President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday appointed three members of the Integrity Commission, while Opposition leader Robert Corbin questioned the wisdom of proceeding with appointments as the consultations on a Chairperson have not been concluded.
Fazeel Feroze, Savitri Sukhai and Rev Nigel Hazel took the oath of office at a simple ceremony yesterday afternoon at the Office of the President (OP) witnessed by Chief Magistrate (Ag) Melissa Robertson as well as their relatives and friends.
“I don’t know whether that makes sense,” Corbin said hours before the appointments, “Because I believe for a commission to be properly constituted you have to have a chairman and members.”
Corbin, who said he was not aware of the swearing in and was not present at the ceremony, had earlier sought to reject what he described as “inferences” that his recent illness delayed the conclusion of the engagement with President Jagdeo on the three nominees for appointment. He explained that subsequent to the initial engagement on the issue he was supplied with information on the three nominees as well as an undertaking that a new nominee for the chairmanship would be provided. “To date the name of the new nominee has not been made available to me,” he said, adding that it is “mindboggling” that the President would declare his anxiety to complete the constitution during his illness, since up to that point more than two months had elapsed since their last communication.
More significantly, he said, the basis for its reconstitution–a proposed Chairperson–had not yet been identified and made known to him. “I really don’t understand what are the machinations of the President by aggressively approaching appointment of some of the members and not dealing with the important issue of the chairman of the Integrity Commission,” he said.
President Jagdeo did not field questions at the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Corbin also reserved comment on the three appointees, saying that he had hoped to give an opinion on a fully constituted commission. He explained that he felt it would be premature to give a full assessment of the complementary members of the commission. He did, however, mention that he had drafted an opinion on the three nominees that would be sent to the OP.
At the start of the year, Jagdeo issued an ultimatum to MPs to submit their declarations of assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission or face criminal charges. The opposition parties, however, criticised the constitutionality of the commission and called for it to be reconstituted. President Jagdeo subsequently announced that consultations would start towards resuscitating the commission.
