IC chairman: Government breaching law

REPEATED ATTEMPTS by the former chairman of the Integrity Commission to have Government lay in Parliament, the forms for public officials to declare their assets and income were met with indifference from the Prime Minister, Sunday Newsday learned yesterday. Justice Gerard des Iles whose three-year term as chairman expired July 19, yesterday told Sunday Newsday he wrote Prime Minister Patrick Manning three times earlier this year, asking him to have the forms laid in Parliament. He said he reminded Manning that the Integrity in Public Life Act 2000 required that the declaration forms, which des Iles noted, had been ready since September 2001, should be placed before Parliament for its affirmative resolution. Des Iles said he got no response from the Prime Minister nor from his Permanent Secretary to whom he also spoke on the telephone. The only reply came in the form of a letter from a junior secretary, three or four months later, informing him that his three letters were receiving the attention of the Prime Minister. He described Government’s failure to lay the forms as “a breach of the law as it stood.”

Contacted yesterday for comment on the matter, former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj strongly condemned the Prime Minister’s failure to respond to the three letters from the Commission’s former chairman. “This provides cogent and compelling evidence that the Manning administration does not want the Integrity Commission to function,” Maharaj said. Maharaj, who is seeking to have the courts compel the Government to enforce the Act he piloted when in office, further stated that Manning’s lack of  response to des Iles brought into question whether the country would ever have the benefit of an Integrity Commission. He also warned that Government’s “overriding of Parliament and its putting itself before the Constitution and the law was a serious precedent and a recipe for tyranny and dictatorship.” Yesterday, Maharaj also issued a press release on a related matter, that is, the failure of the Government to appoint a new Commission since the term of  the last one ended in mid July. “The public statements to the effect that the government has suspended the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago by not appointing members of the Integrity Commission seriously threatens the enjoyment of the rule of law in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

Maharaj further stated that the non-appointment of the Integrity Commission demonstrated that the Manning Administration did not intend to provide clean and constitutional government. “This means that the country does not have an Integrity Commission and the Cabinet without the approval of Parliament, which requires the support of the Opposition, has repealed Section 138 of the Constitution which mandates that an Integrity Commission shall be appointed,” he noted. Maharaj recalled that the PNM in Opposition had given full support to the new Integrity Act. “The Cabinet must obey the Constitution until the Integrity Act is repealed or amended by Parliament,” he said. “The Integrity Commission must function to safeguard the public interest against Ministerial and official corruption.” Meanwhile Justice des Iles declined comment on the failure of the Government to appoint a new Commission. He confirmed however, that he had written to President Max Richards to inform him that the term of the commissioners had expired. The Government’s failure to appoint a new commission follows repeated statements by Attorney General Glenda Morean that Cabinet is to decide whether to dismantle the entire Commission and replace it with an anti-corruption body. That decision is expected this week. How the PNM will do so without the support of the Opposition, Morean has not explained as, in order for the Integrity Commission to be set aside, the Act would have to be repealed, legal sources said yesterday. This requires a special majority, which the PNM does not currently enjoy, they added.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he has always waxed warm about his Government’s intentions to promote integrity in public life. Speaking in March 2003 to a reporter from the Washington-based International Special Reports, a group, which compiles country reports for Washington’s political and commercial decision makers, the PM declared: “We are basing our new society on integrity.” He noted that the Government of the United States could assist TT considerably if it so wished “in treating some of the lapses of integrity that have taken place over the last few years.” He concluded: “It must be known that Trinidad and Tobago is open for business, but Trinidad and Tobago is not for sale. Integrity is a very high priority for us.” The Opposition UNC has accused the PNM of hypocrisy.