Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley says Independent Liberal Party (ILP) leader Jack Warner must clear the air on the Section 34 fiasco if he has information that can help the public.
He made the comment during a press conference at his Charles Street, Port-of-Spain offices yesterday, as he responded to issues raised in the wake of Warner’s indictment in the United States on charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering allegedly committed while he was in Fifa.
Referring to the PM’s reading of the charges against Warner in Parliament last week, Rowley said he noted “that some financiers didn’t have their charges read in the Parliament.”
He was referring to businessmen Steve Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson, who were wanted in the US for matters relating to the Piarco Airport Development project.
Pointing out how the Government dealt with Section 34 and the other two financiers when Mr Warner was in the Cabinet, “Rowley said, “It is my view that Mr Warner has information which can elucidate for us what happened with Section 34 in a Cabinet which he was a part. What I will say to Mr Warner on that subject, if he wants to tell us the story, tell us the whole story.
“Two other financiers got themselves virtually freed from judicial action because the Cabinet took actions in the Parliament, at the level of the Cabinet, at the Office of the President, with an outcome in the court to ensure that those financiers did not have their day in court as they should have had.”
He said if Warner was being “handled differently now and he wants to complain about his treatment he must tell us the whole story so that we can compare apples with oranges that he is talking about."
Asked to comment on Warner's claim that his matters were unfairly influenced by the Government, Rowley said he “wouldn't comment on that except to say that if there is any truth in that, Mr Warner is in a position to tell us the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”
Rowley said the claim that Warner’s matters related to Fifa was only intended as an excuse not to take the required action in the matters.
“If Fifa’s business involves people who are involved in our business, then clearly it is our business,” he added.
Rowley said T&T was hurting over the entire Warner matter.
“There is a feeling of hurt and let down because as a nation we are family. And if we are so represented we can feel nothing but hurt. It is something we would have preferred not to have been attached to us,” he said.
“What I do know is that what he is facing now ought not to be a recommendation to the electorate, but people have been known to survive worse than that in the political arena in some countries.”
No affiliation with ILP
On another issue, Rowley said there was no political association with Warner and the ILP, adding the law must now take its course in legal matters against the former Fifa executive.
He said since 2010 he had advised the Government of the negative effect of having Warner in the Cabinet while he was still a Fifa executive. He said the Government did not heed his advice, instead spent huge sums of money to secure legal advice on the matter and Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar kept him in the Cabinet saying the country would benefit from this.
Warner eventually resigned from the Government in 2013 following a report prepared by Sir David Simmons, chairman of Concacaf’s Ethics Committee, which alleged he engaged in fraudulent activity.
In the midst of a seemingly closer relationship between the PNM and Warner in the past months, Works and Infrastructure Minister Dr Surujrattan Rambachan, last week called on the PNM to explain this.
Rowley objected to this call yesterday, saying the PNM had nothing to answer and citizens should not read anything into recent events.
“We will brook no defence of the PNM with respect to Mr Warner’s personal problems. I take no pleasure in Mr Warner’s sufferings and his family’s pain and I trust that he will be the subject of free and fair judicial processes in T&T and outside, and wherever it is now, let the law take its course.
“So this matter on what is to happen to Mr Warner and what his political demise or his difficulties may mean, we of the PNM have no question to answer.”
He also said no link should be made between Warner and the PNM in relation to moves by Warner to move a motion to debate the revocation of Rowley’s suspension from Parliament.
“We have no control over when Mr Warner comes to the Parliament or doesn’t come. We took our position (to walk out) without consultation with Mr Warner, without permission from Mr Warner, we walked out as we chose, we went back as we chose.”
Rowley, however, said the PNM “took objection to the fact that the Government and the Speaker were attempting to usurp the position of the PNM Opposition on Private Members Day, May 22, and we insisted the Standing Orders prevail and was able to pursue our motion on Soldado.”
He said he also did not believe Persad-Bissessar’s claim that Warner did not fund the UNC in the 2010 election campaign.
Queries on finance
In a statement last night, meanwhile, Rowley said Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambaran has finally confirmed the PNM’s position that the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister were misleading the country on the state of the country's fiscal operations.
He noted that Rambaran yesterday said that from October 2014 to March 2015 there has been no reduction in expenditure in response to the collapse in oil price over the same period. (See page A15)
He said Rambaran pointed out that there was no evidence that the reduction ordered by the Prime Minister ever took place. Rather, Rowley noted, Rambaran said to the contrary there were increases in expenditure when compared with the equivalent period of the previous year and capital expenditure increased by 1.2 per cent and recurrent expenditure increased by 2.3 per cent.
“These being the figures of the Central Bank, will the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance tell us where they got the surplus that they were crowing about and why didn’t the cuts ordered by the Prime Minister take place?
“Once again the Prime Minister is seen to be less than forthright and believable when speaking to the people of Trinidad and Tobago,” Rowley said.