JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Las Al­turas En­quiry

Las Alturas hearing resumes today

by

20150406

The Com­mis­sion of En­quiry in­to the Las Al­turas hous­ing project at La­dy Young Road, Mor­vant, will re­sume to­day at 9.30 am at the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice, Hen­ry Street, Port-of-Spain.The sec­ond ses­sion of the en­quiry, which is be­ing chaired by for­mer Jus­tice of Ap­peal Mustapha Ibrahim, is sched­uled to con­tin­ue for three days on­ly, in or­der to ac­com­mo­date three for­eign-based wit­ness­es on be­half of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC).

Dur­ing the last hear­ing of the first ses­sion on March 20, at­tor­ney for the Com­mis­sion Jagdeo Singh re­vealed that the wit­ness­es would in­clude Frank Ar­land, a ge­ot­ech­ni­cal en­gi­neer of Mueser Rut­ledge Con­sult­ing En­gi­neers in New York; Dr Robert Ratay, a foren­sic struc­tur­al en­gi­neer from New York; and John Kan­gos of Sev­er­an Con­sult­ing In­ter­na­tion­al in Flori­da.

Singh al­so as­sured Ibrahim that ef­forts were be­ing made to lo­cate for­mer ex­ec­u­tive chair­man of the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion of T&T Calder Hart, and for­mer HDC gen­er­al man­ag­er Noel Gar­cia, to have them ap­pear be­fore the Com­mis­sion.Re­spond­ing to queries from Ibrahim on the last date, Ude­cott's at­tor­ney Fay­dia Mo­hammed said ef­forts were made via Fed Ex to con­tact Hart, who is be­lieved to be liv­ing in Fort Laud­erdale, Flori­da, US.

Gar­cia is said to be liv­ing and work­ing in Ghana.HDC's at­tor­ney Vin­cent Nel­son, QC, had pre­vi­ous­ly in­di­cat­ed that Gar­cia had de­clined to pro­vide a wit­ness state­ment when asked, fol­low­ing which they lost con­tact with him.Seem­ing­ly dis­sat­is­fied with Mo­hammed's an­swer that every ef­fort was be­ing made to have Hart present him­self be­fore the Com­mis­sion, Ibrahim sug­gest­ed that there were le­gal means which could be em­ployed to com­pel him to ap­pear.

Ibrahim has promised that ac­com­mo­da­tions would be made not to keep Hart un­du­ly when he does ap­pear, while there was al­so the rec­om­men­da­tion that an of­fer be made to pay Gar­cia's trav­el ex­pens­es back to T&T, in or­der for him to tes­ti­fy.Both Hart and Gar­cia have been deemed "im­por­tant wit­ness­es" in the en­quiry.Dur­ing the 13-day en­quiry four wit­ness­es have so far tes­ti­fied be­fore the Com­mis­sion.

At a glance

The com­mis­sion of en­quiry was set up to in­ves­ti­gate "the en­tire process which led to the con­struc­tion of the Las Al­turas Tow­ers at La­dy Young Gar­dens, Mor­vant, and all oth­er acts, mat­ters or de­ci­sions done or un­der­tak­en in­ci­den­tal to and in­clud­ing the con­struc­tion" of the project, which in­cludes the pro­cure­ment process.Two mul­ti-storey units of the Las Al­turas hous­ing project be­gan falling apart af­ter con­struc­tion and the $26 mil­lion tow­ers were ear­marked for de­mo­li­tion.

They were part of a larg­er project, which was orig­i­nal­ly bud­get­ed at $65 mil­lion and then rose to $90 mil­lion. The com­mis­sion is chaired by for­mer Jus­tice of Ap­peal Mustapha Ibrahim. The oth­er mem­bers in­clude civ­il en­gi­neers, Dr My­ron Wing-Sang Chin and An­tho­ny Far­rell. At­tor­ney Laraine Lutch­me­di­al is the sec­re­tary. They were ap­point­ed by Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona last De­cem­ber. Last Sep­tem­ber, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar rec­om­mend­ed an en­quiry in­to the project af­ter rais­ing con­cerns about the two tow­ers which had to be de­mol­ished.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who was a for­mer hous­ing min­is­ter un­der the PNM, as well as Emi­ly Gaynor Dick-Forde, who suc­ceed­ed him, have dis­tanced them­selves from blame. Row­ley said though he wel­comed the probe, it would be an­oth­er waste of tax­pay­ers' dol­lars.

Le­gal Minds

At­tor­neys for the Com­mis­sion in­clude Pamela El­der, SC and Jagdeo Singh–both of whom are in­struct­ed by Alvin Pariags­ingh.Ap­pear­ing on be­half of the HDC are Vin­cent Nel­son, QC and Lar­ry Lal­la.Kathryn Den­bow is Ude­cott's lead at­tor­ney, and ap­pear­ing along­side her is Fay­dia Mo­hammed and Bren­don Sul­li­van.At­tor­ney Justin Phelps is ap­pear­ing along­side An­abelle Sook­lal for Ge­ot­ech As­so­ciates Lim­it­ed (GA), while Emer­son John-Charles and Zeno­bia Camp­bell-James are ap­pear­ing on be­half of Civ­il En­gi­neer­ing Man­age­ment and Ser­vices.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

The Executive of the National Parang Association 2025-27. Back row, from left: Kervin Preudhomme, assistant secretary; Shaquille Headley, committee member; Cheriese Pierre, committee member; Lisa Lee, trustee; Joanne Briggs, PRO; Yarelis Touissant, committee member; William Calliste, trustee. Front row, from left: Jenais Carter, secretary; Alicia Jaggasar, president; Henrietta Carter, vice president; Joseph Bertrand, youth officer. Missing: Kerrylee Chee Chow, treasurer; Chevone Pierre, committee member.

Jaggasar returns as National Parang president

Yesterday
Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Charles Town junior drummers and dancers take to the stage

Jamaican Maroons celebrate, question land rights

Yesterday
Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford

Sherron Harford’s holistic mission

to transform the lives of girls

Yesterday
Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Despite finding out just three days earlier—on December 23—that I had breast cancer, I still got dressed and showed up on December 26, Boxing Day, for a birthday party. I didn’t go to escape the truth. I went to remind myself I was still here, still living, still me.

Nicole Drayton’s breast cancer journey–Fear, faith, and fighting back

Yesterday