Geisha Kow­lessar

"So what? I talk to peo­ple all the time."This was the re­sponse from Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley when asked about a state­ment by Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal.Speak­ing in Par­lia­ment ear­ly yes­ter­day, Mooni­lal claimed Row­ley met with a top-rank­ing of­fi­cial of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion at the of­fi­cial's home on May 15.

Dur­ing de­bate on a bill to in­crease the 2012/2013 bud­get by more than $2 bil­lion, Mooni­lal called on Row­ley to say pub­licly what the meet­ing was about.Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, the Op­po­si­tion Leader dis­missed Mooni­lal's state­ments, say­ing he would not be dis­tract­ed as he had much more im­por­tant is­sues with which to deal.

Say­ing he had not heard what Mooni­lal said, Row­ley added: "I meet with all types of peo­ple all the time... so what is the point? I have not heard what Mr Mooni­lal said in Par­lia­ment and when I do I would re­spond ac­cord­ing­ly."And when he tells me who I am sup­posed to meet with or not sup­posed to meet with, I will al­so re­spond ac­cord­ing­ly."

Row­ley said rather than mak­ing such state­ments, Mooni­lal should ad­dress oth­er im­por­tant is­sues, such as why sacked Caribbean Air­lines chair­man Ra­bindra Moo­nan had been named as the new chair­man of the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC)."This is what I want Mr Mooni­lal to an­swer. Let him ex­plain the ra­tio­nale be­hind that," Row­ley said.

Mooni­lal con­firmed in Par­lia­ment that Moo­nan had al­ready been ap­point­ed as HDC's chair­man.Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer Mervyn Crichlow said he too had not heard what Mooni­lal said.

Asked to con­firm whether in fact a meet­ing took place be­tween Row­ley and a com­mis­sion mem­ber and to pro­vide de­tails of the meet­ing, Crichlow said he was seek­ing ad­vice be­fore is­su­ing a com­ment.