New Integrity head promises to "get the job done"

Ken Gordon gave a commitment Tuesday that as the new chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Integrity Commission he would "get the job done".

Gordon made the comment to reporters at the Hilton following a brief address at the opening of anti-corruption conference hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI).

“Can’t give you anything more than that, a commitment to get the job done,” he media personnel who wanted to know what ideas he would bring to the commission.

Gordon added, “We must recognise that you live in a very fierce media world now and it is extremely difficult for people to be totally on guard with everything that they say...those are the standards by which they must be judged.

“In my own view, the people we’ve lost are excellent people but there is no point going back there...You might yet be speaking to another chairman in another couple of months, who knows?” 

He did not offer a comment on whether there has been an increase in corruption the country in the past several years. He said newspaper reports and commissions of enquiry "leave an impact on you which may not be necessarily consistent with what is happening concurrently.” 

Gordon gave an example of how media can create a perception that is not necessarily true, pointing to stories about crime. “I am not sure that it is worse, I am really not sure from my layman’s off-the-cuff assessment,” he said.

Gordon, an icon in the field of communication and media, advised journalists to continue to do their job in reporting the facts on all matters relating to the commission or corruption. 

He said the commission he heads is about to begin a programme in schools with respect to integrity matters “because young people have got to be oriented to right and wrong and from an early stage.” 

He also noted that the commission operates on an oath of secrecy and promised that he "will look into why you are not getting results.”