Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is claiming that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar breached the Integrity in Public Life Act when she accepted a gift to stay at the home of her friend, businessman Ralph Gopaul. Rowley made the claim during a news conference at his Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, office yesterday, while saying he was moving to write to the Integrity Commission asking that it investigate the Prime Minister in relation to that matter. Rowley's announcement came a day after Persad-Bissessar publicly admitted that the Gopauls were her friends and that she stayed at their home without cost for three months after the May 2010 general election.
The Prime Minister also said that based on newspaper reports, Gopaul was the successful bidder for a $40 million transport contract with the state-owned National Petroleum Marketing Co Ltd. It was the T&T Guardian which reported exclusively on May 13 that the $40 million NP trucking contract was about to be awarded to Gopaul. CDS Transport sent a pre-action protocol letter to Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, claiming it had been cheated in its bid for the contract in favour of Gopaul. At yesterday's news conference, Rowley said: "Mr Gopaul, having provided free bed and breakfast to the Prime Minister of T&T, now finds himself (to be) the favoured contractor at NP."
Rowley said the Government's response to "this scandal" was that no contract had been awarded.
Rowley quoted Section 27 (1) of the Integrity in Public Life Act to support his claim that the Prime Minister was in breach of the law. "We now have it on good order and good authority that the Prime Minister accepted approximately three months of free bed and breakfast from the Gopauls in Pasea (Tunapuna)," he said. "The very first act of the Prime Minister might very well have been to breach the Integrity in Public Life Act." He said that was done "by accepting free accommodation and possible food and solace from a family who has been known to be doing business with the state."
He said the NP transport contract was "a raging scandal" and the company would have to explain to the national community. "This matter has only just begun," Rowley said. He added that the probe was intended to determine if there was any connection "between that free stay and what is happening at NP today, and whether the use (acceptance) of this gift by the Prime Minister was not itself improper and in violation of Section 27 (1)." Rowley said the commission was the most powerful investigative tool in T&T. He said it had unlimited powers once it pursued a matter. He said refusal to co-operate with the commission was an offence.
Rowley was critical of the responses from the Government to legitimate questions on the matter in Parliament. He said the Government said the questions about the occupation of the house in Tunapuna was not relevant. Persad-Bissessar said she stayed at the Tunapuna home of the Gopauls before and after the May 24, 2010, general election. She said it was because of her public engagements and also because of threats to her personal safety that she accepted the offer to reside there until the former prime minister, Patrick Manning, vacated the official residence at St Ann's . Rowley said Manning remained at the official residence for two weeks after the polls.