Fran­cis Joseph

?It took ten full months, but Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards was fi­nal­ly able, yes­ter­day, to swear in a new In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, in which on­ly for­mer In­dus­tri­al Court mem­ber, Gladys Gaffoor, sur­vived the de­ba­cle of 2009.

Of the five who re­signed from the Com­mis­sion in May, 2009, Gaffoor was the on­ly sur­vivor, be­ing asked once again by Richards to sit on the con­tro­ver­sial body. Last time, she was an or­di­nary mem­ber; this time around she is the deputy chair­man of the com­mis­sion, the on­ly one with le­gal ex­pe­ri­ence. Gaffoor, a for­mer se­nior mag­is­trate, was a mem­ber of the com­mis­sion which was sworn in on May 1, 2009, but the oth­er four re­signed with­in days: Fr Hen­ry Charles, chair­man, Jus­tice Zain­ool Ho­sein, Jef­frey Mc­Far­lane, and Lyl­la Rosa Ba­da. The new com­mis­sion is head­ed by for­mer In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor, Er­ic Bald­win St Cyr. Oth­er mem­bers are: Neil Rol­ing­son, for­mer pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Port De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion Ltd (Plipde­co); Dr Anne Marie Bisses­sar, pro­fes­sor, Be­hav­iour­al Sci­ences De­part­ment at Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine; and Sie­u­nar­ine Jokhoo, re­tired Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try.

There was an air of ex­pectan­cy yes­ter­day as there was a full turnout of the me­dia to wit­ness the swear­ing-in of the new mem­bers, the ma­jor­i­ty of whom were kept a se­cret from the pub­lic. Of the faces, Gaffoor was the on­ly one re­turn­ing to Pres­i­dent's House. She re­signed from the com­mis­sion on­ly last May, be­cause the oth­er four had re­signed, and she alone could not con­sti­tute a quo­rum. Gaffoor, who act­ed as Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) and So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al, walked with her son, An­tho­ny, who is chair­man of the Tax Ap­peal Board, and her "spir­i­tu­al ad­vis­er," Fr Regi­nald Hezeki­ah, of St Charles RC Church, Tu­na­puna. St Cyr, a pas­tor of Faith Re­vival Min­istries, al­so walked with his spir­i­tu­al head, Rev Baird, to wit­ness the short cer­e­mo­ny. In his brief ad­dress, Richards stayed away from the con­tro­ver­sy sur­round­ing the col­lapse of the last com­mis­sion, and the de­lay in ap­point­ing this one.

He did not com­ment on re­ports that peo­ple he had ap­proached, were ve­toed by the Prime Min­is­ter. The Pres­i­dent said: "May I ex­press my ap­pre­ci­a­tion to mem­bers of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, their fam­i­lies and friends, and the me­dia for at­tend­ing this short cer­e­mo­ny." Richards said these mem­bers were cho­sen af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, and for­mer Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Bas­deo Pan­day. At the end of the cer­e­mo­ny, Richards said: "Let me, once again, ex­press my sin­cere ap­pre­ci­a­tion to these mem­bers, world­ly cit­i­zens, who not on­ly ex­pressed their will­ing­ness to serve, but their en­thu­si­asm."

Af­ter the cer­e­mo­ny, mem­bers of the me­dia wait­ed on St Cyr for a com­ment, but none came. What came from the Pres­i­dent was that the chair­man of the com­mis­sion would like to make a state­ment, but on­ly af­ter he "set­tles in­to of­fice." Mem­bers of the me­dia were then ush­ered out of Pres­i­dent's House, as Mar­tin Far­rell, Reg­is­trar of the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, ad­min­is­tered the oath of se­cre­cy.