(Trinidad Express) Contrary to her statements last week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has not been cleared by the Integrity Commission of all wrongdoing in the award of a $40 million contract by State-owned National Petroleum (NP) to a company owned by her friends, Ralph and Maureen Gopaul, at whose Tunapuna home the Prime Minister stayed for three months.
So said People’s National Movement (PNM) Senator Fitzgerald Hinds yesterday, at a news conference held at the Opposition Leader’s Charles Street, Port of Spain, office.
Hinds, who read a letter sent to him by the Integrity Commission yesterday, stated the commission is still probing the possibility that the Prime Minister’s three-month stay at the Gopauls’ residence may have influenced the award of the contract.
Hinds had written to the commission on May 19, asking that they investigate the award of the contract to determine whether the Prime Minister breached the Integrity in Public Life Act.
But in response to Hinds’s claims, the Prime Minister said yesterday: “I heard MP Fitzgerald Hinds alleging that I am deceiving the population when I read the letter I received from the Integrity Commission when it said they rejected the complaint about me staying at the Gopauls’ residence was in breach of the Integrity Act. MP Hinds is alleging that I am misleading the public when I said I was cleared.
“I want to state categorically, if there is there any deception by anyone, it is by Mr Hinds, to create mischief; to the best of my knowledge, there is no other complaints against me before the Integrity Commission. His statements are defamatory, and I will take steps accordingly, with respect to that matter,” Persad-Bissessar said.
“To the best of my knowledge, there is no other complaints before the Integrity Commission. Indeed, I am going to be writing to the Integrity Commission to ask them if there are other complaints. When the complaints was first made, I was issued a letter by them informing me of the complaint and was informed when they made their findings. I have received no other message stating that there is a complaint against me. I will deal with that matter in due course,” she added.
The Prime Minister was speaking to reporters after visiting Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma at the Port of Spain General Hospital.
The contract to Gopaul and Company, for the provision of tractor trailers to transport fuel, was subsequently cancelled after Attorney General Anand Ramlogan reviewed the procurement process and found several deficiencies.
In a letter displayed by Hinds yesterday, signed by the commission’s registrar, Martin Farrell, it stated: “I am directed to inform you that the Integrity Commission has…arrived at the view that the stay at the Gopauls’ residence in Tunapuna by the Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister…did not constitute a breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act. However, the other aspect of your complaint has been considered and is being investigated by the Integrity Commission. You will be informed of the decision of the Commission in due course.”
As he completed reading the contents of the letter, Hinds accused the Prime Minister of “giving the impression that the matter was at an end” last Thursday when at a post-Cabinet news conference, she “gleefully announced to the world, waving a letter lustily”, that the commission had cleared her of all allegations with respect to her stay at the Gopaul residence.
Said Hinds: “When that deceptive, smiling Prime Minister waved that letter in front of you, she did not tell you of that last paragraph which she would have known. She told you only an element of it, deliberately hiding from the national community the fact that it was only one aspect of the complaint was rejected. The other aspect of it—her possible influence and involvement—the allegations I made has now triggered the Integrity Commission’s investigations at NP. She did not tell you that.”
However, the letter sent by the commission to the Prime Minister did not reveal that further investigations were taking place. That letter stated: “Dear Prime Minister, re complaint of alleged breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act. The Integrity Commission has directed me to inform you that a letter of complaint alleging a breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act Chap 22: 01, pertaining to your stay at the Gopauls’ residence at Pasea Road in Tunapuna, has been received. The Commission has considered the matter and rejected the complaint. Yours faithfully, Martin Farrell, Registrar, Integrity Commission.”
Hinds said since his letter to the Integrity Commission, he has written to the NP board, under the Freedom of Information Act, asking for more information on the issuance of the Gopaul contract. But he said NP, for all kinds of “spurious reasons”, did not give him the information that he sought. He said he now wanted to ask the commission, now that it has embarked on an investigation, to demand of NP the documents that they have been hiding from him (Hinds). “I will write to the Integrity Commission and inform them of the documents that will assist them (in their investigations) if they don’t know about them,” he said.
In his May 19 letter, Hinds had asked the commission to probe “the entire matter touching and concerning the conduct of the Prime Minister as it relates to her occupation of the residence and, also, the conduct of the Prime Minister and the board and management of NP, in respect of the probable issuance of the contract aforementioned”.
