PORT-OF-SPAIN – “I am not an easy target,” Jack Warner, minister of works and transport, said Friday in response to statements by new Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley that he would be brought before the Integrity Commission.
Rowley has vowed to dispatch a letter to the Integrity Commission requesting an investigation into Warner keeping both his position as vice-president at FIFA and his ministerial post.
Rowley made the statements soon after he received his instrumentof appointment as opposition leader Friday.
“I have no doubt Rowley coveted the postof opposition leader and got it by demolishing his political leader. He [is] looking for new bait, but he will find that I am not as easy a bait as[Patrick] Manning was,” Warner said in a telephone interview.
In his defence, Warner said he is not and has never been a paid officer of either FIFA or the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association of Football (CONCACAF).
“The fact that I am a member of those two organisations is a creditto Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean,”he added.
Warner said several members of FIFA also served in foreign ministerial and political posts. “Chairman of the party in Korea is a member of FIFA, the German Minister of Finance is a memberof FIFA, several other officials hold variousposts. Their governments consider it an honour,”he said.
“It is an honourto everyone exceptDr Rowley,” he added.
Warner said he welcomed Rowley’sletter to the Integrity Commission and said he would be the first person to approach “his prime minister” if the commission found any merit in Rowley’s appeal.
“But I have news for him. He [has] to come very good to succeed with me the way he succeeded with Mr Manning,”Warner said.
When asked aboutthe constitutional legality of maintaining both positions, Warnerdirected that questionto attorney Om Lalla.
When contacted, Lalla said while he did not have a detailed look at the constitution, he did notsee any conflict in Warner sitting in both positions.
“Rowley needs to provide more details. Members of parliament are allowed to serve in other capacities,” he said.
Lalla said he could not see a conflict of interest, as FIFA was “far removed from local politics”.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said that the issue had been brought to her attention.
“It is certainly something I am giving active consideration to. It’s a matter of law and it’s a matter of ethics,’ she said in a telephone interview Friday evening.
“Dr Rowley does not have to start a campaign on that matter. I am sureMr Warner will be guided and will act appropriately in the circumstances,”she added.
Meanwhile, Victor Hart, head of the local leg of the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI), said his organisation was also “looking into the matter”. Hart said it may not be a matter of conflict of interest, but one of Warner’s availability. He said the TTTI has not made any provisions on the matter just yet.
(Trinidad Express)
