Panday: I’m not probing Rowley

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday said it was not for him to determine whether or not Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley should appear before the Commission of Inquiry that will investigate contracts awarded to Emile Elias’ NH International (Caribbean) Ltd (NHIC) and Warner Construction. At a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall on Thursday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning announced plans for the Commission of Inquiry. Asked yesterday whether Dr Rowley should appear before this new Commission of Inquiry, Panday told Newsday: “That is not for me to decide. That is a matter for the Commission.”  Rowley welcomed the Prime Minister’s decision, saying “it was the only way to save the country from the exercise by mischief coming from other quarters.”

Panday said the UNC was still uncertain what the new Commission of Inquiry “is about,” particularly its terms of reference, but would not pass judgment yet. The Commission of Inquiry will be formalised once Attorney General John Jeremie returns to Trinidad and Tobago next week. The AG has already met separately with Manning and Rowley on the Landate affair. On Manning’s charge that the Opposition would attempt to move the goalpost and try to disrupt the smooth operation of the Government, Panday said, “He is taking before, before takes him.” The UNC leader believed the Prime Minister was employing this strategy to paint the Opposition in a bad light if it questions any aspect of the new Commission of Inquiry.

Panday explained that the Commission must not only be independent, but also seen to be independent, and Opposition involvement in the selection of the Commissioners would have lent credibility to the process. However he lamented that under the current system, only the Government had the power to select Commissioners and this left the door open to the possibility of “himself investigating himself.” Panday said this was yet another reason why constitutional reform was badly needed in TT. He claimed the PNM only viewed constitutional reform in terms of political power and in its broadest application, constitutional reform deals with the efficient organisation and operation of the State.