Both Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier General Rodney Smart, now on vacation and acting Chief of Defence Staff Hayden Pritchard have purchased apartment units at the posh Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Victoria Keys development, Housing Minister Randall Mitchell confirmed yesterday. But both went through the proper process and it was all done above board.
Smart and his wife, Karen, applied for a three bedroom/two bath unit worth $2.4 million in April this year, while Pritchard was assigned a two bedroom/two bath unit worth $1.85 in February this year.
Mitchell confirmed the information after Opposition MP Roodal Moonilal initially did so during the UNC’s Monday Night Forum.
The purchase of Smart’s unit, Moonilal claimed, came around the time the media got hold of a letter from the Chief of Defence Staff stating it was former CDS Kenrick Maharaj, “acting on his own volition”, who authorised the visit of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s children to the shooting range at the army’s Camp Cumuto. His letter cleared the AG of any wrongdoing.
“We have received information of houses and housing units distribution at Victoria Keys. One of the units, costing $2.4 million, was given to one Rodney Smart and Karen Ollivere Smart,” Moonilal told supporters.
“If there is another man with this name I apologise but this is the name of the Chief of Defence Staff. And how did he pay?”
Moonilal claimed Pritchard also purchased an apartment unit at Victoria Keys at a cost of $1.85 million.
“Unless there is another Hayden Pritchard, that is the name of the acting Chief of Defence Staff. If there are any dots, I don’t know. You connect the dots. I ascribe no act of wrongdoing to these gentlemen.”
Photographs of Al-Rawi’s children posing with high-powered weapons were brought into the public domain through Moonilal in Parliament since October last year.
After public pressure to make a statement on the matter, the T&T Defence Force (TTDF) announced it had established a board of inquiry (BOI) to investigate the situation but withheld on releasing its findings.
On April 25 the TTDF, in the letter signed by Smart, responded to Sturge’s request and “deduced that the Attorney General’s children were not allowed to have high-powered weapons belonging to the Defence Force in the presence of the Attorney General and members of the TTDF”. However, it cleared the AG wrongdoing.
But soon after the TTDF report was made public, Maharaj called on Smart to “retract and amend” the statements made, saying he had nothing to do with the AG’s family’s visit to Camp Cumuto. The army, however, has stuck to its statement and said the case was now closed.
The story took a new turn at the UNC’ meeting at St Helena when Moonilal, quoting from documents, said the purchase of units by Smart and Pritchard around the time of the TTDF report may well be coincidental. He said, however, that the two men have a duty to tell the truth on “Armygate”.
Moonilal said senior police officers, now retired, benefited from inducements by the former government members and called on the police to investigate circumstances where police officers and others may have received inducements to act in a particular way. He said police officers and others got government houses and bus route passes.
Contacted yesterday, Civil Military Affairs Officer, Major Al Alexander, said he did not know anything about Smart and Pritchard purchasing HDC houses and promised to get feedback on it and return a response to the T&T Guardian. Up to press time he had not responded.
Al-Rawi could not be reached as calls to his cellphone went unanswered yesterday.
