All Govts fail on integrity

ST AUGUSTINE MP Winston Dookeran lamented that all governments in Trinidad and Tobago have failed to encourage integrity in public life and declared it was time for a programme to educate all public officials on that subject.

Speaking on a motion to approve Integrity in Public Life (Prescribed Forms) Regulations 2003 and the Integrity in Public Life (Period of Furnishing of Information) Regulations 2003 in Parliament yesterday, Dookeran said the values of public officials and TT’s political culture and leadership were key elements in ensuring integrity in public life and all governments to date had failed to ensure that these elements worked properly. He said that the legislative/bureaucratic approach and the constitutional approach respectively articulated by Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis and Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar were important, and that these three issues should not be overlooked. Dookeran lamented that TT’s present political system encourages “cynicism, apathy and fanaticism. Can there be an ethical national government in Trinidad and Tobago?” he asked. Dookeran added there was a symbiosis between good governance and integrity in public life. He criticised alleged moves to target a certain ethnic group for entry into COSTAAT as creating “a sense of shame and dishonour for preferred treatment.”

Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal claimed the PNM was trying to delay legislation dealing with integrity because they (PNM) were strangers to transparency and integrity. “The UNC is proud of its track record on this issue of transparency,” he boasted, eliciting expressions of shock from the Government benches. “I will declare ten salaries if you want,” he declared. Prime Minister Patrick Manning cautioned Moonilal that he may be “talking too soon.” Moonilal said TT continues to be “plunged in scandal and counter-scandal” and the PNM has several matters under investigation by the police and the courts, with the latest being legal action taken by fired UTC chairman Herbert Alleyne against top Government officials.

The UNC MP charged that Board directors of State enterprises were the “bagmen and bagwomen of Government ministers” and they too must declare their assets to the Integrity Commission. Moonilal claimed Government Ministers Dr Keith Rowley and Danny Montano would have resigned from the Cabinet yesterday over the COSTAAT controversy if they had integrity. He also challenged Works Minister Franklyn Khan’s suggestion that they declare their assets together and then publish them in the newspapers. The Oropouche MP hit Government’s hiring of British anti-corruption consultant Bertrand De Speville and suggested that De Speville instead investigate the connection between the PNM and violent crime since this was allegedly one of his (De Speville’s) special skills. “There will be no Vision 2020 without integrity,” Moonilal declared.