The Opposition People’s National Movement trusts that new Integrity Commission chairman, retired judge Zainool Hosein, will be guided by propriety in matters pertaining to any conflict of interest. Opposition PNM PRO Faris Al-Rawi said so yesterday after the President appointed Hosein to head the commission, succeeding Ken Gordon. As the head of the Association of Retired Judges, Hosein has also lobbied Government for increases in judges’ pensions.
A former Appeal Court judge, Hosein was also one of three legal experts who gave former minister Jack Warner a legal opinion on the Concacaf ethics report by Sir David Simmons in April 2013. Contacted on these issues yesterday given the importance of Hosein’s office, Al-Rawi said:
“Mr Justice Hosein has served in the judiciary of T&T for a very long period and has, in post-retirement as a judge, acted as an attorney-at-law. “He’s permitted to do this and the issue of rendering advice to Mr Warner is not a complicated one as Mr Hosein would, like any other lawyer, surely declare where he had a conflict of interest in any matter as may be appropriate.” Al-Rawi said that would be the same for any other Integrity Commission member.
Saying he did not know what advice was given to Warner, he added that depending on the scope of the prior advice, the issue would be answered. “But I’m confident Justice Hosein would know the parameters within which he must act and he would surely do the right thing,” he said. “He’s a man of longstanding experience.”
Al-Rawi said not every allegation of a conflict of interest was indeed a conflict of interest. He noted that former chairman Gordon recused himself from any deliberations on the E-mailgate probe. The Government had expressed concern about a meeting Gordon held in 2012 with PNM leader Dr Keith Rowley before Rowley’s revelation of the E-mailgate scandal.
Also contacted yesterday, former public service head Reginald Dumas, commenting on the Simmons report and the legal opinion Warner received from Hosein, said:
“I am sure His Excellency the President and Justice Hosein have looked carefully at any potential conflict of interest that could be involved in Justice Hosein’s appointment and satisfied themselves that no such conflict of interest exists.”
Dumas also said the fact Hosein was head of the Association of Retired Judges did not preclude his being appointed to the Integrity Commission. “After all, Mr Hosein was not doing anything illegal in his former lobby. However, that will clearly have to stop as he cannot be Integrity Commission chairman and chairman of a group lobbying Parliament for increased pensions. I have no doubt he knows that and will act appropriately.”
Warner didn’t answer calls or an e-mail yesterday on Hosein’s appointment and an e-mailed query to ILP PRO Dwarika Singh was not answered.
The Warner investigation
The Concacaf Integrity Committee, headed by Sir David Simmons, former Chief Justice of Barbados, issued a report accusing Warner and former Concacaf general secretary Chuck Blazer of mismanagement and massive fraud. After the report, Warner resigned from the Government. He subsequently revealed the legal opinion he obtained from Hosein, Andrew Mitchell, QC, and Bertram Commissiong, QC, which claimed the Simmons report was flawed. Warner later said he would sue Simmons.
In April, former commission chairman Ken Gordon said the commission was calling on the President to appoint a tribunal to investigate one person (whom he didn’t name), who he said had failed to comply with Section 15 of the Integrity in Public Life Act. The matter was also noted in the commission’s 2013 report.
Gordon had said the commission was awaiting the President’s response. The requested statutory tribunal was to probe the declarations of income and assets of Warner. It is understood the commission wrote to the President on the issue in January. After Gordon spoke in June, indications from President’s House were that his statements had been noted.
It was further noted: “In the light of well-established legal authorities, there are matters of due process and natural justice that have been engaging the attention of the President and the President had been in receipt of legal opinions.” It was stated then that a decision on the request for a tribunal, which could make recommendations, would be forthcoming. Yesterday the T&T Guardian was told the matter was now before another “potent investigating arm.”
