Moonilal hits secrecy at Udecott

HAS the Prime Minister resurrected the very state of affairs at Udecott that had seen him fired as a conscientious dissenter in the former Patrick Manning government, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal wondered yesterday.

In a statement e-mailed to Newsday he commentedon the abrupt exit of Udecott CEO Frank Barnes, a fact confirmed by Minister of Communications Stuart Young at a recent post-Cabinet briefing.

Dr Rowley was fired by Manning after asking about the Government’s project managing agency Udecott, controversially chaired by Canadian-born Calder Hart, the episode ending in a mult-million-dollar public inquiry into the construction sector in 2010 by Prof John Uff.

“I took note of the sudden departure of the Udecott CEO,” Moonilal said. “Udecott is back to the bad old days of Calder Hart, with secret deals and non-tendering contracts.

“The CEO left as the news surfaced that Udecott borrowed from a strange lender, (NCB) Global Finance, the first time the Government ever borrowed money from this entity.”

Moonilal alleged the CEO of global finance is the brother of a top cabinet minister, although Rowley recently denied that in Parliament.

Claiming Rowley had been forced to change his position after his initial denial, Moonial said, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive."

Yesterday Newsday was unable to contact Udecott chairman Noel Garcia, while Barnes said he could not talk.