Architect Dion Campbell yesterday admitted a direct conflict of interest had arisen during the second phase of the Las Alturas housing project after his company, Civil Engineering Management and Services (CEMAS), was subsequently hired by the contractor, China Jiangsu International Corporation (CJIC), as a consultant, while it was still under contract with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) on the same project.
Testifying before the commission of enquiry at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Henry Street, Port-of-Spain, Campbell said as a result the layout and placement of Buildings H, I and J in his master plan were done according to CJIC's instructions.
HDC hired CEMAS in 2006 as the consultant for the second phase.
Planning Associates Ltd (PAL) was the consultant for the first phase, during which Buildings A and B were constructed. Campbell made the admission yesterday under cross-examination by HDC’s lead attorney Queen’s Counsel Vincent Nelson.
Providing an insight into how the project unfolded, Campbell revealed that CEMAS had proceeded based on the findings in Geotech Associates 2008 report.
Pressed by Nelson to say if any of the reports he used had warned of the large cracks and soil instability at the site, Campbell said they continued in spite of the warnings about the instability and recommendations for further testing to be done.
Although Buildings I and J were not constructed over the cracks at the site, Campbell said a part of H had been. Meanwhile, Campbell repeated earlier statements that the failure to provide reports and other pertinent information regarding the original design had resulted in the HDC’s interests not being properly protected.
According to him, no such information was ever disclosed by the HDC to CEMAS in 2006 when it was hired as the project consultant.
The hearing will resume at 9.30 am today.