Lalla: Fr Charles’ resignation no surprise

Lalla said Charles was a person of “impeccable character” but the question of the plagiarism of the work of another party certainly would have had a negative effect. He said this incident did not reflect the type of integrity expected in an Integrity body.

Lalla was critical that integrity has been “trivialised and politicised in this country.” He questioned whether anyone had regard for integrity since it seemed to have lost its significance and efficacy in this country.

Lalla said, “appointing people to the Commission has not been dealt with seriousness.

Laws have been established in our statute books and we need to follow it. There is integrity legislation but it seems more or less to adorn the statute books rather than addressing the issue of integrity”.

Although there are laws to guide appointments, Lalla believed the purpose and intent of legislation has not been fully complied with.

“The Head of state has a heavy responsibility to ensure proper background investigations are conducted into the lives of people, into their standing in the community”.

He said if there were any questions about a person’s integrity it should not be too difficult to find out through the investigative process. Lalla said a mechanism had to be established to communicate to children in schools the value of integrity in their lives. He also suggested that wider public education was also necessary.