PM maintains that Gordon-Rowley meeting was secret; only president can fire Gordon

PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar: "...have there been any other secret meetings that we don’t know about?"

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar told reporters Friday President Anthony Carmona has the power to decide whether Ken Gordon should remain as chairman of the Integrity Commission.

She was commenting on Gordon's decision to remain as the head of the commission although there has been a public outcry and calls for his resignation over the meeting he had on May 15 with Opposition Leader Keith Rowley. 

That meeting was held at Gordon's private residence and was not reported to anyone. Gordon admitted that he had the meeting only after Government House Leader Roodal Moonilal spoke about it in Parliament earlier this month. However Gordon has insisted that the meeting was not secret.

Persad-Bissessar said she has not called for Gordon's resignation. "That is a matter for Mr Gordon and the President,” she said.

“There is a public view and a perception but as a Government or as a Prime Minister we do not make appointments or dis-appointments with respect to the Integrity Commission,” she added. 

The Prime Minister noted that Gordon admitted in an aide memoire that he invited Rowley to meet him at his home because Rowley indicated he had an urgent matter to discuss. "Mr. Gordon may have acted as he saw fit, given that an office such as that of Leader of the Opposition indicated that it was something that was urgent,” she said. 

However she said that does not change her view that the meeting was secret or that Rowley acted inappropriately. Noting that the Gordon admitted that the meeting was held only after Moonilal exposed it she asked whether there have been other meetings. 

"We will ask the question here today, have there been any other secret meetings that we don’t know about? If so, what was the content of those meetings? What was the venue of such meetings?” Persad-Bissessar asked.

She had another question. “If Madam Gladys Gafoor or Mr Rolingson of the Integrity Commission, had they met me at their home and had told no one, I wonder what would have been the uproar that would have occurred in our country?” Gafoor and Rolingson are former commissioners.