Speaker sends Manning to Privileges Committee

Prime Minister Patrick Manning will face Parliament's Privileges Committee for allegedly deliberately misleading the House of Representatives.

Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told the Speaker Manning should answer to the committee and explain why he misled the House during his statement last Friday on the Lighthouse of the Lord Jesus Christ Church in Guanapo Heights.

Manning accused the UNC government of giving state lands to former Senator Barbara Burke and a group of Shouter Baptists.

He charged that the UNC government leased 25 acres of land not the overall Baptist body, but to "an arm of it; one of the archdioceses".

He said, "It turns out that the person who headed that particular archdiocese, was a Senator in the government at the time, appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister," Manning said in Parliament.

"So it was not a question of dealing with the Baptist Church or the Baptist faith, but it was a question of dealing with an individual with whom they had a close association. That is how they conducted their business.

“Instead of seeking to pursue the equitable approach...25 acres of land was given to an arm of the Baptist faith, headed by somebody who was a Senator in the government at the time...In other words, there was no equity in the matter at all. That is how they did it.”

Read the story: Manning misled Parliament on lands for Shouter Baptists: Kamla

Persad-Bissessar presented documents Friday to prove that Manning "conveyed information to the House that was inaccurate in material particulars and which he knew or ought to have known was inaccurate".

She stated that "The Honourable Member deliberately misled the House when he repeatedly said that the UNC gave land to one Baptist group...and that the amount of land was 25 acres."

She produced the lease documents showing that two Baptist groups were given land and not one as alleged by the Member.

"The truth is that it was less than five acres of land that was given to each group and not 25 acres as the member alleges.

"These two memoranda are public documents, which, upon enquires, could easily have been obtained to verify the number of Baptist groups given lands, and the amount of lands given to each," Persad-Bissessar told the House.

Speaker Barry Sinanan agreed and decided that Manning would have to face the Privileges Committee.