PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - We couldn’t agree more with the Prime Minister’s call for an investigation into Jack Warner’s soliciting of funds from private businesses while in the Cabinet. Where we completely disagree with her, however, is in her attempt to present Mr Warner’s actions as a matter of personal wrongdoing that stops at his feet.
Mr Warner was not a private citizen when he was went soliciting funds from businesses. He was a senior cabinet minister who served as lead fund-raiser for the United National Congress and the People’s Partnership Government. Until they fell out three months ago, he enjoyed the Prime Minister’s full support and confidence, even in the face of unrelenting public criticism. By her own admission, she covered up for him for over three years until they fell out. Repeatedly, under questioning by the media about the source of her Government’s spending for national toy and hamper distributions and other lavish events, the Prime Minister and senior members of her Cabinet boasted that the money had not come from the treasury but from private businesses.