{"id":7061,"date":"2013-03-04T11:57:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T15:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=7061"},"modified":"2013-03-04T11:57:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T15:57:40","slug":"manning-went-to-guanapo-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=7061","title":{"rendered":"Manning Went to Guanapo Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lighthouse<\/a>
Construction site of Pena's church at the Heights of Guanapo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Andre Bagoo
\nMarch 04, 2013 – newsday.co.tt<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n

THE WOMAN known as Juliana Pena, who has been described as former Prime Minister Patrick Manning\u2019s spiritual adviser, was granted access to the construction site of the Prime Minister\u2019s Residence and Diplomatic Centre, La Fantasie, St Ann\u2019s in order to pray on it before it opened its doors in 2007.
\n
\nWhat\u2019s more, Manning would later repay the courtesy by visiting the proposed site of Pena\u2019s church at the Heights of Guanapo, according to evidence given to police by Chinese contractor Michael Zhang, managing director of Shanghai Construction Group.<\/p>\n

Zhang\u2019s disclosures to the police were detailed by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard SC in a seven-page statement issued on Friday.<\/p>\n

Although the DPP states there was \u201cno indication of criminal misconduct\u201d in relation to the construction of a church on State land at the Heights of Guanapo, Zhang\u2019s evidence to police reveals links between Manning and Pena on the church project, as well as the $300 million Prime Minister\u2019s Residence and Diplomatic Centre. Long before construction of a church at the Heights of Guanapo, called the Lighthouse of Our Lord Jesus Christ, even began in 2010, Pena was granted access to the construction site of the Prime Minister\u2019s residence by Zhang, whose firm was hand-picked to build the facility on behalf of Udecott by the Manning administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is that the Shanghai Construction Group completed the design and started to build the church,\u201d Gaspard said. \u201cIts director, Mr Zhang, had met Ms Pena when she came to pray at the Prime Minister\u2019s project site at which Shanghai Construction Group was engaged. Mr Calder Hart (the former Udecott executive chairman and ally of Manning) asked him (Zhang) to help Ms Pena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s Residence and Diplomatic Centre was constructed between 2006 and 2007 at an estimated cost of $300 million. During the Uff Commission of Inquiry into the Public Construction Sector, the project was singled out as one of the few completed on time and within budget. The project was supposedly built pursuant to a so-called \u201cgovernment to government\u201d agreement with China, the details of which little is known.<\/p>\n

According to the DPP, Zhang stated that he agreed to build Pena\u2019s Guanapo church, \u201cat cost price by way of an act of goodwill to the people of Trinidad and Tobago. He (Zhang) firmly denied that this was in any way a corrupt contract and gave other examples of community projects that the Shanghai Construction Group had funded here.\u201dThe DPP does not list any of these projects but said Zhang told police that he stopped after Pena failed to pay him. \u201cMr Zhang said that he caused work to stop when Ms Pena failed to pay, as agreed,\u201d Gaspard said. The Director of Public Prosecutions then notes: \u201cInstructively, at the time of Mr Zhang\u2019s police interviews, Udecott still owed money to the Shanghai Construction Group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaspard does not state when Zhang was interviewed. In 2010 it was reported that Zhang submitted a bill to the State seeking a payment of $54 million.<\/p>\n

Though Gaspard said the police had found \u201cno indication of criminal misconduct\u201d \u2013 a finding which he appears to have agreed to upon review of Zhang\u2019s evidence \u2013 there was much evidence making plain the ties Manning had with the church project.<\/p>\n

Manning had, in a television interview in 2010, refused to confirm or deny his involvement or interest in the church project. He was asked to explain why the initial \u201cPM\u201d appeared on plans for the project. Manning, the then prime minister, said, \u201cI am advised that in the construction industry, \u2018PM\u2019 also means project manager, eh. So that is one possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the DPP\u2019s statement, based on the evidence gathered by the police, puts to rest any doubt about Manning\u2019s ties.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the evidence establishes that the then Prime Minister had an interest in the construction of the church and that he had nourished his interest by visiting the proposed site and by making suggestions as to the proposed design of the church,\u201d Gaspard said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, he had chaired the Cabinet meetings which had approved the granting of State lands for the building of the church.\u201d The DPP noted that all such applications go to Cabinet but did not state whether investigations showed if Manning\u2019s ties to the church were disclosed. It was also unclear whether Cabinet was apprised that the land \u2013 which was supposed to be used for agricultural purposes \u2013 would be used for a church.<\/p>\n

