Earlier, Jeremie told the Parliament that the Commission had recommended that there should be an audit of the conduct of all board members and senior staff of UDeCOTT in the period 2004 to 2009, “as to their involvement in the errors and omissions concerning the Brian Lara Stadium project in respect of which no action was taken by the senior staff or by the board”. But the Government continues to be driven to probe the contentious Cleaver Heights Housing Project. Jeremie said the findings of the Commission “vindicated” the position of Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who first brought the issue of the $10 million discrepancy to the attention of the national community in a contribution to Parliament in September 2008. At that time Manning had asked his former housing minister Dr Keith Rowley, “Where the money gone?”.
The Commission found no evidence of a missing $10 million. But, Jeremie noted, “it was apparent from the Report…that in 2006 NHIC deliberately adjusted the contract sum for the project in its favour in the amount of $10 million. One may well conclude quite reasonably that if the Honourable Prime Minister had not alerted the national community to the discrepancies in the prices on this project and caused an enquiry to be held into this project, NHIC could easily have walked away with an extra $10 million upon completion of the project, to which it would not have been entitled. Despite the protests of the NHIC and others therefore, the enquiry into the Cleaver Heights Project was thus fully justified and the Honourable Prime Minister’s action in this regard have been vindicated”.
