FORMER TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Prime Minister Patrick Manning may have to answer charges arising from an Integrity Commission recommendation.
A confidential report has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard, recommending a criminal probe on Manning and former minister Hedwige Bereaux.
Registrar of the commission, Martin Farrell, in a sworn affidavit filed at the San Fernando Civil Registry, stated the commission had concluded the two persons, identified as Person X and Person Y, “had failed without reasonable justification to fulfil their duties or obligations under the Integrity in Public Life Act”.
He said the commission came to that conclusion on May 28, four days after the most recent general election, and on June 7, the commission made a report to the DPP under Section 31 of the act, in respect of the two unnamed persons.
Contacted at his home by the Trinidad Express, Manning at first declined to be interviewed. Pressed that the matter concerned the Integrity Commission’s investigation into the award of a radio licence to a certain company, Manning referred the reporter to his attorney, Michael Quamina.
The attorney-at-law said his client had received correspondence from the commission and Manning was going to consult with his attorneys.
Bereaux, former minister of science and technology in Manning’s administration, admitted that he had been interviewed by the Integrity Commission.
He said: “I was interviewed by the Integrity Commission a long time ago. I don’t want to go further. I am out of politics . . . . I am not dealing with public matters at all.” (Express)
