Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

As she pre­pares to de­fend her con­duct be­fore her po­lit­i­cal leader this week, em­bat­tled Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates says she will ac­cept her fate, what­ev­er it may be.

The sen­a­tor broke her si­lence af­ter she was re­moved from the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee (PAAC) fol­low­ing al­le­ga­tions that she com­pro­mised the com­mit­tee’s in­tegri­ty by us­ing “Track Changes” to ed­it a wit­ness state­ment for for­mer Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh be­fore his sched­uled ap­pear­ance.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia out­side the Red House yes­ter­day, Sen­a­tor John-Bates said, “I think my re­moval from the PAAC, I re­spect that de­ci­sion. I think it would al­low the work of the PAAC, im­por­tant work, to con­tin­ue with­out it be­ing over­shad­owed by any is­sue.”

The Com­mit­tee is in­ves­ti­gat­ing the State’s pro­cure­ment of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

Asked if she was wor­ried that she would lose her po­si­tion as a Sen­a­tor, John-Bates said that de­ci­sion is up to her po­lit­i­cal leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les.

“I note what the Com­mit­tee has said. I know that a re­port has been laid in Par­lia­ment, and I think that, you know, any facts that need to be es­tab­lished should be es­tab­lished through any ap­pro­pri­ate par­lia­men­tary process. And of course, it’s in the hands of my po­lit­i­cal leader, and I would re­spect any de­ci­sion that she makes.”

Guardian Me­dia at­tempt­ed to ask the sen­a­tor if she be­lieves she did any­thing wrong af­ter it was re­vealed that she asked the PAAC to spec­i­fy which Stand­ing Or­ders she breached.

Guardian Me­dia al­so asked the sen­a­tor if she, in ret­ro­spect, re­grets aid­ing Deyals­ingh in draft­ing his wit­ness state­ment. How­ev­er, she walked away when pressed on the mat­ter.

The PAAC Spe­cial Re­port rec­om­mend­ed that Sen­a­tor Janelle John-Bates’ con­duct be re­ferred to the Com­mit­tee of Priv­i­leges to de­ter­mine if it breached par­lia­men­tary rules.

Cit­ing a “fun­da­men­tal com­pro­mise” of the com­mit­tee’s neu­tral­i­ty, it sup­port­ed her re­moval and called for a wider probe in­to leaks, stress­ing the need to re­store pub­lic con­fi­dence and pro­tect the in­tegri­ty of the in­quiry.

In the Up­per House yes­ter­day, Leader of Gov­ern­ment busi­ness Sen­a­tor Dar­rell Al­la­har an­nounced for­mal­ly that John-Bates has been re­placed on the PAAC.

“Be it re­solved that the Sen­ate agree to the fol­low­ing ap­point­ment to the Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee on the Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ap­pro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee of Mr Vish­nu Dhan­paul in lieu of Mrs Janelle John Bates.”

Mean­while, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi, who al­so con­tributed to draft­ing Deyals­ingh’s wit­ness state­ment, de­clined to an­swer any ques­tions on the mat­ter.

Though not on the Com­mit­tee, the PAAC’s re­port raised ques­tions about whether it was im­prop­er for a high-rank­ing mem­ber to as­sist a wit­ness in tai­lor­ing a state­ment for a com­mit­tee of over­sight.

How­ev­er, when asked for a com­ment, Al-Rawi said, “I’m an at­tor­ney-at-law.”

When re­mind­ed he is al­so a Sen­a­tor whose salary is paid by tax­pay­ers who have an in­ter­est in the mat­ter, Al-Rawi said, “I ap­pre­ci­ate your en­quiries, but un­for­tu­nate­ly, I’m bound by the le­gal pro­fes­sion and priv­i­lege, and re­gret­tably, I can’t have a com­ment. Do you have any oth­er ques­tions?”

Guardian Me­dia pressed the sen­a­tor on whether, while as­sist­ing Deyals­ingh with the wit­ness state­ment, he be­lieved, giv­en his le­gal ex­per­tise, that he and Sen­a­tor John-Bates may have com­mit­ted an of­fence.

“I ad­mire your per­sis­tence, but the an­swer does not change.”

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les re­vealed yes­ter­day that she will be speak­ing with John-Bates this week.

Speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew, Beck­les said, “I was out of the coun­try. I came back in yes­ter­day (on Mon­day). I have asked for a re­port. I will be meet­ing with Sen­a­tor Bates this week, be­cause Sen­a­tor Bates is an at­tor­ney, and so am I. And you talked a while ago about a fair process. A fair process clear­ly means that you give some­body, they have the right to be heard.”

She added, “If you make a de­ci­sion, you make a de­ci­sion with all the facts that is be­fore you.”

For­mer Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh has yet to com­ment on the mat­ter.