Panday: The Integrity Commission leaked my account to the media

He went off to England and returned in 1966 as a lawyer. His political life began the following year when he contested a seat in the general elections. In 1972, he became president of the sugar union and four years later, he was elected to Parliament as the Leader of the Opposition with the United Labour Front party.

In 1986, he was sworn in as the Minister of External Affairs in the NAR Government. Two years later, he was back as the Leader of the Opposition. In 1991, he fought the elections and retained his position as Opposition Leader.

In 1995, he was elected again in Parliament, but couldn’t remember if it was with the NAR or UNC...”I was the Leader of the Opposition, no, the Prime Minister.” After the 2000 elections, he was returned as Prime Minister. But in 2001, three members of his party ceased to be members of the UNC and another election was called.

There was an unprecedented 18-18 tie and the President appointed Patrick Manning of the PNM as the Prime Minister. Elections took place in 2002 and Panday remained as the Leader of the Opposition.

Panday said he has one daughter from his first marriage and three from his marriage to Oma. He said when he was elected Prime Minister in 1995, his children were constantly under threat. “They couldn’t go out. Life became very difficult for them. I believed they should go abroad.

Newman then got into the nitty gritty of the charges. Panday said his declaration forms were submitted by his accountant Russell Ramkhelwan. But he did not give the Nat West account in Wimbledon to his accountant.

Why?

“Because, that was not my account. That was Oma’s account,” Panday told the court.

Panday said he was very bad when it comes to dealing with domestic matters “My wife dealt with that generally. It became more intensified when I got into politics, and when I became Prime Minister. I had to be going to the office every day, attending social functions, a lot of travelling, reading of law reports.

During my five years as Prime Minister I did not even read a book. I did not have the time for anything else. Oma held the purse strings in my house.”

Newman then showed several documents to Panday.

The first was a Nat West Bank statement from the Hammersmith branch dated November 1988 in the name of Oma Devi Ramkissoon (maiden name). Panday said he did not know Oma had that account, but he wasn’t surprise when he found out.

Panday said statements were posted to Mrs Merle Mohammed in Surrey, England. He said Merle Mohammed was Oma’s very good friend. He said Oma and his children stayed with Mohammed at some point in time.

Panday was then shown a document of a Crown Reserve account at the Hammersmith branch of Nat West Bank in Oma’s maiden name. “I didn’t know of the existence of this account. I gave her money from time to time. I don’t think she would put it under the mattress, she had to put it in the bank.”

Panday continued, “this money came from several sums I gave her from time to time. She had a sister in England and I had a brother there. There was foreign exchange control at the time. When our families came here, Oma would spend money to take care of them and on their return to England would put the equivalent in Oma’s account.

Another document was shown to Panday about Oma’s Crown Reserve account being transferred to the Diamond Reserve account in January, 1996. The statements, he added, was sent to Tarouba Road, Marabella, where Oma’s parents lived. Panday said he knew nothing of the Diamond Reserve account. “This is not uncommon in a Hindu family. Generally, the wives controlled the finances.”

Panday was shown a document which stated that in July 1997, the Hammersmith account was closed and monies were transferred to the Wimbledon account. Panday said he knew nothing about that. He said in 1989, he had to go to London for heart surgery. He had health insurance and was given a cheque in TT dollars to pay for the surgery. He said it became necessary for him to open an account in London and deposit the TT cheque.

“That account was in our joint names because the cheque was in my name. The chances were that somebody would have to pay when I became incapacitated, so Oma’s name was put on the account. Merle’s daughter was working at Nat West Bank at Waltham-on-Thames. We were having difficulty in finding a bank. I never even went to the branch at Waltham-on-Thames. I had the surgery and all the bills were paid. A small amount, about 2,000 pounds, was left in the account.

“I never used that account again. I don’t think Oma used that account. I stayed in the hospital for two weeks and I returned home. I forgot all about that account.”

Panday was then shown a statement of the account in the names of Basdeo and Oma Panday. There was 2,300 pounds in the account. He was then shown a statement of the current account at Wimbledon dated April 1, 1993. He said Oma arranged for the transfer to Wimbledon. He could not remember if he signed any documents for this account.

Panday said in the 13 years of the existence of this account at Wimbledon, he made one transaction. “My name was put there in the event anything happened to Oma, the children’s education would not be halted and there was somebody to sign the cheques.”

Newman then asked Panday if he ever had $10 million in the account. He said no and wondered by the newspapers would say such a thing. He also denied that he and Oma had a hidden account in London.

Questioned why he never mentioned the Wimbledon account in all his declarations from 1988, Panday replied, “that wasn’t my account. There were no payments I wanted to hide. I never regarded it as my account.”

Asked to peruse the statements of the bank, Panday denied he ever made a purchase from that account.

The former Prime Minister said the Integrity Commission wrote to him on May 21, 2002, saying that he had left out the Nat West Bank at Wimbledon from his declaration. “I told them that I did not regard the account to be mine. There was no deliberate attempt on my part to hide the account.”

One month before, Panday said he wrote to Nat West Bank asking that his name be removed from the account. “This was because the Integrity Commission leaked the account to the media. My political enemies were using it, so I decided to remove any ambiguity.”

He continued, “the media was talking about $10 million in the account, all sorts of information. The elections were in the air, my political opponents were using it. It was a most sensitive time in the history as it was the 18-18 deadlock.”