Local lobby group Fixin’ T&T has written President Anthony Carmona asking him to state whether he is deliberately attempting to frustrate the efforts of the Integrity Commission (IC) in its investigation of the affairs of Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner. In a letter to Carmona, Kirk Waithe, head of Fixin’ T&T, asked the President: “If so, why? And what, if any, is your relationship with Mr Warner?”
Waithe said Fixin’ T&T was very concerned about the President’s initial reluctance to appoint a tribunal to investigate Warner, and now his tardiness in swearing in the members, as was requested by the IC since January 2014. “Fixin’ T&T was deeply troubled and very annoyed to learn that more than six weeks after a tribunal was finally appointed to further investigate the affairs of Mr Warner, the members are yet to be sworn in.”
Waithe said “donkey cart” interpretations of the Integrity in Public Life Act cannot justify this delay. “Fixin’ T&T questions the President’s commitment in getting this right. Effectively furthering this investigation requires very specific skills sets related to law, financial analysis and accounting.
“Our expectation is that the President will now ‘do the right thing because it is the right thing to do’,” Waithe said, using a well known quote from the President himself.
Waithe traced his pursuit of the Warner matter. “On March 4, 2015, I wrote, via e-mail, to the Registrar of the IC Mr Martin Farrell to enquire on the status of the tribunal and requested the following information:
• Who are the members of the tribunal?
• What is the area of expertise of each member?
• Who is the chairman?
• Is the tribunal operational/ functional as yet?
Waithe, in his letter to Carmona, said: “Your treatment of this matter so far may well be contributing to the undermining of confidence in the IC, as well as the very office you occupy.” The IC, for the first time, has asked the President to appoint a tribunal to investigate someone. The President-appointed tribunal will determine whether Warner’s declarations of his income, assets and liabilities to the Integrity Commission can stand scrutiny and constitute full disclosure of his financial affairs.
The move came after an April 2013 report from a Concacaf integrity committee chaired by former Barbados chief justice Sir David Simmons which alleged Warner committed fraud against Concacaf and Fifa, in connection with the Centre of Excellence in Macoya and in relation to Concacaf financial statements. The Integrity Commission said in the interest of the public it decided to enquire further into the allegations.