Friday, April 25 2008

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning yesterday downplayed calls by former Trade and Industry Minister Dr Keith Rowley and sections of the business community for greater Cabinet oversight of the affairs of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott), saying Government is already holding “a dialogue” with the local construction industry on this issue. The Prime Minister insisted that a 60-room hotel was always part of Udecott plans for the Academy for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain and the new public procurement regime, geared to eliminate corruption by entities such as Udecott, will be implemented “well before” December 31.

Addressing the post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Manning reminded reporters that the construction of the two Academies for the Performing Arts in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando were part of a US$100 million loan between the governments of TT and the People’s Republic of China. He explained that all big projects are discussed by Cabinet subcommittees before they are presented at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting on Thursday, “so that ministers will have the chance to examine the details before they come to the cabinet.” “When it comes to the Cabinet, all contentious aspects of it would already have been discussed and the way would have been cleared for Cabinet approval,” Manning stated.

Saying that he attended previous meetings of the Cabinet’s Finance and General Purposes (FGP) Committee but not the April 14 meeting where Rowley raised his concerns about a lack of Cabinet oversight of Udecott’s affairs, Manning said he knew a hotel was part of the PoS Academy’s design and not “put in surreptitiously.” He said ministers who did not attend those meetings regularly “surely could not have been in a position to know what the academy called for and that for which it did not call.” The Prime Minister identified the locations for a hotel, theatre and academy on a design map for the Princes Building Grounds for reporters. He also quoted from an April 17 letter from Udecott chairman Calder Hart about a letter sent a year ago to former Community Development Minister Joan Yuille-Williams to support his argument that the hotel was public knowledge.

Asked whether it was wise to appoint Dr Lenny Saith as Trade Minister given his age and previous health concerns, Manning declared, “In the Cabinet, there are not old people or young people. Women or men. There are only ministers. Dr Saith is a minister.” Saith was seen leaving Whitehall moments before yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference.

Saith, who acts as PM whenever Manning is abroad, relinquished the Energy, Public Administration and Information portfolios to Conrad Enill, Kennedy Swaratsingh and Neil Parsanlal respectively after last year’s General Election.

Prior to replacing Rowley, Saith was a Minister in the Office of the PM and the chairman of several Cabinet sub-committees.