Normally I enjoy reading Michael Harris’ column in the Express. Today, I wonder whether he took the time to research his column, not that any great digging was necessary to get the facts right… in this case, he is almost as equally bad as Father H Charles or President Me-ent-resigning Max, especially since this information has been on every media for the past couple of weeks.
Hear Harris:
In the case of three of the now resigned appointees, namely Justice Zainool Hosein, UWI bursar Lylla Bada and former Industrial Court Judge Gladys Gafoor; there is not one scintilla of evidence, not a germ of an argument, which can be adduced to suggest that these persons were in any way, inappropriate, unfit, or ineligible, to hold office on the Integrity Commission.
The credibility of this statement is suspect in the face of the true facts; that Gladys Gafoor received salary cheques in the name of her dead husband for years after he was dead. Not only was this publicly revealed, it was even published in the very newspaper for which Harris writes.
If receiving emoluments for a dead person is not a lack of integrity (compounded as it were for the length of time that it went on – this was no administrative mistake that happened for a month or two after the death of her husband, but rather a deliberate ploy to milk state funds and carried out for YEARS!), then I do not know what is.
Now, Lylla Bada resigned for personal reasons, and the digging into her background (at least publicly) stopped there. And Hosein resigned quite early, so no investigation was done on him, but I strongly suspect that in the case of Ms Bada at least, something was not kosher and that it was meant to be hidden.
Call me ‘Suspicious’…
