KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said he is not too con­cerned about any con­flict of in­ter­est in Pan Trin­ba­go’s rental of a build­ing at 55 Dun­don­ald Street, Port-of-Spain, that is co-owned by Cul­ture Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell.

The steel­band body has been sub­let­ting a por­tion of the prop­er­ty and a car park fa­cil­i­ty for $70,000 a month since last Au­gust.

Row­ley said once the process­es are trans­par­ent, there is no prob­lem with the arrange­ment. He said while it was pos­si­ble that Mitchell could earn in­come from the Pan Trin­ba­go’s rental, the min­is­ter had to de­clare it to the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion as re­quired by law.

“I am not aware of any­thing out of the or­di­nary hap­pen­ing,” Row­ley said when he was asked about the is­sue on Wednes­day.

“The min­is­ter didn’t use his in­flu­ence to get Pan Trin­ba­go in the build­ing, as far as I’m aware, from the sto­ry that’s in the pub­lic do­main and from what I’ve seen. If the min­is­ter used his in­flu­ence to get them in the build­ing well then you could say well again that would be a breach of the In­tegri­ty in Pub­lic Life Act be­cause it says that you should not use your of­fice in a par­tic­u­lar way but if that wasn’t done then what is the prob­lem?”

Both Pan Trin­ba­go’s pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore and Mitchell have de­nied that the min­is­ter had any in­flu­ence in the rental arrange­ment and that any rent is paid di­rect­ly to him.

Ram­sey-Moore said Pan Trin­ba­go’s earn­ings from Panora­ma, spon­sors and mem­ber­ship fees al­lowed it to af­ford the rental which does not come from any gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tion.