MPs disagree on Scotland Yard probe of PM’s trips

THE GOVERNMENT, Opposition and former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj disagreed yesterday about what  Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal is trying to accomplish by asking Scotland Yard to investigate Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s privately sponsored trips to Madrid and London in 2003. In a March 31 letter to Scotland Yard, Moonilal asked that British police investigate whether energy corporations British Gas and Repsol YPF contravened British laws (particularly the United Kingdom’s Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001) by offering the Prime Minister free trips during his overseas travels last December.

In an April 27 letter to Moonilal, Scotland Yard Asst Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur informed the UNC MP that Scotland Yard will be looking into the “alleged provision of improper benefits to public officials by UK companies.” Ghaffur said the matter has been referred to Detective Chief Supt Nigel Mawer of the Yard’s Specialist and Economic Crime Unit for “detailed consideration” and Mawer would respond to him in due course. National Security Minister Martin Joseph said he was “puzzled” about Moonilal’s letter because the issue does not appear to have anything to do with TT’s national security or foreign affairs and the Integrity Commission is already looking into the circumstances surrounding Manning’s trips to Madrid and London.

Joseph recalled efforts by other Opposition parliamentarians to seek redress from international agencies for alleged injustices committed by the Government and believed that Moonilal’s letter fits this pattern. “That is their style of politics,” he said. Joseph said the UNC was blinded by politics and unaware that their actions could very well compromise TT’s international reputation at some point in time. UNC chairman Wade Mark said Moonilal had the party’s blessings in dispatching the letter to Scotland Yard and the Opposition was determined to see the matter through to the end. Mark wondered why the Integrity Commission was “taking so long to investigate and come up with answers.” He said Commission chairman Gordon Deane and his fellow commissioners “seem to be asleep” under the PNM but the situation was very different when shoe was on the UNC’s foot. Mark said the UNC wants the Integrity Commission “to smell the coffee, to awake” and tell the country why this matter remains unresolved.

Maharaj described Moonilal’s letter as “a drop in the bucket” and declared that “the wider issue” of the Commission being unable to scrutinise the finances of Government Ministers and State corporations has yet to be addressed. The former AG lamented that to date, Parliament has not approved declarations of assets’ forms for the Commission to distribute to public officials nor has the Integrity in Public Life Act been amended to make these declarations retroactive for the years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. The Prime Minister said public officials were concerned about the net under the existing legislation being too wide, while Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday felt this net should be widened even further. The nation’s current integrity legislation is one of several matters currently being discussed by Manning and Panday in the context of constitutional reform in TT. Maharaj observed that “four years ago” integrity was a big deal when the UNC was in government and wondered what had happened since then to change that.