Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:15 hours 14 min ago
Non-appointment of Integrity Commission:
Lawsuit over Max’s failure
Published: 8 Oct 2009
The continuing failure of President George Maxwell Richards to appoint members of the Integrity Commission has now reached the High Court. Chief executive officer of Radio Jaagriti Devant Maharaj filed a constitutional motion in the San Fernando High Court on Tuesday, against the Attorney General, over the continuing failure of the President to appoint the commission.
The matter has already found its way on the list of October 16 before Justice Ronnie Boodoosingh. The claimant is asking for the motion to be deemed urgent. Maharaj is seeking a declaration that the non-appointment of the commission is illegal and unconstitutional as it violates section 138 of the Constitution. Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, SC, and Anand Ramlogan are representing Maharaj. In his motion, Maharaj pointed out that the members of the last Integrity Commission resigned on February 3. A new commission was not appointed until May 1, but all the members of the commission resigned for various reasons.
Maharaj said since then, no commission had been appointed. He said it was unlawful for the Government to be carrying on without the commission being appointed and functioning. He said he had made several complaints to the commission which were pending. He added that these complaints could not be investigated without the commission members. Maharaj said the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha also had a complaint of discrimination before the commission, based on the refusal by the State to award a radio broadcast licence. He said the investigation was completed and all that was necessary was for the commission to make a decision on whether the matter should be referred to the office of the DPP for criminal charges to be laid.
He said he wrote to the President on several occasions on the issue of the non-appointment of the members. “The continuing non-appointment of a new IC creates a window of opportunity for corruption, dishonesty and abuse of power,” Maharaj said. He said there was no commission to receive the annual declarations of income, assets and liabilities, and statements of registrable interests from people in public life. The loophole, he added, could easily be exploited by corrupt people in public life, to the detriment of the citizens of T&T. Maharaj said no action could be taken on any complaints, and these individuals were allowed to continue to function, even if they were guilty of misconduct and wrongdoing.
BACKGROUND
• Four members of the Integrity Commission resigned on February 3, after Diego Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley was successful in his judicial review case against the commission. The commission has submitted a report to the DPP without telling Rowley that he was being investigated.
• Hours after a new commission was sworn in on May 1, Justice Zainool Hosein resigned. He claimed he was offered the post of deputy chairman, but on the day of the swearing in, he was bypassed.
• The other four members—Fr Henry Charles, Jeffrey Mc Farlane, Lylla Rose Bada and Gladys Gafoor—resigned days later.
Constitutional Motion filed
Constitutional Motion filed in High Court:-
Mr. D. Maharaj of Radio Jaagriti has filed a Constitutional Motion in the S'Fdo High Court against Attorney General over the failure of the President to appoint members of the Integrity Commission.
They are asking the Courts to treat this motion as "urgent". Keep an eye on Oct. 16th.
According to the lawyers "it was unlawful for the government to be carrying on without the commission being appointed and functioning." This delay has caused much inconvenience to our people.
Mr. Maharaj said "The continuing non-appointment of a new IC creatres a window of opportunity for coruption, dishonesty and abuse of power." While the IC was vacant, there was no "commission to receive the annual declarations of income, assets and liabilities, and statements of registrable interest from people in public life." Also, that this loophole could be exploited by corrupt people in public life to the detriment of our citizens. Now we wait.
And everything seemed to be
And everything seemed to be so in chaos. But we must not give up as we can get fedup with this TT governance. We need stick with what the constitution affords us but it seems you dont get any move forward until you go to court and sometimes it has to go to the Privy Council.
Why didn't the opposition
Why didn't the opposition deal with this issue?
It took a private citizen from a radio station to file this motion on behalf of the people?
http://dsaltsman.blogspot.com/
You is a marble or what?
You is a marble or what? Devanand Maraj is the first person to win a case against the Prime Minister. That man is Sat Maraj nephew. He was a big boy in the National Lottery place before he leave the job out of frustration. He eh coward like Panday or Dookeran.
