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Caribbean L 22 ife, Aug. 16-23, 2019 BQ
T&T minister charged
with corruption
By Azad Ali
A Trinidad and Tobago government
Cabinet Minister in the Dr. Keith Rowley
administration has been charged
with corruption, money laundering and
misbehavior in public office after a fiveyear
police investigation.
Marlene Mc Donald, who was public
utilities minister, her common-law
husband Michael Carew, the former
chairman of the National Commission
for Self-help Limited, Edgar Zephryne
and Victor McEachrane, who was listed
as a director of the Calabar Foundation
and a contractor Wayne Anthony are
facing several charges arising out of the
alleged disbursement of funds from the
Community Development Ministry to
“help” youths in the depressed communities,
which the minister represents.
Government issued a statement
on Monday stating Prime Minister,
Dr. Keith Rowley had advised President
Paula Mae Weekes to revoke the
appointment of Mc Donald as public
administration minister based on the
advice of the director of public prosecutions
(DPP) and that the Police Service
was charging Mc Donald and others
with several offences.
Mc Donald was due to appear in the
Port of Spain Magistrate’s Court on
Monday but she fell ill and was taken
under police guard to a private medical
institution for treatment in Port of
Spain.
This is the third time that Dr. Rowley
had fired Mc Donald as a minister.
She was first fired as Housing Minister
in 2016 following a daily newspaper
report of an alleged breach of parliamentary
rules that she had hired her
husband, Carew and his brother, Lennox,
among 13 members of her Port of
Spain South constituency office.
Parliamentary rules for hiring staff
for constituency office state that MPs
are restricted from employing relatives
as employees in their constituency
offices.
Rowley then asked the then President
Anthony Carmona to revoke Mc
Donald’s appointment as the then
House and Urban Development minister.
There were also questions over donations
from the Ministry of Community
Development in 2010 of TT$375,000
and $200,000 to the Calabar Foundation
while McDonald was still in charge
of the ministry. Carew was said to be a
Calabar director at the time.
Mc Donald was later cleared of the
allegations by the Integrity Commission
in 2013 on the Calabar Foundation.
She was re-elected as the Port of
Spain South constituency in the 2015
General Election and Rowley appointed
her as minister of Housing and Urban
Development.
Marlene Mc Donald, former public
utilities minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
Mc Donald’s second firing came in
June 2017. Dr. Rowley said he had “no
difficulty” in reappointing her, as the
Integrity Commission had found no
basis that she breached the Integrity of
Public Life Act.
Rowley appointed Mc Donald as the
Public Utilities Minister from June 30,
2017, a position she held for less than
24 hours- until July 1, 2017. It was a
record from the shortest ministerial
appointment held in T&T.’
On July 1, 2017, Rowley advised
then President Carmona to revoke the
appointment of Mc Donald as public
utilities minister.
She was fired after an alleged gang
leader from her constituency appeared
at her swearing in ceremony at President’s
House, St. Ann’s, Port of Spain.
Not only was he present, but was
introduced by Mc Donald to the president
and posed for pictures with Carmona.
He had been repeatedly detained
and released by the police.
In March 2018, McDonald made a
comeback to the Cabinet and was given
a third ministerial position as minister
in the Ministry of Public Administration.
Three months later, she was elevated
to full ministerial portfolio after
MP Maxie Cuffie was unable to perform
his duty as the substantive minister in
this ministry.
Her third firing came on Monday
after she was charged with corruption.
Mc Donald was first appointed a
Member of Parliament in 2007 for
the Port of Spain South constituency
under the Patrick Manning administration.
She was Opposition Chief Whip
in 2010 when the PNM lost the general
election.
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