Two former People’s National Movement (PNM) housing ministers have distanced themselves from the now demolished $26 million Las Alturas towers at Morvant. Both Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley and former PNM minister Emily Dick-Forde, who for consecutive periods were responsible for housing around the time of the multi-million dollar housing project, said they had nothing to do with it.
Neither can say when construction of the now demolished structure began or ended. House Leader and current Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal angered Rowley on Friday when he spoke about questionable projects and situations which he said occurred under Rowley’s tenure as PNM housing minister.
He said the Las Alturas development in Morvant rose from $65 million to $90 million and two towers valued at $26 million had to be demolished since geo-technical work had not been done, though Rowley was a geologist. Moonilal showed pictures of the situation which angered Rowley, who jumped up, stressing he had “nothing to do with that!” The Sunday Guardian obtained copies of the board minutes from a January 27, 2007, Housing Development Corporation (HDC) meeting which listed the project.
There was no similar information on the project in the board minutes from 2004 to 2006. Rowley was the housing minister from 2004 to November 2007. Dick-Forde replaced him on November 17, 2007. According to the HDC board minutes, the towers project was handled by China Jiangsu at a total cost of $26,970,073.02 (exclusive of fees) and at the time of the board meeting the construction was almost complete and carried a delivery date of January 30, 2007.
Rowley, in an interview with the Sunday Guardian yesterday, confirmed that the original structure was completed under his watch, but he denied any knowledge of the construction of the portion that had to be demolished.
“When I became minister of housing, I met that project there and almost complete. I defy anyone to show my part in that construction [of the demolished structure]. Yes, I finished the two blocks and handed out keys, but I was very surprised when I heard there was another tower because I knew the ground was shifting. It was a surprise to me,” Rowley said.
“That tower was built after I left office. The HDC board continued the project. That tower was not built when I was minister, and I was party to no discussion,” Rowley said. “Unlike Dr (Roodal) Moonilal I do not micro-manage. I do not know what board-level decisions were taken, and I was party to no discussions,” he said.
Rowley said under his watch, the PNM delivered houses on a regular basis, almost every two weeks and questioned why the current Government had been “spending billions” on houses, yet was unable to distribute the homes to citizens.
Dick-Forde: I inherited a mess
When Rowley demitted that office in November 2007, Dick-Forde stepped into his ministerial shoes. However, in a subsequent telephone interview yesterday, she too denied any knowledge of the multi-million dollar structure. “I do not know anything at all about that building,” Dick-Forde said. “I have no recollection of ever approaching Cabinet for that project,” she said. Dick-Forde said when she took over the HDC from Rowley, she inherited “a mess.”
“A lot of things were lacking. Projects that were said to be completed and delivered, I now had to start. The HDC was in a mess, there were thousands of projects unstarted all over the place,” she said. Dick-Forde said it seemed that Rowley had “chosen to defend himself” on the Las Alturas project. “I am not falling into that trap that Dr Rowley fell into. It is possible the HDC did something the minister was not aware of,” she said.
However, Dick-Forde then added that it was not possible for the HDC to approve and begin construction without ministerial say-so and Cabinet approval. “And I can say that it was a long time after I became Minister of Housing that I had to take anything to Cabinet for approval because I was finishing construction rather than starting new projects,” she said. Rowley also questioned the accuracy and veracity of the 2007 HDC minutes that the Sunday Guardian received.
“Who sent you that? Why should I be answering to some faceless person in HDC who is anonymously making accusations [against] me? If they want to come out and say something, then let them unveil themselves,” Rowley said. On Friday, Moonilal produced a large photograph of the cracked and faded buildings which were constructed under the PNM administration and were set to be demolished in 2012. Recent photographs show the buildings have been partially demolished.
More HDC projects
Moonilal said during Rowley’s Housing Ministry tenure up to 2007, the Edinburgh Towers in Chaguanas went from $50 million to $150 million and were riddled with issues, which he detailed. He also said the ground under a Debe project kept shifting in a “$112 million mistake.”
