(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is not currently under probe by the Integrity Commission for any matter.
At Thursday’s post-Cabinet media conference at her St Clair office, Persad-Bissessar read and distributed a letter sent to her (dated Thursday) in which Registrar of the Commission, Martin Farrell, stated: “I have been directed by the Integrity Commission to advise you, as of the above date (August 4) there is no complaint against you in relation to any matter before the Commission.”
This letter was a response to correspondence sent by the Prime Minister on Wednesday night, following allegations made by People’s National Movement (PNM) Senator Fitzgerald Hinds at a media conference earlier that day, that she misled the country when she said at last Thursday’s post-Cabinet media conference that she was cleared by the Commission of all wrongdoing in relation to her stay at the private residence of her friends Ralph and Maureen Gopaul. Persad-Bissessar’s statement then was based on a letter sent to her by the Commission, dated July 25. That letter stated: “Dear Prime Minister, re: complaint of alleged breach of the Integrity in Public Life Act Chap 22:01, pertaining to your stay at the Gopauls’ residence at Pasea Road in Tunapuna, has been received. The Commission has considered the matter and rejected the complaint”. But following Hinds’ allegations that she was not telling the full story, the Prime Minister wrote the Commission on Wednesday to ask whether there were any pending complaints against her in relation to the Gopaul issue or any other matter.
Yesterday as she displayed the Commission’s letter in response to her query, the Prime Minister said it was the PNM, not her, who was guilty of misrepresentation and of telling untruths.
“There is lies and lies and lies and this is what has happened with respect to this matter.
This letter here is the lie to the allegations being made by Senator Hinds,” the Prime Minister said, waving the letter sent to her by the Commission.
