Manning calls for Integrity probe for Warner

Manning issued this call in the wake of reports in the British media on Wednesday that Warner could receive an estimated FIFA pension of $7 million.

Those reports claimed that Warner will receive an annual pension of 23,000 pounds sterling ($237,257.06) from FIFA for the next 28 years until he reaches the age of 96. This will amount to a total of 644,000 pounds or $6,643,197.57.

In response to those reports, Warner told Newsday that he had no idea what is the pension that he will receive from FIFA. Warner, who has been a member of FIFA for the last 30 years, said he when he resigned on June 17, he did so with all his benefits intact. Warner said he expected FIFA to advise him about what his pension would be but he was not pursuing the matter at this time.

In a statement, Manning said reports about Warner receiving a pension suggest he was “clearly receiving a pensionable salary but boldly and publicly denied this several times.” Reiterating the Opposition PNM’s position that Warner’s resignation from FIFA was not what it appeared to be, Manning said the country’s independent institutions must act if Government doesn’t.

“So we call on the Integrity Commission to do its work. Did Jack Warner declare the full extent of his remuneration to FIFA in his declarations of income for the years he was an Opposition Member of Parliament?” Manning asked.

Asking whether Warner filed his declarations of income in accordance with the Integrity in Public Life Act for 2010 for the period when he was a Government minister, Manning claimed that if Warner did not “there is a clear case for legal action.”

Manning urged Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs to get a copy of the FIFA Ethic Committee report which, according to British media reports, claim show that Warner is “an accessory to corruption.”

Warner said the document being referred to in the British media reports is not the final conclusion of the FIFA ethics committee.