INTEGRITY CONTROVERSY

MAY 2009: The new commission appointed to replace the last commission falters after three botched appointments. Fr Henry Charles, the chairman, quits the post amid a plagiarism scandal and due to conflicts with church law. Member Jeffrey McFarlane quits after it emerges that he was ineligible for the post. Ordinary member Justice of Appeal Zainool Hosein quits after alleging that President George Maxwell Richards had told him he would be deputy chairman. President George Maxwell Richards declines to resign over the botched appointments.

JUNE 2010: New Integrity Commission chairman Dr Eric St Cyr comments on the question of Jack Warner holding simultaneous Cabinet and FIFA posts. He tells a reporter of a daily newspaper: “My personal view is that I think he (Warner) should choose. “I know that he is likely to be a very tremendous Minister of Works and so on, but I also know that he really serves the nation and the region on this world platform, but as difficult as that may be, I thought that he should choose one or the other.” Warner argues that this is a premature comment on a matter before the commission and calls for St Cyr to resign.

MAY 2011: Yet again, St Cyr comments on a matter. This time, he tells a reporter that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar should have avoided staying at the private residence of a family that owns Gopaul and Company, a firm that was in line for a joint $40 million NP contract along with CDS Limited. Warner, the Chaguanas West MP, again calls on St Cyr’s resignation.

“Your lapse in judgment not on one occasion but two raises questions about your own ability to deliberate fairly and justly on all matters based on the evidence presented and not casually on your own opinion,” Warner writes in a letter to St Cyr calling on him to resign. “Always you seek to bring turbulence to already troubled waters and rather than exercise restraint and discretion as your office requires.”

SEPT 2011: St Cyr, in another interview with a reporter, says that Udecott chairman Jearlean John is under investigation.