His appointment as Housing Development Corporation (HDC) chairman has still not been confirmed but sacked Caribbean Airlines (CAL) chairman Rabindra Moonan is laughing off questions about whether his appointment is being reconsidered. “Ha ha,” was Moonan’s text reply when asked the question. He did not answer his cellphone when the T&T Guardian contacted him yesterday but when texted did a brief interview.
Asked what stage the appointment process had reached and whether a letter had been sent to the President about it, he said: “I don’t know, this is out of my knowledge.” So he had no idea when he is to be appointed chairman of the HDC board of directors? “Nope,” Moonan said. Were the other board members in place and can they function without a chairman? Has he met them yet?
Moonan said: “Refer to my first answer (out of his knowledge grid).” Michaella Frederick, communications officer at President’s House, said she did not know about any letter coming to the President’s Office concerning Moonan’s appointment but promised to check on it. Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal and HDC CEO Jearlean John remained tightlipped about Moonan’s appointment.
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley expressed his disapproval of the appointment in Parliament, saying Moonan had left a disastrous record at CAL. Moonan countered then, that if Rowley was a raging bull he was a matador. Calls to John’s and Moonilal’s cellphones were not answered yesterday and they did not reply to text messages on the matter. In a recent newspaper interview, Moonilal said he was certain the President would confirm Moonan’s appointment to his new post in a few days.
He said there was no issue of the appointment being revoked and that it was a done deal. In fact, the minister said, Moonan already had been given his first assignment and had been asked to meet all members of Parliament, including the Opposition, and find out if they had housing needs and whether the HDC could assist. But on June 18, speaking to the T&T Guardian, Finance Minister Larry Howai said as far as he knew the expected appointments had not been finalised and were not “cast in stone.”
Howai, line minister for CAL, changed the airline board headed by Moonan last month and appointed a new board under Phillip Marshall. This followed news of CAL’s losses of close to $800 million last year and reports of mismanagement.
The HDC board
The new HDC directors are Craig Davis, Gunness Sudama, Douglas Johnson, Ronald Carter and James Lambert. A representative of the Tobago House of Assembly is also expected to be appointed. Venosh Sagewan-Maraj, another member of the axed CAL board, is also expected to join the HDC board.
Asked if a board can function without a chairman, Opposition MP Colm Imbert, who chairs a Joint Select Committee of Parliament, said, usually, not unless members appointed an interim chairman at every meeting. Imbert said the legality of that could be questioned if the HDC was a creature of statute and functioned under certain laws. The HDC, like its predecessor, the National Housing Authority, is a creature of statute.
Creatures of statutes are legal entities, such as corporations, created by statute. But the HDC Act says in the absence of the chairman, the remaining directors can get together and appoint one of them to serve as chairman of a meeting. The act says there can be between five and nine directors on the HDC board and that the President appoints a chairman and a deputy chairman.