Editorial
AS vice chairman on the board of directors of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT), Dr Krishna Bahadoorsingh should move swiftly to seek to remove the stain that is on him and the rest of the board, over the ballooning Calder Hart affair.
A former Independent Senator, Dr Bahadoorsingh is in perhaps the best position among the rest of this board to exercise the moral leadership of which he is known to be capable, to repair the image of this state corporation.
That image has been badly battered in the long public feud over the claims that UDeCOTT had been operating contrary to the rules governing public procurement.
It is what led to the Government’s reluctant decision to set up the Uff Commission of Inquiry into the construction sector and UDeCOTT.
On the basis of information produced and evidence adduced at the inquiry, many observers concluded that a case had been made for an investigation into the award of contracts.
Testifying before the Commission, Mr Hart had denied any family connection between himself and any of the board members of a company which UDeCOTT awarded one of its huge state building contracts to.
Information made available to the public last week suggested that there were indeed such family ties. And in the wake of these disclosures, Mr Hart left the country in a hurry, surprising even those members of the UDeCOTT board who had stood by his side all along. He resigned not only from UDeCOTT but from all the other state boards on which he was a member.
But in the face of such stunning developments, at least three of the remaining UDeCOTT board members are clutching at virtual straws in claiming to see no reason for them to vacate their positions likewise.
It now appears that during this long public debacle, nobody on the board sought to verify the claims being made against the former chairman. His hurried resignations and summary departure from the country ought to inform each of them that their moral standing has been significantly weakened. Their current positions, whether about the presumption of innocence until proof of guilt, or about whether any one of them individually has been ’squeaky clean’’ in their personal dealings, have been rendered simply untenable in the circumstances.
As he settles back down to business on his return to work today, Dr Bahadoorsingh has no option but to call the group to order, and to decide that upon the information that is now available they should leave office forthwith.
Calder Hart as executive chairman surely did not act alone in committing UDeCOTT to the arrangements which are now the subject of possible criminal investigations.
If, therefore, by the most recent turn of events he saw cause to throw in the sponge, the rest of this board cannot remain aloof from it at this stage.