Kim­ber­ly Mack­han

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has said she has in­struct­ed At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan to in­ves­ti­gate a po­ten­tial con­flict of in­ter­est in Jack Warn­er's roles as Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter and Fi­fa vice pres­i­dent be­fore Op­po­si­tion Leader Kei­th Row­ley raised the is­sue.

She said it was her be­lief Warn­er would do the ap­pro­pri­ate thing should there be an ap­par­ent and clear con­flict. "I asked the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al to make in­quiries in­to the mat­ter. In fact, even be­fore the is­sue arose, I asked the AG to look in­to the mat­ter for us be­cause we do not want to be out there do­ing what should not be done," she said. Per­sad-Bisses­sar agreed to be in­ter­viewed af­ter yes­ter­day af­ter­noon's Clean and Beau­ti­fy (C&B) pro­gramme launch. She was re­spond­ing to Row­ley's de­ci­sion to write the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion re­quest­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to Warn­er serv­ing as both Fi­fa vice pres­i­dent and a mem­ber in her Cab­i­net.

She said: "I do be­lieve Mr Warn­er will do what is ap­pro­pri­ate in all the cir­cum­stances and it is a new gov­ern­ment. It is ear­ly days and there were tran­si­tion­al arrange­ments to be made. "Mr Warn­er had com­mit­ments to the World Cup, which is a mas­sive ex­er­cise and he is ho­n­our­ing those com­mit­ments. "In the tran­si­tion there will be quite a num­ber of is­sues which all min­is­ters need to re­solve." Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­it­er­at­ed that "the ap­pro­pri­ate course of con­duct will be tak­en in due course" should there be an area with­in the West­min­ster sys­tem that pre­cludes a min­is­ter from hold­ing of­fice, such as in Fi­fa.

She said: "Mr Warn­er is a mav­er­ick. It is that very trait that peo­ple love him for. He gets things done. He can work. He gets things done. I am sure we will look at it, if there is no le­gal im­ped­i­ment. "Mr Warn­er has said it for him­self, that if Mr Warn­er has to choose, he will choose and do the ap­pro­pri­ate thing. "For the time be­ing the mat­ter is be­ing con­sid­ered and we will be guid­ed ac­cord­ing­ly."