PM had to fire McDonald

Rowley at a press conference yesterday at his office in St Clair, said McDonald was dismissed from the Cabinet because of the presence of certain entities at her swearing in ceremony last Friday at President’s House.

Asked whether the presence of Sea Lots ‘community leader’ Cedric “Burkie” Burke was the deciding factor in McDonald’s dismissal, he replied: “Yes, it did.” Asked to elaborate, Rowley responded, “No, I won’t.” Rowley said his decision to reappoint McDonald was based on his analysis of the situation and he was willing to defend such a decision.

“That is not something that I am backing away from. I did not expect anyone to agree, but I expect most people would be fair-minded and be of the view that when you look at the overall picture, especially the allegations made, I did not move Ms Mc- Donald (in March 2016) because an allegation was made about her.

“If you are telling me a minister has one allegation and must be removed by the Prime Minister, all you want is five allegations against five ministers and the Government done. When I took the decision to remove her, it was based on my understanding of the requirements because she was the Minister of Housing and there were serious allegations about her conduct which had not been investigated.

“One was the Calabar investigation which apparently will go on forever and the other was the hiring of people in her office. As far as I was concerned, as Prime Minister I had to know whether or not there was substance to these allegations about the Ministry of Housing,” he said.

Asked how PNM members were treating with McDonald’s dismissal, Rowley indicated this was not a party matter, but a Government matter.

“We make a distinction between the party that put the Government into office and the Government that conducts Government business. There may sentiments expressed by the party but the most important thing is this is a governmental action,” he said.

Questioned as to how Burke was able to attend the ceremony when he was not on the guest list, Rowley said the matter would have to be looked into, adding that there was need for “tightening up” of protocols and there should be more water tight security systems at a place like President’s House.

“Because if they can tell you they enter President’s House without proper authorisation and it’s a question of who got who in there, clearly there is need for us all to review that situation so these developments would not happen again,” he said.

Asked what was his relationship now with McDonald, Rowley said as a deputy political leader she is there to assist the political leader.

“It is not an over arching position.

My relationship and conversations with Ms McDonald are very civil and very forthright as it has always been. I take responsibility for the action of bringing back Ms McDonald. I take responsibility for that based on my analysis of the overall situation. I don’t expect anyone to agree with me on that, I have a decision to make, I took that decision and I take responsibility for that decision.

“Had I known the swearing in would become an issue, because that is what we are dealing with now. If I had a crystal ball to look into it; if I appoint her the swearing in would have resulted in this, clearly I wouldn’t have. But I had no way of knowing that the swearing in would have resulted in this situation,” he said..