T&T opposition wants finance minister's resignation

Opposition leader Basdeo Panday on Thursday urged Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira to resign, reiterating the opposition's conflict of interest accusations against her in the CL Financial matter. The former Trinidad and Tobago Prim e Minister also wants the Nunez-Tesheira to resign her seat in the House of Representatives.

Panday was commenting on the resignation of the country's attorney general. So far Bridgid Annisette-George has not explained why she is leaving her job but her boss, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, told Parliament it's because of a conflict of interest.

In a formal statement, Manning said: "A few weeks ago, Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George approached me, indicating that having regard to the way the investigations into Clico had been going, she anticipated that she could find herself in a conflict of interest situation.

"We agreed at the time to look at it and to discuss it in the future. Last week we had a chance to do so and she indicated that her worst fears were coming to pass and that the anticipated conflict of interest situation was imminent."

Manning made the statement just before a debate on a private motion calling for the removal of Nunez-Tesheira.

Annisette-George's husband, Newman George, is an engineer at Home Construction Ltd (a CL Financial subsidiary) but has never been a member of CL Financial's board. He doesn't own shares in any of the CL companies.

"In fact, I remained confident that she was able to put national interests above personal or any other interests. And in fact she so reassured me. But we both recognised that the situation had a tremendous potential for mischief, especially from those who were not sympathetic to the Government or who didn't wish the Government well, persons in respect of which there is no shortage in this country," Manning said.

"We thought that in those circumstances, a lot could be made out of a situation that was relatively simple, to the detriment of the individual herself, Senator Annisette-George and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. In those circumstances, the Attorney General decided to do the honourable thing. Yesterday she submitted her resignation to the Prime Minister," he told the House.

In a news release Panday rejected Manning's explanation. He said, “The AG did not resign because she was directly involved in CL Financial...By contrast, The Finance Minister is directly related to CL as a shareholder enjoying benefits such as collecting dividends. Clearly, the Finance Minister’s interest and conflict is greater than the AG’s," he said.

He noted Manning's comment that the attorney general’s resignation was the ‘honourable’ thing for her to do and suggested that the prime minister should use the same standard with Nunez-Tesheira.

Panday noted that the minister is the subject of an investigation by the office of the director of public prosecution and said it is also not proper for her to remain on the job. "For a proper investigation to take place, the Minister needs to remove herself from the Ministry,” Panday said.