The T&T Trans­paren­cy In­sti­tute (TT­TI) be­lieves that the Gov­ern­ment should dis­tance it­self from sus­pend­ed FI­FA vice-pres­i­dent and Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er to pro­tect T&T's in­ter­na­tion­al im­age. In a press re­lease yes­ter­day, the TT­TI called on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to im­me­di­ate­ly is­sue a state­ment on the Gov­ern­ment's po­si­tion on the mat­ter be­cause Warn­er was be­ing iden­ti­fied world­wide al­so as a se­nior T&T Gov­ern­ment min­is­ter. "The cur­rent sit­u­a­tion again calls in­to ques­tion whether Warn­er can con­tin­ue to hold posts in both FI­FA and the Gov­ern­ment as the same time," the TT­TI said.

"Per­sad-Bisses­sar should in­sist that he choos­es one or the oth­er or make the choice for him. "When sum­moned by FI­FA, Warn­er has no choice but to leave be­hind his min­is­te­r­i­al du­ties and trav­el to Switzer­land. "This is un­ac­cept­able to the cit­i­zens of T&T who elect­ed him and he has sworn to serve."

Clause 6 of the Code of Ethics for min­is­ters and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­taries states that min­is­ters:

a) shall re­sign di­rec­tor­ships of all com­pa­nies;

b) shall cease to en­gage in all pro­fes­sion­al prac­tice; and

c) shall cease to be in­volved in the dai­ly rou­tine work of any busi­ness.