Integrity Commission (IC) chairman Justice Zainool Hosein is overseas on vacation.
This was confirmed by a spokesman at Hosein’s home yesterday, who said he was out of T&T on vacation in the United States and would return soon.
The T&T Guardian had attempted to contact Hosein following defiant statements by People’s National Movement (PNM) leader Dr Keith Rowley at a meeting in Embacadere, San Fernando, on Sunday, regarding a written request from the Integrity Commission to furnish it with additional details relating to his 2014 Declaration of Income, assets and liabilities.
Rowley, in an angry tone, told supporters he didn’t understand what he was being asked and had also noted it was his wife’s business he was being asked about and he could simply say he didn’t know.
He claimed the Integrity Commission chairman could not question his integrity since—ddressing the chairman directly by name—the chairman “had none.”
In signalling his intention not to meet the 14-day deadline given, Rowley also said he was ready to go to jail for not responding to the request, as he was busy with election, putting the “Government out of office.”
He said the commission was giving him 14 days to respond and if he didn’t the body would publish his name in the Gazette and then proceed to take him to High Court.
Yesterday, the Integrity Commission registrar Martin Farrell didn’t respond to an email regarding what the next procedure would be if Rowley did not respond to the commission within 14 days. Contacted by phone, the IC’s secretariat stated the registrar was on vacation and unavailable. (GA)