T&T Integrity Commissioners quit

All four members of Trinidad and Tobago's Integrity Commission resigned Thursday, two days after a high court judge ruled that the commission had acted improperly in dealing with former cabinet minister Dr Keith Rowley and awarded him more than $100,000 in costs and damages.

On Tuesday Justice Maureen Rajnauth-Lee ruled that the Commission acted in bad faith in relation to Rowley, and was guilty of "the tort of misfeasance in public office". She also found that based on the facts there was an unfair abuse of power by failing to give Rowley and his wife, Sharon, a hearing with regard to an investigation of the couple's Landate development in Tobago.

The members were: John Martin, chairman, Justice Monica Barnes, deputy chairman, Peter Clarke, and Vindar Dean-Maharaj. The fifth Commissioner, Brian Nicholson, died last year and was never replaced. President Max Richards accepted their resignations and will now search for five new persons to replace them.

In a statement Commission Chairman John Martin said: “The members of the Integrity Commission...recognise that the Commission acted wrongly by failing to give Dr Rowley a full opportunity to be heard."

It insisted that members acted in good faith but added that commissioners agreed that they must respect the court's decision.

"In the circumstances, all of the members of the Commission have decided to resign. We have met today with his Excellency, the President, and have informed him of our decision. My fellow Commissioners and I wish to express our deep regret and sincere apologies to his Excellency, the President, to Dr Keith Rowley, and to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Martin's statement added.

Martin said members of the "recognised and accepted that the commission acted wrongly, by failing to give former minister Dr Keith Rowley a full opportunity to be heard" before sending a report on Landate to the Director of Public Prosecution for action.

The controversy was over allegations that Rowley was stealing construction material from the Scarborough Hospital site and taking it to the private Landate housing development at Mason Hall, owned by his wife.

Rowley told reporters the development was a "sad, sad day in the life of Trinidad and Tobago" because people entrusted with power and authority allowed themselves to be misled by politicians who sought to use the commission to try to destroy his political career.

He said the commission did the decent thing since "as an institution, what it was accused of was serious and indefensible".

However, he said if the commission had acted independently as it should it would never have found itself in the unfortunate position of having to resign en masse.

Rowley told the local media he warned the People's National Movement (PNM) General Council in September 2007, that certain members of the party were trying to "use handcuffs to end my career".

That was when the PNM's political leader, Patrick Manning used the findings of performance review poll to kick out senior members of the party like Valley, Fitzgerald Hinds, Camille Robinson-Regis and Eddie Hart, ignoring endorsements their constituents.

In an editorial, the Trinidad Guardian wrote: "In submitting their resignations to President George Maxwell Richards, the four members of the Integrity Commission have acted with the rectitude necessary of those who made moral judgments about those in public life."

It said it that it is unfortunate that the body set up to police the financial integrity of people in public life, "should have sought to deprive a high-ranking minister of government of the rights that are afforded to petty thieves and brutal murderers every single day: the right to be informed of the allegations being made against them and being provided with an opportunity to be heard."

The paper said the facts in the matter seem "to give some credence to hints that there must have been a carefully-orchestrated plot by parties outside the commission to discredit and disgrace Dr Rowley. It seems that there may have been some people in public life who were trying to set up Dr Rowley and his wife to be arrested and charged with offences relating to making private use of public goods with them being none the wiser."