‘Manning doing nothing about corruption’

FORMER UNC Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj said yesterday that Prime Minister  Patrick Manning is fully aware of massive corruption occurring in his PNM administration but is not lifting a finger to stop it.

Maharaj said he has obtained documents showing that the Prime Minister has received information from public servants about massive corruption in several Government ministries. He claimed one document shows top officials of a certain statutory authority used $2 million of that authority’s funds for their personal use and are charging certain personal expenses to the Government body. Maharaj also criticised a Member of Parliament for his  “changed lifestyle” since becoming a Government Minister. Recalling Dr Keith Rowley’s public statements against corruption, Maharaj said the seating arrangements in the Lower House shows that Manning “is not serious about integrity.”

The former AG condemned Govern-ment’s inability to approve the declarations of assets forms for the Integrity Commission (IC) at Friday’s sitting of Parliament and its plan to refer it to a Joint Select Committee for deliberation. That Committee would be mandated to report back to the House on December 1 and be empowered to receive expert advice and assistance from IC members who originally drafted the forms.

In explaining the Government’s actions, Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis said because the information in the forms would be so far reaching it was important that Members of Parliament examine the content of the subsidiary legislation very carefully.  “For the last two years and six months, it was madness. You could just imagine the injustices. The IC is really impotent,” he declared. Maharaj reiterated that until the forms are approved by Parliament, top public officials will continue to escape the provisions of the Integrity in Public Life Act (which he piloted in Parliament as Attorney General and was passed by the UNC).

Speaking earlier to members of the National Food Crop Farmers Association in Macoya, Maharaj urged them to be “more militant” in protecting their rights. He disclosed that next year he intends to take public action locally and internationally to ensure that their legal rights are not trampled upon by the State. Maharaj said he would take part in legal demonstrations with the farmers or any other disenfranchised group and was not afraid of harassment or imprisonment. “I observe the law but I am not afraid to face action,” he declared.