The Integrity Commission (IC) has confirmed it is examining Opposition allegations against Housing Minister Marlene Mc Donald that she allegedly abused her ministerial power in 2008 to facilitate an HDC house for her partner. Confirmation of the situation came via letter from the commission to Fixin’ T&T’s Kirk Waithe.
Waithe had asked the commission if it was investigating the most recent allegations against Mc Donald made by Opposition Senator Wayne Sturge and if the commission would be launching investigations into it. Sturge last December asked the commission to investigate Mc Donald for allegedly breaching the Integrity in Public Life Act.
He alleged that in 2008 when Mc Donald was community development minister she used her office to recommend and help obtain an HDC townhouse for her common-law partner, Michael Carew, and helped pay for it. Sturge produced documents, including a copy of a cheque paid to the HDC by Carew, and his bank statement.
He also produced correspondence from Odette Alexander, who was adviser to the Housing Minister in 2008, Emily Dick-Forde. That correspondence requested an allocation of a house for Carew, allegedly on Mc Donald’s behalf. According to the documents, recommendations were made in August and September of 2008 for Carew to be allocated a unit.
The recommendation of the minister was then allegedly acted upon by the acting HDC manager director, Margaret Chow, who approved the allocation of the unit to Carew on December 3, 2008. Carew, allegedly made the payment for the townhouse the next day.
The unit was reportedly never occupied by either Mc Donald or Carew and was rented out. Sturge said that should also be investigated. He had said the matter was “most serious” since Mc Donald presently holds the portfolio of Housing Minister.
Sturge said if the allegations were found to be true, “as prima facie evidence seems to suggest, it would not be right for such a person to continue to hold such office.”
Mc Donald had denied wrongdoing and said Carew was being treated unfairly. She subsequently confirmed she made inquiries at the HDC on her partner’s behalf but maintained she had not abused office. Prime Minister Keith Rowley later said he was not removing her.
Fixin’ T&T, which has supported calls for her resignation, wrote the registrar of the Integrity Commission on the issue on January 15 and received subsequent response yesterday. Registrar Martin Farrell stated in the commission’s reply: “I wish to refer to your email on the caption and to advise that the matter is receiving the attention of the Integrity Commission.
Mc Donald has also denied allegations made by Housing Development Corporation (HDC) allocations manager Lauren Legall that she (Mc Donald) requested a file for Carew. Legall was one of several HDC senior managers sent on leave in December after the new HDC board ordered an independent audit of HDC.
Legall claimed Mc Donald had made “direct inquiries regarding the deed for a Fidelis Heights property” which Carew purchased in 2008. Legall copied her letter to the Integrity Commission and police. Legall’s letter was in response to a request by the HDC’s Human Resource Department for Legall to return Carew’s file which she allegedly took last November.
Legall said she didn’t have the file but felt it appropriate to inform the Integrity Commission of Mc Donald’s inquiries “as she wasn’t accustomed to a minister taking personal interest in a particular client.” Mc Donald described Legall as “disingenuous.”
Commenting on the Integrity Commission’s examination of the Mc Donald issue, Sturge said yesterday: “Kudos to Fixin’ T&T and Kirk Waithe. “They seem to be the only ones applying the same standards to the current Government which they held the past PP government to, when all others, including some union leaders, seem deaf and dumb.”
Asked about further information on the Mc Donald issue, Sturge said he was working on matters regarding the Calabar Foundation — concerning which there had also been allegations about Mc Donald, as well as others within the Housing Ministry.
In 2014, Mc Donald claimed she didn’t know her companion was a director of the foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that received grants from the community development ministry which she once headed under the former PNM administration. She named Carew as her partner. Mc Donald didn’t answer cell calls on the IC issue yesterday.