Bachanal
Bachanal
Please be considerate aka respectful in your responses to fellow bloggers and blagger.
I know epsomsalts is man/potent enough to deal with you, however, there are some bloggers here who appreciate the civility of the blogs/postings here. If you want 'bachanal', please take it somewhere else.
Thank you so much, in advance.
La Diva
I welcome your comments La
I welcome your comments La Diva, there is need for some civility and graciousness on this blog. But do tread carefully.
Henry Castillo
Henry Castillo
But do tread carefully.
Am having a pink moment. Care to elaborate/explain further?
La Diva
UNEVEN PRESS COVERAGE
UNEVEN PRESS COVERAGE -
Are you that the opposition has been blocked from private members day by the manipulation of PNM? This is one of the things that were carded to be brought up by Kamla. They had to file a motion by the Chief Whip about this denial of Private Members Day and this and it is presently before the President. I can understand you not knowing as something like this is not highlighted in our press. If it was an Opposition Member before the Privileges Committee it would be on the front page of all three papers and lead story on the Evening TV News.
PURRRRRR. P/Galore.
PURRRRRR. P/Galore.
....the motion should be
....the motion should be amended to include Max's failure as a president...
I don't have ready access to
I don't have ready access to a copy of the Constitution to consult. But I'm not sure whether the President can be taken to Court to force him to correct any of his sins of omission or commission. The Constitution has endowed the President with all-embracing immunities, and he might be covered under these. But we shall see. After all, Ramsahoye is a leading constitutional lawyer.
I seem to recall that when Robinson favoured Manning over Panday in 2001, the UNC were considering legal avenues to overturn the decision. They were confident and trusting that Robbie whom they chose to jump from active politics into President's House would be guided by the principles of convention such as incumbency and popular vote, and of course gratitude when they gave him a free hand to choose. Instead, maybe rightly so at the time, he chose to introduce the principles of spirituality and morality. Pity he didn't consult Harribanse to have the benefit of his clairvoyance on this occasion. But since naive Panday, probably with poor advice from the likes of Ganga Singh and Yet Ming who since deserted him like rats on a sinking ship, was party to the agreement to his own demise, his legal case would have been quite deficient. It would not have been too unlike the amnesty signed by Ag President Emmanuel Carter, which the State later sought to denounce on the grounds of coercion and duress.
But given the built-in mechanisms for delay and procrastination in the judicial system, and the resourse-poor Judiciary, I would not hold my breath for an early determination of this matter.
Having said so, I believe the people, including our good bloggers can try and help out the beleaguered President who is finding great difficulty in finding or getting people with integrity to serve. I will start with a few names: Gardenia for Chairperson, Hart (The Transparency one, not his antithesis), Reginald Dumas, Lennox Deyalsingh and Patrick Williams, if they are agreeable to serve. And I'm sure there are others like Selwyn Ryan, Martin Daly, Wm. Lucie Smith etc who can be considered. What say you?
Nominations I believe the
Nominations
I believe the people, including our good bloggers can try and help out the beleaguered President who is finding great difficulty in finding or getting people with integrity to serve. I will start with a few names: Gardenia for Chairperson,
May I nominate you, Mister Prince?
(^_^)
La diva, la vida
Viva La Diva! Viva El
Viva La Diva! Viva El Principe, hombre de principios! Abajo El Presidente! Viva Zapata! Abajo El Emperador en su palacio! Abajo el dictador!
Here you are Prince, it is
Here you are Prince, it is available at this link:-
http://www.foia.gov.tt/downloads/Constitution.pdf
Section 38 does give the President immunity from office and sections 35 and 36 gives the conditions under which he can be removed.
The suit against the AG is really a suit against the state. If this suit succeeds, then that may very well give rise to another move to put the President before a tribunal under section 35.
But we shall have to wait and see what the outcome will be. It would be interesting to find out whether there have been any such precedents and how the matters were determined in court as those judgements would certainly influence the outcome of this challenge,
Stare Decisis.
