Geisha Kow­lessar

Of­fi­cials who hold high pub­lic of­fice must be cau­tious about mak­ing state­ments on very sen­si­tive mat­ters, es­pe­cial­ly if these mat­ters end up be­fore them.So said po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Win­ford James yes­ter­day while com­ment­ing on state­ments made by the chair­man of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, Ken Gor­don.In an in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian on Tues­day, Gor­don said al­le­ga­tions made by Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley on the ba­sis of a se­ries of e-mails re­vealed in Par­lia­ment were a "very dis­turb­ing de­vel­op­ment from any point of view."

James said: "It is prob­a­bly bet­ter not to com­ment, es­pe­cial­ly if the mat­ter may even­tu­al­ly come be­fore them."One has to be very care­ful not to make state­ments which may seem to be prej­u­dice."In analysing Gor­don's state­ment, how­ev­er, James, said there was no doubt that the al­le­ga­tions did in fact con­sti­tute a very se­ri­ous de­vel­op­ment."If you look at this state­ment, it is not par­tic­u­lar­ly com­pro­mis­ing. He (Gor­don) is not blam­ing any­body," James said.Agree­ing with James, Stan­ley Mar­cus, SC, said Gor­don ought not to be crit­i­cised.

He said when Gor­don made the state­ment he did not cas­ti­gate any­one but rather ex­pressed the sen­ti­ment of mem­bers of the pub­lic about what was re­vealed in Par­lia­ment, whether theal­le­ga­tions were true or not.In Oc­to­ber 2011 a pre­vi­ous chair­man of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, Dr Er­ic St Cyr, stepped down af­ter he con­firmed to a news­pa­per that Jear­lean John, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC), was un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.Even af­ter he re­signed it was re­port­ed in the me­dia that St Cyr felt he had done no wrong.The com­mis­sion's com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er Mervyn Crichlow said yes­ter­day al­though the com­mis­sion's board had been dis­solved Gor­don re­mained the chair­man un­til his term ex­pired on Oc­to­ber 30, 2014.

Gor­don was ap­point­ed in No­vem­ber 2011.