Probe settlement of sex harassment case against former minister – Trinidad Opposition Leader

(Trinidad Guardian)The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions and Chair­man of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion are be­ing called up­on to im­me­di­ate­ly in­ves­ti­gate the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the set­tle­ment of the sex­u­al ha­rass­ment law­suit brought against for­mer Sports Min­is­ter Dar­ryl Smith.

The call came from Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who be­lieves there are “strong grounds for sus­pect­ing that sev­er­al crim­i­nal of­fences may have been com­mit­ted as well as the pos­si­ble breach of sev­er­al pro­vi­sions of the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act and the Code of Con­duct”.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar, in a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, an­nounced she has writ­ten to the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, the DPP and the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion to look in­to the mat­ter.

Ac­cord­ing to the Op­po­si­tion Leader, when the con­tents of the re­port were leaked by the me­dia, the Prime Min­is­ter re­act­ed by “at­tack­ing his own com­mit­tee’s Re­port by mak­ing pub­lic pro­nounce­ments that im­pugned the in­tegri­ty of the process which was uti­lized”.

How­ev­er, ear­li­er this week, one of the women tasked by the Prime Min­is­ter to com­pile a re­port about the in­ci­dent, broke her si­lence. For­mer tem­po­rary sen­a­tor Fo­lade Mu­to­ta is­sued a two-page let­ter to the me­dia in which she stat­ed it was the “boys club” men­tal­i­ty which kept women silent in the face of in­ap­pro­pri­ate and un­want­ed sex­u­al con­duct.

Mu­to­ta’s com­ment has now prompt­ed the Op­po­si­tion Leader to ques­tion whether or not there was a de­lib­er­ate at­tempt by the Prime Min­is­ter, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, Dar­ryl Smith, the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary of the Sport Min­istry and At­tor­ney at Law, Michael Quam­i­na, to use pub­lic funds to “pur­chase the si­lence of the vic­tim”.