(Trinidad Express) Contrary to her statements last week, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has not been cleared by the Integrity Commission of all wrongdoing in the award of a $40 million contract by State-owned National Petroleum (NP) to a company owned by her friends, Ralph and Maureen Gopaul, at whose Tunapuna home the Prime Minister stayed for three months.
So said People’s National Movement (PNM) Senator Fitzgerald Hinds yesterday, at a news conference held at the Opposition Leader’s Charles Street, Port of Spain, office.
Hinds, who read a letter sent to him by the Integrity Commission yesterday, stated the commission is still probing the possibility that the Prime Minister’s three-month stay at the Gopauls’ residence may have influenced the award of the contract.
Hinds had written to the commission on May 19, asking that they investigate the award of the contract to determine whether the Prime Minister breached the Integrity in Public Life Act.
But in response to Hinds’s claims, the Prime Minister said yesterday: “I heard MP Fitzgerald Hinds alleging that I am deceiving the population when I read the letter I received from the Integrity Commission when it said they rejected the complaint about me staying at the Gopauls’ residence was in breach of the Integrity Act. MP Hinds is alleging that I am misleading the public when I said I was cleared.
“I want to state categorically, if there is there any deception by anyone, it is by Mr Hinds, to create mischief; to the best of my knowledge, there is no other complaints against me before the Integrity Commission. His statements are defamatory, and I will take steps accordingly, with respect to that matter,” Persad-Bissessar said.