However, in Gaspard\u2019s view, there was not enough to connect Pena to Manning because of a lack of an employment contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a commonly held view that the then Prime Minister and Ms Pena had a spiritual link from at least 2003,\u201d he states. \u201cHowever, there is no evidence that she was employed by him in any official capacity.\u201d There have been reports that Pena was once appointed as a \u201cspecial envoy\u201d of the State to an African country. Special envoys are appointed by the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Though on the one hand Gaspard found no indication of criminal misconduct, on the other hand he said there were clear breaches of the law in relation to the approvals process. In particular, he noted the contractor started construction in January 2010 without the planning approvals being granted (they were granted in April 2010). But, in Gaspard\u2019s view, \u201cthe blame for this undoubted breach of the law, without more (evidence), cannot be attributed to any then minister or civil servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DPP\u2019s statement reveals just how Pena went about obtaining approval for her church project, built on taxpayers\u2019 State lands. In particular, he painted a picture of someone who artificially re- labelled the church project as being \u201cfor agricultural purposes\u201d in order to get approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cCentral Government approvals were not fully granted until April 2010,\u201d Gaspard said. \u201cThis was after the Town and Country Planning Division had indicated to the Director of Land Administration Department that the land site was for agricultural purposes only and was unsuitable for a church…. The Town and Country Planning Division only relented after Ms Pena had revised her application and had indicated that the land would not only be for the church but for agricultural purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DPP found \u201cno illegal link between the Prime Minister and the granting of State lands for the construction of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the television interview in 2010 Manning said in relation to the Cabinet\u2019s granting of the land to Pena: \u201cThe Prime Minister assisted the Lighthouse of the Lord Jesus Church, as indeed he assists other churches.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if the DPP did not find evidence of an illegal link, he certainly found many other connections between Manning and the project. In particular, he mentions Calder Hart\u2019s role in the project. (Manning has stated he referred the matter to Calder Hart \u2013 though this is not referred to in the DPP\u2019s statement.)<\/p>\n

According to Gaspard, \u201cthe evidence indicates that after Mr Calder Hart, then chairman of Udecott, had introduced Ms Pena to the architect who initially designed the church, that architect agreed to his designing of that church by way of a charitable act.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Zhang was interviewed by the police in relation to the three-year-old complaint, Pena and Hart were not.<\/p>\n

The DPP did not state whether Manning was interviewed but simply stated that \u201cthe Judges Rules legally prohibit the police from treating them or the former Prime Minister as suspects, since the police appear not to have any evidence which would afford reasonable grounds for suspecting that they may have committed any offence arising out of this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DPP did not state what other offences, particularly under the Integrity in Public Life Act, were included in his review of the case. However he noted that there is a suggestion by police that the Integrity Commission is conducting a \u201cforensic audit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Source: www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,174340.html<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andre Bagoo March 04, 2013 – newsday.co.tt THE WOMAN known as Juliana Pena, who has been described as former Prime Minister Patrick Manning\u2019s spiritual adviser, was granted access to the construction site of the Prime Minister\u2019s Residence and Diplomatic Centre, La Fantasie, St Ann\u2019s in order to pray on it before it opened its … Continue reading Manning Went to Guanapo Church<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,396,30,180,7,12,26],"tags":[192,400,842,82,1015],"class_list":["post-7061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-peoples-partnership","category-pnm","category-police","category-politics","category-religion","category-udecott","tag-dpp","tag-guanapo-church","tag-juliana-pena","tag-patrick-manning","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7062,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7061\/revisions\/7062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}