Father Charles is new head of Integrity Commission

A well-known Roman Catholic priest is the new chairman of the Integrity Commission of Trinidad and Tobago. President George Maxwell Richard administers the oath of office to Father Henry Charles and other commissioners Friday morning. The commission comprises a chairman, deputy chairman and three other members.

Charles is a columnist with the Trinidad Guardian and has written volumes about intergrity in public life, among other things. The Guardian quoted Charles in its Friday edition, “We all complain about the state of things and I am guilty of that also. One should not say no, therefore, when one is asked to serve.”

The office of the president announced the appointment of the members of the Integrity Commission within hours of a threat by opposition MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar. On Tuesday she wrote a pre-action protocol to the president for administrative orders, naming him as the proposed defendant.

Read the story: UNC MP tells president appoint Integrity Commission

The president's office reacted by rebuking the former Attorney General and the opposition United National Congress (UNC) pointing out that the President had written to Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday on April 9, asking whether Panday had any objection to the people the president wished to appoint.

“The Office of the President has received no response to that letter,” according to the statement.

Panday's comments on the matter have been confusing. At first he had said the president had been in touch with him on the matter, then stated that he didn't receive the April 9th letter.

On Thursday he told the Trinidad Express his office in Port of Spain misplaced the letter from the president and admitted that the president was right. "It was my office who bungled it and misplaced the letter so he was right," Panday said adding that he had found the letter Thursday after the deadline had passed to raise objections.

Read the Trinidad Express editorial: Mr Panday cannot be serious

All members of the commission resigned in February after a High Court judge accused the commission of misfeasance in its treatment of former cabinet minister Keith Rowley.

Read the story: T&T Integrity commissioners quit

The Opposition has been demanding the appointment of new commissioners because it wants the commission to investigate Finance Minister Karen Tesheira's alleged breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act by failing to declare her 10,410 shares in CL Financial while she led the Government’s bailout of the institution.

Persad-Bissessar has also written to the Fraud Squad and the acting Director of Public Prosecutions asking for an investigation to determine if Nunez-Tesheira was in breach of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Father Charles is an attorney as well as a Catholic priest who holds a Master's degree in ethics from Harvard Divinity School, and a PhD, also in ethics, from Yale Graduate School.

His law degrees are from the George Washington University Law School in Washington DC and London University. He has lectured in ethics, theology, and theology and literature at The Regional Seminary in Trinidad, the University of the West Indies, and at St Louis University, Missouri.

He has also taught medical ethics at Mt Hope and runs a legal service out of St Mary’s RC Church, Mucurapo, where he serves as parish priest.

Read columns written by Father Charles