Reckless. Malicious. Wasteful. That's how Opposition Leader Keith Rowley views Attorney General Anand Ramlogan's statements about the possible reopening of the Landate issue which had involved Rowley. Rowley laid the accusations against Ramlogan yesterday. This comes after Ramlogan spoke about the issue on Thursday as he replied to Rowley's concerns on the dual responsibilities of Works Minister Jack Warner.
Rowley said the Integrity Commission's investigations into the issue were never "closed" or "shelved" on a technicality as Ramlogan claimed. He said that after the first investigation and ensuing report were quashed by the High Court, the court ordered and the Integrity Commission embarked upon the second Landate probe. "Following a substantive investigation, the Integrity Commission issued a letter of exoneration in February 2008," Rowley said."It is therefore reckless, malicious and wasteful for the Attorney General to make spurious allegations against the Integrity Commission or to hold it out that I was a beneficiary of exoneration by legal technicality and that there are substantive allegations left unattended which he will now reopen." Rowley added: "I look forward to the response of the constitutionally independent Integrity Commission to this outrage of the Attorney General."
He traced the origin of the Landate matter from October 2004 when former MP Ganga Singh raised allegations in the Parliament concerning "removal of materials" from the Scarborough hospital site to the Landate site in Mason Hall owned by Rowley's wife, Sharon Clarke-Rowley. Former prime minister Patrick Manning directed a commission of enquiry into the issue and also referred the matter to the Integrity Commission for investigation. Rowley also traced the issue over 2005 and 2006, 2007 and 2008 to 2009 when the High Court ruled that the Integrity Commission had "acted in bad faith" in relation to Rowley on the issue and the commission was guilty of "malfeasance in public office." He noted that the commission subsequently resigned in February 2009.