mega-project over the last few years would appreciate its complexity, the large number and range of persons involved, the depth and scope of the investigations that had to be carried out, the volume of documentary evidence that had to be collected and the care and detail needed in drafting the charges. With the on-going series of indictments, it now seems obvious that officers of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau, assisted by a team of forensic accountants led by Canadian Robert Lindquist, have at last completed their task and, based on their charges, it would soon be left to our courts to finally resolve the unsavoury issues which have dogged this project from its inception.

Of course, it is not for us or anyone else to judge, or even publicly comment upon, the guilt or innocence of the persons charged; we can only hope that the Courts would appreciate the extreme importance of these matters and treat them accordingly.  We expect, also, that these cases will serve to emphasize the fact that ours is a society that not only subscribes to the rule of law but, by such a process, we also hold accountable persons engaged in public life, who are entrusted with responsibilities on behalf of the country and its people, whether elected or not. Whatever he may say about these charges, we believe that even Mr Basdeo Panday, attorney at law and former Prime Minister, will see the necessity for them as our way of maintaining justice in our society. Whenever asked to comment on any such allegations, Mr Panday has unfailingly countered with the challenge to “bring the evidence” thus expressing his conviction that such issues should be decided strictly by the judicial process.

But the society as a whole should now be satisfied that these matters have been taking their slow but proper course and that soon they would be resolved according to our system of justice. The Piarco Development Project acquired a notoriety of its own starting with revelations in the Press and followed by two investigations, the first conducted by Justice Lennox Deyalsingh and ordered by former UNC Attorney General Ramesh Maharaj, and the second, a three-man Commission of Inquiry appointed by the President at the request of the PNM administration and chaired by retired Chief Justice Clinton Bernard.

Justice Deyalsingh found the initial project illegal and recommended its stoppage. The Bernard Commission sat in public for several months and elicited testimony and evidence of widespread fraud and malpractice. The Commission’s report, however, was never published. The revelations of these investigations have cast a lingering pall on the entire society. We expect that the resolution of these charges will finally clear the air and put this sorry episode behind us.