More calls for Nunez-Tesheira to resign

The Trinidad & Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI) is now calling for the resignation of Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira over her apparent conflict of interest in the Government's bailout of CL Financial.

TTTI chairman Victor Hart told the Trinidad Express if the minister does not, it would be a hindrance for potential international investors to get involved in the International Financial Centre (IFC) in Port of Spain.

"TTTI is of the view that the minster may have left herself no options but to resign over this conflict of interest issue," Hart said Wednesday. "If she decides not to go, then the prime minister should, in the interest of sending the right message to these potential investors out there, take the necessary action."

That view is shared by Reginald Dumas, the man who spearheaded the reform of the Public Service in the 1980s. The former ambassador told the Express he agrees with Hart that Nunez-Tesheira "should not wait for the prime minister to fire her".

Dumas is a respected media commentator who has written several newspaper commentaries about transparency and good governance.

"In my mind, she should do the honourable thing and step aside...This has an impact, not only nationally, because it would mean that a lot of the people in the country would not be able to repose confidence in the financial system, but also internationally," he said.

On the political front, Kamla Persad-Bissessar has been leading the charge to get the finance minister to leave office. She first raised questions about Nunez-Tesheira's involvement in the Cabinet's decision to authorise a mutli-billion dollar bailout of CL Financial in January was a conflict of interest.

Hart explained that the definition of conflict of interest is one that is very clear and also one that is applicable to Nunez-Tesheira.

"When we look at the authorities on the subject, they all share a common position that a person in public life should not make or participate in making decisions in government, which she or he knows or has reason to believe could have a financial interest in the outcome," Hart said.

Dumas said he was dismayed when he read media reports that Nunez-Tesheira had not disclosed her interests in CL Financial to the public while she participated in the Cabinet's decision to bail out the group's three core businesses-CLICO, British American insurance company and Caribbean Money Market Brokers (CMMB).

But CL Financial Chairman Lawrence Duprey disagrees on the conflict issue. In an interview with the Trinidad Guardian, Duprey said there is no question of conflict, calling any such suggestion "ridiculous".

Duprey said he “did not even remember” that Tesheira was one of the 325 shareholders in his company.

“I don’t get involved in that kind of detail; who the shareholders are or not,” said Duprey, recalling that the late Russell Tesheira worked with Clico and “I assumed it is possible that she could be a shareholder.”

The Guardian reported on Sunday that Nunez-Tesheira owned 10,410 CL Financial shares while she was the lead minister of the Government’s bailout of the group. The shares are valued at $11.7 million.

Duprey told the Guardian that is irrelevant. He disagreed that the minister's stake in CL Financial could constitute a conflict of interest. "The woman most likely had those shares innocently. What conflict of interest? Let’s grow up,” he said.

Commenting on the bailout Duprey said, “I think the Government did what they had to do...They did their job and they did it very competently.” He said what has happened is not a bailout but “an intervention, which they had to do. And I believe that it is a temporary intervention in a situation which was not forecast and with a business cycle which moved more quickly than we anticipated as management.”

He said he was expecting a problem by 2011 and was preparing strategies to deal with the it, but the global financial crisis hit suddenly, which help create the crisis at CL.