Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said in keeping with her Government's promise to pursue those who have raped the treasury" pre-action protocol letters have been issued to former executive chairman of Udecott, Calder Hart and others. "Jail ain't nice" she told legislators repeatedly yesterday as she looked in the direction of San Fernando East MP Patrick Manning. At one point Manning attempted to respond, saying, "Ask Bin Hammam." Persad-Bissessar made the revelation during her contribution to yesterday's House of Representatives debate on the $54.6 billion national budget at the International Waterfront Complex, Port-of-Spain. From the start of her lengthy contribution, Works and Infrastructure Minister Jack Warner was heard telling the PM to "mash them up."
Persad-Bissessar said many prominent people in the international community were not jailed for alleged criminal offences they committed for civil offences. She then revealed that Attorney General Anand Ramlogan had issued the pre-action protocol letters "to Calder Hart, with respect to Sunway Company, for the $368 million contract awarded (by Udecott) for the Legal Affairs Towers." That contract was awarded to the company with no track record and which allegedly had a relative of Hart as a director. "The board of Udecott, by resolution, has authorised the commencement of legal action against Calder Hart for fraud, negligence, breach of statutory duty," she added to loud desk-thumping by Government MPs. Persad-Bissessar added that Canadian forensic accountant, Robert Lindquist, had completed his work on the matter "and that report has been handed over to the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau."
She added: "So we will go on both limbs, on the civil remedy side which we can do and on the criminal side we will leave it in the hands of the DPP and the police." She said a pre-action protocol letter also was served on Hart for his role in the award of the contract to contractor Hafeez Karamath to construct the Brian Lara Stadium. She described that contract as a "corruption package." Persad-Bissessar said pre-action protocol letters had also been issued to the Ken Julian e-Teck Board and also the Petrotrin Board. She insisted that citizens of T&T must not abuse the national patrimony. Earlier, she said she had no regrets about the declaration of a state of emergency in T&T. She said the crime rate had been reduced by 70 per cent since it was declared in August. She said lives were being saved everyday as a direct result of the emergency.