Rowley Explains his Wealth

By Sue-Ann Wayow

PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley says he can account for all his possessions.

The politician for more than 30 years said everything that he has acquired, he got by working hard all his life and there was no reason why he should not be entitled to have certain possessions.

He was responding to a question from AZP News during a post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

He said, “The one thing you could rest assured, my family and I, we don’t have anything that we claim that we can’t explain how we got it.”

Dr Rowley said, “I have never been unemployed one day in my life except when I was at university or in school pre-university. I have been an earner, an above-average earner since.”

Delving into the findings of the Integrity Commission concerning one of his properties at Inez Gate, Shirvan Road Tobago, Dr Rowley said, “There are some people in this country who believe that certain people aren’t supposed to have certain things but I am not distracted by that. My wife and I, we work very hard and we put what we earn to good use.”  The commission while finding Dr Rowley in breach of filling his declarations under the Integrity in Public Life Act, stated it was not taking any action against him.

The prime minister gave the story of the first property he acquired when he was a teenager, in Tobago he inherited from his grandfather, alleging that the United National Congress (UNC) made an attempt then to use that to slander his name.

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“I got a deed for it at 17 years old. I built on that property 30 years later. You know what the UNC did, the UNC hired a light plane, in those days it didn’t have no drone, they got a light plane to fly to Tobago, go over my house, take a picture of my house and scandalise me and my wife saying Emile Elias building that for me in Tobago as part of the Scarborough Hospital project,” he said.

On August 8, Dr Rowley bared all by showing pictures of his Form A and Form B filed to the Integrity Commission in his handwriting.

The contentious Form B is entitled “Statement of Registrable Interests for the year ended 31st December 2019.”

The forms show that Dr Rowley receives income – salary and allowances from the government plus rental income from residential properties and dividend income from stocks, funds and investments.

Dr Rowley owns shares in NEL, Plipdeco, FCB, NIF, and his wife Sharon Clarke – Rowley owns shares in NFM.

He has beneficial interests in two “lands” a residential property development at Mason Hall owned by his wife and Alma Estate which is incomplete owned by him and of which he is also listed as a director.

Dr Rowley has also been making contributions to UTC, Roytrin Scotia Mutual Fund and the National Investment Fund.

Apart from his membership in the People’s National Movement (PNM), the party he leads, he also has membership of the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago, and the Sheep and Goat Society.

Additionally, Dr Rowley has investments in NEL, TCL, Massy, RBC, Plipdeco, Guardian Holdings, UTC, FCB and NIF.

His Form A is entitled, “Declaration of Income, Assets and Liabilities for the year ended 31st December, 2019.” This is a confidential form that Dr Rowley made public.

Under the heading Land and Buildings (Including townhouses and condominiums)  Dr Rowley listed seven.

Three properties are owned by him alone, he and his wife share ownership of three properties and together, they own one property along with their daughters Sonel and Tonya.

They include: 

Dr Rowley on Thursday questioned if the Integrity Commission had a problem with the way in which his forms were filled out why it was not questioned before.

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On Thursday, UNC activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj through Freedom Law Chambers wrote to the Integrity Commission and the Commissioner of Police asking for the investigation into Dr Rowley’s Inez Gate property to be re-opened.