Richard Lord

Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley is stand­ing by his claims that At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan ex­pressed con­cerns about the eth­nic bal­ance of staff at the T&T mis­sion in New York.Row­ley said he was stand­ing by his re­marks when con­tact­ed for com­ment yes­ter­day.He made the claim dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion of a pri­vate mo­tion in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives on Fri­day.Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er said lat­er in the de­bate that Ram­lo­gan nev­er vis­it­ed the mis­sion in New York since as­sum­ing of­fice al­most a year ago.Warn­er ac­cused Row­ley of mis­lead­ing the House and called on him to apol­o­gise. Row­ley got up but did not apol­o­gise. He said in­stead that he was "very care­ful to say what was told to me by staff at the mis­sion (in New York) where I went.

"I re­port­ed to this House what I was told, what was said to me and what we have now is the ve­rac­i­ty of what was said to me, and that is where the mat­ter lies," he said.House leader Dr Roodal Mooni­lal then said, while seat­ed: "You're not apol­o­gis­ing? You've brought the AG in­to odi­um and dis­re­pute, apol­o­gise, apol­o­gise."Warn­er then re­sumed his con­tri­bu­tion, but Mooni­lal con­tin­ued the cross with Row­ley: "You were wrong, you were mis­led, you mis­led the House, apol­o­gise... see you at the Priv­i­leges Com­mit­tee."Warn­er lat­er told leg­is­la­tors, as Row­ley re­fused to apol­o­gise, that "there are av­enues for us to find re­dress, don't wor­ry."

Yes­ter­day, Row­ley said he would wel­come any clar­i­fi­ca­tion of the mat­ter by Ram­lo­gan in Par­lia­ment.Row­ley said his re­marks were made based on "what was told to me and I rep­re­sent­ed the in­for­ma­tion cor­rect­ly."Told that the Gov­ern­ment seems in­tent on hav­ing him re­ferred to the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges, Row­ley said: "The Gov­ern­ment can do what it wants....That's what the com­mit­tee is there for."Row­ley in­sist­ed yes­ter­day that he had said all that he had to say on the mat­ter in Par­lia­ment on Fri­day and he would wel­come any clar­i­fi­ca­tion by Ram­lo­gan in Par­lia­ment.A state­ment is­sued by the AG's of­fice on Thurs­day said con­sid­er­a­tion was be­ing giv­en to fil­ing a mo­tion to have Row­ley ap­pear be­fore the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges.