Sen. Drayton slams AG, government for "same old"

Independent Senator Helen Drayton was on the attack in the Senate Tuesday, going after Attorney General Anand Ramlogan for what she said was an unnecessary attack on the Integrity Commission.

She had some critical remarks for other government members as well as she spoke in the debate on the state of the economy.

Drayton said the Integrity Commission cannot be blamed for the errors of the past in the same way that the present government cannot accept responsibility for what went wrong in the previous administration.

She pointed out that in criticising the commission Ramlogan was outside of his jurisdiction. "It is an independent body. It doesn’t report to the Attorney General. It does not report to the Prime Minister," she told the Senate.

"I want to suggest we look at your manifesto, your pillars and you will see what civility means and you could accomplish the same thing by being civil because road rage has no place in an Attorney General’s office," she added.

She also objected to statements by Works Minister Jack Warner who suggested last week that contractors should give "one road free" to the government because they had reaped great benefits from the contracts they had received.

"I would like to believe that what the then acting Prime Minister was not saying to the construction sector was that he is lord of all he surveys and ‘I will issue contracts to those who choose to build roads free.’ I hope I got the wrong translation," she said.

Drayton stated that the government is not sticking to the pledges it made in the general election campaign and added that in six weeks she has seen "several red flags".

She suggested that morality and ethics are not given the prominence they should in keeping with the election pledges. Drayton said she expected the new government to raise performance standards but is seeing and hearing "same old, same old."

She also spoke of conflicting statements from senior members of cabinet, noting that while Planning Minister Mark King was throwing cold water on the Tamana Park project, the prime minister was praising it.

She also took issue with King's dismissal of the smelter project while Energy Minister Carloyn Seepersad-Bachan was saying that an evaluation was taking place.

And Drayton had a recommendation for the government. "Maybe this Government should put all their heads together on philosophies and communication and bring a constitutional lawyer on board so it could move forward," she said.