Raphael John-Lall

Sir An­tho­ny Col­man has de­scribed the Cli­co/Hin­du Cred­it Union (HCU) in­quiry as "very ex­pen­sive." The com­mis­sion­er was speak­ing just be­fore yes­ter­day's ses­sion of the HCU Com­mis­sion of En­quiry was ad­journed at the Win­sure Build­ing, Port-of-Spain.

He was re­ply­ing to Se­nior Coun­sel Regi­nald Ar­mour, who brought up the con­cerns of for­mer Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tive De­vel­op­ment Di­aram Ma­haraj, a re­tired pub­lic ser­vant, about the pro­vi­sion of fund­ing for his le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. "The of­fice of Com­mis­sion­er of Co-op­er­a­tive De­vel­op­ment could not help him in that re­gard and I put it be­fore the com­mis­sion now to give some di­rec­tions," Ar­mour said.

In re­ply, Sir An­tho­ny said: "It is rather un­for­tu­nate that there is no pro­vi­sion for fund­ing and I feel strong­ly my­self as I ob­served in the Cli­co part of the in­quiry, peo­ple are re­quired to ap­pear as those who ap­pear in the sub­poe­na are re­quired to ap­pear."

Sir An­tho­ny, an in­ter­na­tion­al com­mer­cial ar­bi­tra­tor, said it was in the pub­lic in­ter­est that wit­ness­es should be as­sist­ed for the pur­pose of giv­ing their ev­i­dence. "At the mo­ment, there is noth­ing in place and maybe we could make fur­ther rep­re­sen­ta­tion and see whether any­thing could be done about this...I am sor­ry, that is how things are," he said.

"I am sure every­one re­alis­es that these in­quiries are pret­ty ex­pen­sive ex­er­cis­es and they re­quire a lot of ad­min­is­tra­tion, a lot of over­head ex­pens­es, and I am afraid that the cost and ex­pen­di­ture which fall up­on par­tic­u­lar wit­ness­es are not be­ing cov­ered. Maybe some­thing should be done about that. I will do my best to try to or­gan­ise it, but no promis­es."

Sir An­tho­ny said all ev­i­dence re­lat­ing to HCU would com­plet­ed by Ju­ly 13, and there would be a num­ber of wit­ness­es called to give ev­i­dence. He said four wit­ness­es who were re­quired to give ev­i­dence ap­peared at the in­quiry on Thurs­day, and two oth­ers could not be present be­cause of ill-health. He said these six wit­ness­es would be giv­ing ev­i­dence at the next ses­sion.

Queen's Coun­sel Ed­win Glas­gow, who leads the in­quiry in­to HCU's col­lapse, not­ed that oth­er peo­ple who were sub­poe­naed and did not ap­pear yes­ter­day in­clude for­mer HCU con­sul­tant Jameel Ali, who has not re­spond­ed to the sub­poe­na, but is al­so re­quired to give ev­i­dence.

Glas­gow said at­tor­ney Ash­vani Ma­habir, who did le­gal work for the HCU, al­so de­clined to re­spond to the sub­poe­na and is re­quired to give ev­i­dence. The next ses­sion of the en­quiry will run from June 8-15. The fi­nal ses­sion will be from Ju­ly 9-13.