OCG to continue investigating sale of West Parade property

Thursday, November 10, 2011

THE Office of the Contractor General (OCG) says yesterday’s decision by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to complete the sale of its property at 35 West Parade will not halt their investigation into the circumstances which surrounded the sale.

“While the OCG will not comment upon its ongoing investigation, nor the confidential information regarding the matter which is presently within its custody, the OCG believes that the circumstances which prompted its investigation in the first place have so far been heightened even if one is to have regard solely to the disclosures which the UDC itself has since placed upon the public record,” a release from the OCG today said.

The UDC decision was made on the advice of the Office of the Attorney General.

The OCG said issues of concern include that the UDC has stated that it was unaware of the applicable Government-owned asset divestment procedures that require that the sale of state-owned assets should be publicly advertised; and that the UDC board chairman has said that neither he nor the UDC board was aware that 35 West Parade was the subject of written and competing offers by at least two other bidders.

“These revelations by the UDC have, in turn, raised extremely worrying questions about the UDC's existing good-governance corporate structures, its due-diligence mechanisms and its institutional checks and balances,” the OCG said.

“These UDC statements would mean that there are extremely grave and outstanding questions of national import to be addressed and clarified to determine, among other things, not just what led to the UDC’s admitted irregular conduct in the matter, but whether there is also any evidence of impropriety in the circumstances which surrounded the sale. The matter must, therefore, be thoroughly interrogated and independently investigated by the OCG and its findings made public.”