There is a “degree of uncertainty” that either Lawrence Duprey or Andre Monteil, the two main players in CL Financial, will appear tomorrow to testify at the commission of enquiry into the conglomerate’s failure, Sir Anthony Colman said. The 12th sitting of the enquiry into the failure of CL Financial, four of its subsidiaries, and the HCU began at the Winsure Building located along Richmond Street, Port of Spain yesterday. Colman, the enquiry’s lone commissioner, began yesterday’s sitting outlining the itinerary for this session. Duprey and Monteil are scheduled to testify at the sitting tomorrow. Earlier this month Colman delivered a 66-page judgment stating that the duo, once described during the enquiry as “Batman and Robin” for their tag team approach to final transactions, were ordered to take the witness stand. “As far the impact of those two witnesses, Mr Monteil and Mr Duprey are concerned there is a certain degree of uncertainty, let me put it like that and one will have to wait until (tomorrow) or maybe (today) to see the course either of them propose to take, if any,” Colman said. In his judgment Colman ruled that “each of the parties and the commission who intend to cross-examine either Duprey and Monteil will read into the transcript a numbered list of each of the more important questions” they intend to pose to the duo. If Duprey and Monteil fail to appear at the enquiry, Colman said these questions will still be read into the transcript. Also expected to appear tomorrow is former president of the Clico Investment Bank (CIB) Richard Trotman. Trotman originally took the witness stand on October 26, the last day of the ninth evidence hearing and was scheduled to complete his testimony in the tenth evidence hearing which started on December 3 last year. However, when Trotman took the witness stand in that evidence hearing he said he was “very, very disquieted” because of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard’s announcement that a criminal investigation against former CLICO executives and several corporate entities aligned to the collapsed insurance giant was ongoing. There is also uncertainty about Trotman’s appearance, Colman said. “Should Mr Trotman fail to attend there is a lot of material we now have including the questions and the answers as he has provided them and I propose that if Mr Trotman fails to attend we will read into the record publicly the question that were asked and the answers that he provided together with the questions he has been asked to provide answers to and has failed to do so and the fact of his failure to answer those questions,” British Queen’s Counsel Peter Carter, commission counsel, said yesterday. “As far as (today) is concerned we have a couple major question marks,” Colman said yesterday. Former CIB vice-president Mala Ghandi and former president, Lennox Archer are scheduled to appear today. “We do not know whether there will be evidence heard (today) we do know there is evidence programmed to be heard on that day but we do not know whether the witnesses will respond to their subpoenas. That therefore is an open question. All I can is that the commission has done its best to try to procure the attendance of two witnesses and it may be that the efforts which have been made may be fruitful but I just cannot shed any more light on that,” he said. On Thursday the enquiry resumes with a “surviving witness” of the HCU aspect, auditor Chanka Seeterram. President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago (ICATT) Derek Mohammed is expected to give evidence on the professional regulations of the accounting profession.
