The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

 THE House of Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee will meet on Wednesday to determine the way forward in its probe on Urban Renewal 2.0, PAC Chairman Hubert Chipman said yesterday.

The St Anne’s MP said Wednesday’s meeting will “put the house in order” before issuing summonses for programme Co-Chairs Cynthia “Mother” Pratt and Algernon Allen to appear before their committee.

Mr Chipman’s statements come almost a month after he said Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen would be served summonses to appear before the PAC to bring swift closure to a matter that has been severely delayed.

Last month, Prime Minister Perry Christie tabled Auditor General Terrence Bastian’s report into Urban Renewal and its Small Homes Repair (SHR) programme, giving the PAC the go-ahead to interview persons and send for people without interference in its Urban Renewal probe.

At the time, however, Mr Chipman said it was unlikely that either co-chair would be interviewed before the end of July. That was because Mr Chipman had to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s (CPA) conference.

Following the conference, Mr Chipman said it was his intention to question Mrs Pratt and Mr Allen during the first week of this month.

When contacted yesterday, however, Mr Chipman said: “I have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the Public Accounts Committee and then after that we’ll see where it goes. The purpose of our meeting on Wednesday is simply to find out in terms of the summonses; in terms of the way forward what we are going to do, when we’re going to meet again. Once we send the summonses out we will determine that.

“So the purpose of the meeting on Wednesday is to put the house in order to determine exactly where we’ll be going.”

In April, Mr Bastian’s scathing report was leaked to the press and sparked months of heated debate over the management of Urban Renewal and possible abuses of the programme.

However, the co-chairs refused to appear before the PAC to answer questions because the report had not been tabled in Parliament.

As Mr Christie tabled the audit last month, he said the PAC could now summon whoever it needed to ensure transparency. He said the government was prepared to facilitate the work of the PAC.

However, FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest, also a member of the PAC, accused the government of delaying the process “to buy time to clean up” Urban Renewal’s records.

Mr Turnquest maintained that the PAC had always acted within its parameters. He expressed the hope that the committee’s work could quickly get back on track, now that Mr Allen and Mrs Pratt no longer had an “excuse” to dodge the PAC.

However, Mr Allen dismissed the assertion, telling The Tribune last month that the remarks were “scandalous and filth that could only come from an evil mind”.

Mr Allen went on to defend Urban Renewal as he insisted that regardless of what is uncovered as the PAC investigates, the work was done for the good of the poor who needed relief.

The former FNM Cabinet minister said that now that the report has been laid on the table of the House, he had no reservations over appearing before the PAC when called to do so.

In June, it was revealed that the government commissioned an independent report into Urban Renewal’s SHR project.

Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the report was commissioned as a result of “areas of discrepancy” in Mr Bastian’s report on Urban Renewal.

Mr Davis, also the minister of works, said the report was conducted by a consultancy firm with expertise in the field of civil, structural, environmental engineering; project management and quantity surveying.

Last month it was revealed that the independent review concluded the initiative’s first phase had received value for money, directly contradicting findings in Mr Bastian’s report.

Meanwhile, Mr Bastian has called the government’s decision to challenge his office’s report into Urban Renewal and its SHR initiative with an independent review surprising and unprecedented.

Mr Bastian also said it was “sad” that his report, which he said was done like all other audits, had become a political football.