Thanks Henry for the
Thanks Henry for the information and helpful interpretation. I'm sure other bloggers would be grateful for the enlightenment. Let's see how this one pans out.
Small typo there as regards
Small typo there as regards section 38, it should have read immunity from prosecution while in office........
Small typo there as regards
Small typo there as regards section 38, it should have read immunity from prosecution while in office........
My pleasure, Sir.
Henry, Thank You for
Henry, Thank You for sharing. Gardenia
Well, well, well!!! Let's
Well, well, well!!! Let's see what spin Jeremy would put on this. Ramsahoye and Anand don't make joke. The PNM have to bring all of their 6 Lawyers - the AG, the CJ, the 2 Judges, the DPP and Pamela Elder to fight this one.
It is quite obvious that the
It is quite obvious that the president is a misfit for this position. After all, only an idiot would appoint this person (whose only 'claim to fame' is success at organizing the UWI fete) as president. The president would not resign after calls from people and organizations because of his many blunders. I am sure that there must be some legal way to remove him. I hope that the government and opposition would put politics aside and remove this idiot from office. He definitely isn't working for the tax-free salary that he is receiving.
And things are getting hot
And things are getting hot hot hot, more pepper in the doubles boss!!
According to the
According to the constitutional references from Henry Castillo in his earlier contribution, only Parliament can get a Tribunal set up to consider his removal. As long as he continues to be subservient to Manning, his sinecure is secure.
What does it take
What does it take
to remove a Prime Minister? From what I hear, all it takes is a 'vote of no confidence' in Parliament...
La Diva
I believe that if a majority
I believe that if a majority of MPs go to the President and assert that they do not support the PM, and they name one of their elected fellow MPs as commanding their support, the President can remove the PM and appoint another. But I do not see any of the currently chosen sycophants coming together to achieve this for the general wefare of the country. But check out the constitution for relevant provisions. But the people can do it themselves by the ballot.
What is interesting too
What is interesting too about this challenge is how is the issue of the President's failure to appoint a commission going to be presented to the court.
We already know that his functioning can only be challenged under certain conditions. They can't summon him nor his records to court to show that he is not trying to or is not doing his job. There is also no time limit as to when the President should act. This is neither contained in the constitution nor the act itself.
But of course a reasonable timeframe is expected. Professor John Spence in an article entitled "The Role of the Independent Senator" the Express Newspapers, July 16th 2009,indicated "there is provision for bills to be passed even though rejected by the Senate but the period of delay is not less than six months".
So if the Senate has this significant power of delay, why not the President?
Another issue is the challenge through the filing of a constitutional motion. Is there another legal avenue through which this challenge could have been made? I ask this because there are cases where the Privy Council has thrown out constitutional motions saying that it was an abuse of process by the appellant as there were other legal avenues available.
I too want a commission to be appointed and also a constitution so reformed as to place the rights of citizens first and foremost.
So I eagerly await the outcome!
A small bush lawyer.
Well one thing I can say is
Well one thing I can say is with all these bright lawyers, the State will be paying millions for their injustice. The only problem, is justice will only be for those who can afford it. It is sad. I hope Devant winds. I admire his guts. That is why I have always said, the day the Privy council is removed is the saddest day for us in TnT. We must never allow this to happen.
PNM_TILL_I_DIE
Not the State
Not the State
the State will be paying millions for their injustice.
Sorry, but I disagree with you pnm_till_i_die.
It is the taxpayers and the owners of Trinbago PLC who will be paying the millions for the injustice, failings, ineffienciens, ineffectiveness, lackadaisical attitude etc etc of the State. The State has no money of its own. All its money comes from us and the assets of Trinbago PLC.
The sooner we start remembering this collectively, the more chances of certain people either pulling up their socks, or 'shipping out', sooner rather than later (even if some may think it is already too late ie. the money done!).
La Diva