By Prior Beharry
THE revelation by the United National Congress (UNC) about property purchased by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley from his friend in Tobago is just to assist the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections on Monday.
This according to Dr Rowley speaking at a press conference at Blenheim in Tobago on Friday.
He produced his Form B of the 2019 declaration to the Integrity Commission (IC) to show that he the property in the Inez Gate development was purchased by him and his wife for $ 1.2 million. That form was filed on December 20, 2020 as he said he had asked for an extension since May.
Speaking at the UNC Monday Night Forum, the shadow attorney general Saddam Hosein said that Dr Rowley purchased a million-dollar property from Inez Investment Ltd in Tobago but has not yet declared that asset to the IC.
At the press conference, Dr Rowley repeated that Tobago businessman Allan Warner, who built the Inez development, was his friend and his business partner in a Tobago sheep and goat farm since 2008 when he was a backbencher in the Parliament.
Dr Rowley said there should be a concern that Hosein said he checked the IC.
He said, “The minute anyone tells you that they found out from the IC what your declaration was, it should raise alarm to the public.
“Because for good reason, the Integrity in Public Life Act required two forms to be filled out. One Form A, where you have to put all your details, bank account number, address of the bank, how much money was in the bank, your credit card how much you pay down during the year, every property you own, every old car you have, all your life stories in Form A.”
Dr Rowley added, “But Form A is a secret document. Staff at the IC have to swear an oath to handle that and if they breach that secrecy, the penalties are severe.”
He said the public had access to Form B.
“On Form B you are required not to put the details of the business, I have just mentioned but where else you may have a conflict.
“For example, as prime minister I have some shares in FCB, in Plipdeco, in NEL those things because the Government is involved, and I am prime minister I have to put that there.”
He said gifts such as a motor car has to be declared on Form B too.
Dr Rowley said, “You will never see on Form B, my bank account, which property I own, how much property I own, on anything like that.
“And Form B is the only form that a member of the public can get a look at.”
The prime minister asked how then could Hosein say that he checked at the IC and discovered that Dr Rowley got a property that he was hiding from the commission and did not declare and therefore he was guilty of criminal conduct similar to what former prime minister Basdeo Panday was charged with.
He said, “You cannot see Form A unless of course that someone breaches the confidence of the IC and feeds that information to the Opposition.
“So the question is. What really happened there? Is that the shadow attorney general had access to information which says a lot about the security at the IC. Is it That?
“Or is it that Saddam Hosein is lying to the public in order to make an intervention in the campaign in the election in Tobago on behalf of the PDP.”
He said, “It is not by accident that it happens this week. And I am responding today at the first opportunity I could respond, I just came in from Barbados last night… last working day before the election. Strategically placed, accusation on my head, that I am a criminal, I am involved in corruption with Allan Warner this contractor in Tobago, I got a big gift and I have hidden it from the IC.”
Dr Rowley said he and his wife were the first to want to purchase the property in the Inez development. He said the purchase of real estate was always a negotiation and that was why they got a discount on the asking price.
Hosein had said he got a $600,000 discount on the asking price.
Dr Rowley also showed an advertisement in a magazine he got on the plane on his way back from Barbados where he was for the swearing-in of that country’s first president.
He said the advertisement showed properties for sale on Shirvan Road in Tobago close to the Inez development for $1.25 milion which was similar to the price he paid for his property in 2019.
Dr Rowley said he was considering suing Hosein.
See related stories below:
Rowley, Wife, Daughter Buy Property in Tobago from Inez Investment -Saddam
