Well, imagine my surprise this morning when I learnt that McFarlane was appointed to the Integrity Commission illegally.
Section 4 (5) of the Act states as follows: A person shall not be qualified to hold office as a member of the Commission where he is a person in public life or a person exercising a public function or a person who is not a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago".
Section 2 of the Act defines as a person in public life a person listed in the Schedule.
The Schedule lists ten categories of people and Item 9 of the Schedule states: "Members of boards of all statutory bodies and State enterprises, including those bodies in which the State has a controlling interest.”
McFarlane is a member of the boards of the National Insurance Board, the National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd and the Home Mortgage Bank.
One may well wonder why I am carping on this so much. In light of all the corruption in Trinidad & Tobago, where we have fallen in the global corruption ratings steadily, this Commission is one of the last bastions of checks and balances provided to the people from the excesses of Papa-tricks and cronies.
This reminds me of when ANR Robinson was appointed as President illegally, no one could be bothered. Trinidad and Tobago remains a place where the significant life changing events are given less priority than cleaning up some dog shit from your front yard, never mind that the events could make you lose your damn house.
