| The Commission of Inquiry Opens it Doors | | Print | |
| Tuesday, 13 January 2009 18:37 | |||
 The elegant colonnades of the Regent Palms are home to another sort of purpose from that for which it was constructed. You might say, the very fact of the Palm Resort’s existence: how it came to be? what procedures and policies brought the opportunity to build it about? are here today in question. Lest the matter is confused, we are not talking about the private investors, but the government polices that enticed them here, and the apportioning of resources that grew out of their investment.The hearings commenced promptly at 10:30am. It was a spanking hot sunny day outside, and in the leafy gardens of the Palms Resort, some quite charming hung in the air as each entrance to the Hearing Room in the grand ballroom of the Palms was “guarded” by uniformed policemen. It was not easy getting in. Officer Porter was the man one had to deal with. Polite but firm, he intimated, and at times insisted: “No cameras, no mobile telephones, no laptops”; even for the media. Everyone passes through metal detectors, but there was no ominous sense about it. Rather it was an atmosphere of professional decorum and seriousness. In fact that seriousness belies the charges of lack of seriousness that brought about the Commission of Inquiry in the first instance. Inside, there were seats for about 100 members of the public. Again Officer Porter strictly enforced entrance and seating procedure. The interior is laid out East to West. Mr. Justice Auld was seat, centred on the West wall of the beige room with beige and raspberry pastel curtains. The witness box in which the Premier spent the day answering questions was to Justice Auld’s left, with his lawyers seated nearby and the Commission’s lawyers were off to the right. The Press were seated along the North wall and the rest of the seating was taken by the public, with the exception that the Members of Parliament, Government and Opposition sat together on the far South end of the room. In attendance was Ms. LisaRaye McCoy, formerly Misick. In her customary white attire, her note book handy and pen at the ready, seemingly interested, genuinely in the proceedings. The overall impression was one of quiet urgency. The Premier himself, was the only witness of the day. Dressed in a mustard gold coloured suit, and a white shirt, the Premier faced tough questioning all day. He was however, at turns somber, then unflinching, and at times funny. There was an exchange for instance in which he was asked why he put certain monies into a bank account, Misick replied: “I thought you were a banker. That’s what Bank accounts are for”. Even Mr. Justice Auld was made to laugh.
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