(Trinidad Express) Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert says “it is impossible” that he could have “spirited away US$6 million” from a stadium project in Grenada which his firm, ICS, carried out ten years ago, as has been claimed by two Opposition MPs in the Parliament and the subcontractor on the job, NH (International) Caribbean Ltd (NHIC).
Imbert did so in a statement he read at the beginning of Monday’s sitting of the House of Representatives at the Red House, Port of Spain.
“The allegations are and have always been absurd. A simple examination of the true facts, as opposed to the falsehoods that are being propagated, will demonstrate that the notion that I have somehow spirited away US$6 million and hidden it in a foreign bank account is preposterous,” Imbert said.
He said for the record, the project sum was US$23 million and not US$6 million, “as some may be led to assume from the allegations that have been made in this House”.
He did so in specific response to Opposition Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh’s allegations in the Parliament on Friday, in which he revealed NHIC executive chairman Emile Elias had filed a complaint with the Integrity Commission against Imbert about the alleged US$6 million.
Former Opposition chief whip Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj had first alleged Imbert failed to declare the US$6 million to the Integrity Commission in the Parliament on September 12, 2008.
“It should be noted that prior to Friday last, I had no knowledge of this latest complaint made about me to the Integrity Commission. I had not been informed that any such complaint had been made nor had a copy of the complaint or any particulars been sent to me,” Imbert said.
He even “thanked” Gopeesingh for alerting him that Elias had made a second complaint against him to the Integrity Commission, but wondered “what motivated” the Opposition MP to raise the matter last Friday.
Noting that the subcontractor’s services on the project had been terminated in 1999 after disputes arose over its performance, Imbert said the National Stadium Corporation, the owner of the Grenada stadium project, obtained a judgment in its favour in Grenada in 2004, “in the sum of EC$13.45 million (US$5 million)“ and added that the ruling has since been registered in the court in Trinidad.
He said it should be noted that in addition to the additional US$5 million spent by National Stadium to complete the project “over and above the funds available” for it, including the so-called “missing” US$6 million, a further US$2.7 million of the funds raised by National Stadium for the construction of the project has been frozen in Trinidad by a court order since 1999.
