Warner is not in breach of ethics: Integrity Commission

The Integrity Commission (IC) in Trinidad and Tobago said Wednesday that it cannot make a ruling to say that there is a conflict of interest in Jack Warner's dual role as a minister of government and vice president of Fifa.

Opposition leader Keith Rowley raised the issue last week when he took the oath of office suggesting that he would ask for a ruling on the matter.

In a statement from South Africa, Warner congratulated the IC on its expeditious response to the Leader of the Opposition's request for an opinion on the matter.

The Works and Transport minister noted the commission's proper interpretation of "Section 29 (1) of the Integrity in Public Life Act asserts, inter alia, that a conflict of interest is deemed to arise if a person in public life were to make or participate in a decision in the execution of his office and at the same time knows or ought reasonably to have known that in the making of the decision there is an opportunity either directly or indirectly to further his private interest or that of a family or any other person."

Warner added, "I am in full agreement with and heed the Integrity Commission's summary caution that Cabinet Ministers should so organise their affairs so that there should be no breach of either the Act or the Code; as I have meticulously observed.

"This includes the divestment of pecuniary interests which I may have in any organisation."

He said unlike a majority of other members of Parliament, past and present, "I seek absolutely no pecuniary interest in being a member of the Parliament or of the Government. I shall have more to say on this issue in the House of Representatives."