UNC to go after Manning for "spying" on Kamla

The United National Congress (UNC) is considering what action, if any, it should against Prime Minister Patrick Manning in connection with Manning’s allegations against UNC MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

In his budget presentation Tuesday Manning alleged during Bissessar had links to someone in the Integrity Commission.

He claimed that the person was passing confidential information to the former attorney general. And he charged that when Bissessar was education minister she manipulated SEA results.

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday told the Trinidad Guardian Wednesday, “We’ll take care of that. You’ll see.”

The Siparia MP claimed that Manning is trying to distract the nation from the real issues of accountability, transparency and related issues.

“None of those allegations made by the Prime Minister—I said it before, I stood up while the PM was speaking, and I’ll say it again—none of the allegations are true,” Bissessar said.

And on the matter of a discrepancy of $10 million from a housing development project, she wondered why Manning would have kept that information “secret” for so long and whether he would ever have revealed it if former housing minister Keith Rowley had not attacked Manning and his government. Manning has asked Rowley to explain the discrepancy.

She said Manning went after her with false accusations because she told the House that PNM MPs Karen Nunez-Tesheira and Donna Cox had failed to file declarations with the Integrity Commission. “He did not deny that the ladies did not file,” she said.

Rowley has also raised the issue of Manning’s attack on the opposition MP, calling it “frighteningly startling” that the prime minister admitted that he had been “monitoring” links between Bissessar and an unnamed employee of the Integrity Commission.

The Diego Martin West MP said it has raised more questions than answers regarding the Integrity Commission and referred to Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday's sentencing and conviction on charges that he failed to declare a London bank account.

The court of Appeal overturned the charges on the basis of a perception of political interference.

Rowley said it is frightening that a former prime minister went to jail over matters involving the Integrity Commission, and he referred to his own experience where he successfully defended himself in court against the Integrity Commission over its investigation into the so-called Landate scandal.

"In the light of my own experience where my character has been denigrated by the Integrity Commission, and attempts were made to end my political career prematurely, the prime minister…has shown his hand."