(Trinidad Express) Former chief operating officer of UDeCOTT, Neelanda Rampaul, racked up a TT$3.2 million bill over an eight-month period at the Hyatt Regency “in cookies, sleepovers and lavish banquets”, Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal told the House of Representatives yesterday.
Contributing to the budget debate, Moonilal said all this spending was paid for by the taxpayers and was classified as “office expenses” but the “office expenses” were food such as “cookies”.
“Cookies?” his colleagues asked in disbelief. “Yes, cookies. Like biscuit nuh. I have the bills here from UDeCOTT,” he elaborated.
As he detailed the bills, which were incurred during the period September 2009 to April 2010 when the Uff Commission of Enquiry was in progress, the minister said: “Two dozen cookies, I don’t know what is this fascination with cookies. … They buy up to Duracell batteries and put it on UDeCOTT bill. Chicken, avocado. In one case they run up bills for TT$2,000, all in eating—caviar, pork chops.”
He said “all hell broke loose” at the State enterprise, whose name became synonymous with corruption during the last months of the PNM regime.
“Another bill in January, from the Cool Bar for pina colada, mixed sushi, salmon, spicy negiri. Food bill again! A virgin banana!” he said slowly, causing uproar. “Mr Speaker I better put down this bill, yes,” he said, provoking loud chuckles and desk-thumping.
“Three million dollars! September 09- fish of the day. Look they reach to curry now. But they couldna get curry by Patraj. Mr Speaker, cookies again!,” he said incredulously. “She must be cookie monster,” chirped Lopinot/Bon Air MP, Lincoln Douglas. “This must be some kind of sophisticated cookies I don’t know about. Macaroon, oatmeal, almond cookies, all paid for by taxpayers!” Moonilal quipped, as MPs listened in amusement. “Lamb chops, pork chops, any chops!” he said, itemising more bills.
“Mr Speaker, the wanton waste. But they (the PNM) don’t want us to allocate money (to the Ministry of the Attorney General) for forensic audit. Because if we audit properly we would find out about all the pina coladas, and pork chops and lamb chops and virgin bananas (that were consumed during the PNM tenure),” he said, in response to the PNM Marlene McDonald’s question about which attorneys were feeding on theTT $108 million trough, set aside for legal fees under the 2011 budgetary allocation of the Ministry of the Attorney General.
Moonilal said he had no problem with people liking a lavish lifestyle and wanting executive meals but they must do it at their expense and not have the taxpayers foot the bill. Rampaul resigned at the end of March 2010, days after the Uff Report was submitted to the President. The Hyatt’s liquor licence is under Rampaul’s name.
The minister said former UDeCOTT chairman Calder Hart set up a parallel structure. He said Hart had a board of directors which did nothing. He said persons were appointed through the proper system— chief legal officer, information and technology, chief financial officer duly appointed—were ignored. Instead, he said Hart established a “shadow cabinet” to run UDeCOTT consisting of persons like “Richard Freeman, legal and regulatory services manager ($50,000 a month), Samantha Young ($42,000 a month plus $7,000 travelling), Ricardo O’Brien, ($53,000 a month), now you have a chief financial officer but you then hire a finance and business operations manager”.
Noting that the Uff Commission found that while there was no audit at UDeCOTT, there was a Deirdre Ettienne, executive manager risk and audit, who was receiving $70,000 a month. And Moonilal said Rampaul was the person who was writing persons and demanding payment and when officers questioned the payments, she overwrote them.
Moonilal said there was a lack of oversight and proper governance at UDeCOTT. Noting that UDeCOTT supervised the Red House restoration project, he said under the PNM, between 2005 and 2010, some $88 million was spent to “throw a tarpaulin” over the roof of the Red House. He compared UDeCOTT’s performance under the last regime with the “new culture” of efficiency, as illustrated by the manner in which the State enterprise managed the preparation of Tower D and the relocation of Parliament to that building.
As he recalled the huge cost overruns associated with UDeCOTT projects, Moonilal said: “The day there is a project in any State agency and you move from $171 million to a $750 million cost, that is the day we on this side need to pack up and go back to Debe and Felicity and where we come from.”
He said Government has been quietly implementing those recommendations of the UFF Enquiry which affect UDeCOTT. “We are overhauling the procedures and procedures at UDeCOTT to ensure there is no room for corruption,” he said, adding that there was also emphasis on delivering projects on time. He said Government was determined to prevent the tragedy of 2005 to 2010 which took place “under Calder Hart and that gang … that crew”.
When Moonilal said there has been no corruption scandal under this administration the PNM bench rejoined: “What!”
“Tell me one instance where one dollar was misappropriated,” he challenged, adding that whenever issues of corruption have been raised, the People’s Partnership Government responded appropriately. “We stopped, we revoked, we recalled,” he said.
Moonilal said Government would intensify its fight against criminal elements and served notice that Parliament would be meeting “at least twice a week” to ensure that the legislative agenda is addressed.
