Wait on Panday’s case, court told

Attorneys representing former Government minister Finbar Gangar in his Integrity Commission matter yesterday asked a Port-of-Spain magistrate to hold her hand on setting a date for the matter to begin, pending the outcome of a similar High Court matter which involves former Prime Minister and UNC leader, Basdeo Panday. Gangar is before Magistrate Ejenny Espinet in the Port-of-Spain First Court on two charges of failing to declare six bank accounts to the Integrity Commission. It is alleged that Gangar failed to declare his six bank accounts — two bank accounts in Jersey Channel Islands, two in New York and one each in RBTT and Scotiabank in South Trinidad — to the Integrity Commission for the years 1998 and 1999.

In his submission to the magistrate yesterday, Gangar’s attorney Prakash Ramadhar told the court the defence felt it best to await the outcome of the matter involving the former Prime Minister, since there were certain legal queries made in that matter which it believes are pertinent to its case. According to Ramadhar, “When we have other matters of a similar nature, it would be quite prudent to await the decisions on those matters. We have done our research and have discovered that some 99 persons failed to declare their assets as well. “However, the only persons charged are Mr Panday and Mr Gangar.

“I understand that persons were given an opportunity to rectify these issues, but not Mr Panday and Mr Gangar. “This, to me, raises major equality issues,” Ramadhar told the magistrate. Ramadhar then asked that the matter be set for hearing after the scheduled date for the Panday matter at the Port-of-Spain High Court. Panday was charged on September 18, 2002, for failure to declare bank accounts held at the London Westminster Bank to the Integrity Commission. He was slapped with three charges and accused of failing to declare assets for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999. No objections were made to Ramadhar’s submissions. Espinet adjourned the matter to May 6, when a trial date would be set.